The Fabric Tip You Need To Make Any Small Room Feel Bigger

With a small room layout, it can be hard to live large. Yet, we have accumulated so many small living room ideas to make your space seem bigger through the years, that you may think all the tricks have been used. One hack keeps coming in clutch time after time, though — the power of light. In this way, sheer fabrics in light colors can create the illusion of additional space.

Curtains have been on our radar for making rooms look more spacious before. When Freestyle Restyle owner Katie Cummings shared some tips with House Digest on how to make a small bedroom feel more spacious, she revealed that taller and wider curtains can make windows (and thereby your room) look larger. But the density of those curtains can also make a significant difference, with more semi-transparent fabrics allowing more light through.

Fabrics are measured in deniers to indicate the fiber density, so sheer fabrics are very low on the scale to 100, with 100 being where opaque fabrics sit. The more translucent the fabric, the lower its denier score. There is also a wide range of these sheer fabrics you can introduce into a room, from elegant chiffon to the cotton-based voile, which is commonly used to make curtains. While these fabrics may be prone to wrinkling, incorporating steaming or ironing into your curtain-care routine can help you to reap the benefits of a room that appears more spacious. 

One of the simplest ways to almost magically transform the size of a room is to coordinate it in a simple color scheme of light hues, and to allow as much natural light in as possible. That applies to everything from the wall paint to the curtains. You can even add some sheer fabric as table cloths in the kitchen, or couch slips to carry the airy-ness throughout the living room. That's something that Valspar interiors and paint expert Sarah Lloyd believes gives a room the appearance of more space. 

"Sheer fabrics allow light to pass through curtains, bedskirts and table coverings, creating the illusion of taking up less space," Lloyd told Country Living. "Lighter colors such as ivory and cream will seem almost translucent in a sheer material, and accentuate the room without overpowering it." Dark drapes are often used strategically to make a larger space seem smaller, so it makes sense that the opposite is true as well. 

There is one consideration, however, if you're wanting to make your bedroom or another more private room appear larger. When making the swap to sheer curtains, consider adding liners or roller blinds behind your sheers. Then they can be drawn when you need privacy, or when you're sleeping and don't want to wake up with a face full of sunlight. Be mindful that with the nearly translucent quality, sheer fabrics also snag and tear easily and are best cleaned through handwashing.