Big spaces can be pretty tricky and intimidating to decorate: you have all of this empty space, and so you probably feel like you need to fill it up. You’ll want to fill up large spaces as much as possible, but you’ll also want them to be functional and not cluttered as well. If you have a large home with many large rooms (or maybe you have an average-sized home with one larger room), here are five tips on how to decorate effectively without overdoing it and keeping it functional.
1. Divide the Space and Designate Zones
Many homes are now open-concept, meaning that there aren’t any walls used to separate rooms like the living room, kitchen, and dining area. This means that these three spaces all run into one another, and this can be extremely overwhelming in a larger home. Some homes may give some kind of distinction among the spaces (other than kitchen appliances), but some others may not.
Changing up the flooring is a great way to provide some division in an open-concept room, and the best part is that you can use the same type of flooring (such as vinyl) but choose a different pattern for each space. Other ways to divide a room include using ceiling beams, curtains, and wallpaper.
2. Anchor the Room, but Avoid “Wall Hugging”
For larger rooms, you don’t necessarily need several pieces of furniture to fill the room as much as you need a few large pieces to anchor the room. Furnish your living room with a large sofa or sectional and a large coffee table. This way, you can use smaller furniture pieces as accent pieces, and the room will look less cluttered.
As for large dining rooms, bedrooms, and other rooms, you may have to get more creative. Of course, you can place a large dining table in the dining room and a large bed in the bedroom, but built-in bookshelves can help anchor these rooms as well.
3. Make Good Use of Color and Lighting
Larger homes often mean larger and a greater number of windows, so naturally, your home will look bigger with natural lighting. If you don’t want your already large room to look even bigger, you can use color to make it appear slightly smaller. Dark colors typically, but don’t always, make a room look smaller, and painting your ceiling a slightly darker color than your walls can make the room appear smaller. This works best in rooms with tall ceilings, such as a living room or family room.
4. Double It Up and Repeat
Creating symmetry in a large room is a great way to fill up space without cluttering it. If you’re able to buy certain pieces of furniture in pairs, go ahead and do that, but remember that everything doesn’t need to be doubled. Double chairs and not tables, or double tables and chairs, but not both because that can make the room look cluttered.
As for repetition, repeat certain colors and/or patterns throughout the room. This helps to tie the entire room together if you don’t want to create separate spaces within one room. However, if you do choose to create separate spaces (such as an office within a living room or bedroom), it’s still a good idea to use patterns to tie everything together.
5. Go Big and Bold
Probably the best part about a big home and big rooms is that everything can be bigger. This is especially true if you have tall ceilings. You’ll want to use taller furniture as much as possible to avoid having the room appear shrunken. It’s also likely that you have taller, maybe even ceiling-to-floor windows, and curtains on recessed tracks will make it easier to open and close them.
Large rooms also allow you to choose bold decor pieces without making the room look cluttered or gaudy. Hang large pictures on your walls, or even a large clock. You can even place large plants in the corners of the room as well.
You don’t have to feel like you and your furniture are being swallowed in the rooms of your home. Try some of these tips if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the size of one or more of your rooms— or your entire home in general. You’ll be surprised at home you can make a big empty space seem more warm, cozy, and inviting.
