7 Great Tips to Maximize Your Small Spaces
1. Choose Elevated Furniture
Rooms look bigger when you can see the flooring underneath furniture, which is why experts recommend choosing items that don't sit flush to the floor. Floating vanities and shelves are two more great options that achieve this result.
2. Stick with Light Color Tones
Lighter colors make rooms look larger and reflect natural light well. Some designers recommend avoiding overly warm colors, which is why neutral and greige tones often work well for small spaces.
The general consensus is that when using different shades in the same room, it's often a good idea to stay within the same range of color tones.
3. Go for Large Flooring Patterns
A common mistake is to assume that a small area requires a small floor tile or area rug. In reality, small patterns can make tight areas look crowded and busy.
Many designers recommend choosing larger floor tiles for this reason, or one large area rug instead of several smaller ones.
4. Use Mirrors to Magnify Your Space
Mirrors do a great job of creating the illusion of more space. Placing them in areas where they reflect the view from a window makes the result even better.
5. Make Lines Work in Your Favor
Some designers recommend accentuating vertical lines to help ceilings look higher. One way to achieve this is by using lighting that creates vertical angles of illumination rather than casting light to the sides.
Another take on this concept is to use horizontal lines to make a space look as wide as possible. Shiplap siding can be a good way to do this. (There's no reason to not combine both methods and use vertical lighting to emphasize height at the same time.)
6. Choose "See-Through" Furniture
A glass-top dining table or coffee table can do wonders to open up a room that would have looked crowded with a solid furniture item. The same concept applies to pieces that have open rather than closed sides, including open shelving.
Whenever you can prevent floor space from being visually blocked off the room is likely to look larger.
7. Trade Curtains for Shades
Many designers point out that curtains nearly always cover up either some of the view or part of the wall, whereas with blinds you're not making that trade-off.
If curtains are still the most appealing choice for a small room, using lighter fabric that takes up as little space as possible can make them feel less imposing.
Quick Housing Market Notes
Interest Rates Have Gone Down
Interest rates decreased last month, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark rate by .75 of a percentage point in July.
Why did rates go down?
One reason is that the Federal Reserve rate increases have been priced in since the spring, when lenders raised mortgage rates sharply in anticipation.
The current rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is around 5.25 percent, compared to over 6 percent in June.
Inflation Is Making Mortgages Look Better
With inflation in the 9-percent range and mortgages in the low 5-percent range, borrowers are experiencing a net negative mortgage rate scenario for the first time since the 1970s. This boost to the housing market is expected to remain the case for a while.
Housing News Tip
Most home price news reflects an outdated market.
Articles with home pricing statistics usually rely on closed sales that are months old. For example, numbers released in August would typically use data from closings in June, and those closings reflect buyer decisions made in May.
There's no good way around it because of the way the data is compiled, but it's at least helpful to keep this in perspective.
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