5 Ways to Make your House Feel Bigger (Morgante Wilson 30 Years | 30 Ideas Series)

By award-winning Chicago Architect Fred Wilson

In honor of our thirtieth anniversary, Morgante Wilson Residential Architects is sharing thirty of our best architecture and interior design ideas. Today, five of my favorite ways to make a house feel bigger than it really is:

Link spaces together – literally and figuratively – by creating sightlines between them. In other words, make sure when you stand in one space you can see through to another, whether that’s a hallway or a different room.Fool the eye into thinking ceiling height is taller than it really is by painting a picture rail line all the way around the perimeter of a room. Paint the wall above the line a lighter color, and the wall below the line a darker color.

Reflect surrounding views by mirroring transoms above doors and cabinets. This will trick the eye into seeing greater volume than actually exists.

Rely on built-in storage instead of furniture. You can do this by skipping shelving units, for example, and recess shelves into your walls instead. Built-ins can hold so many things – and they don’t take up precious floor space.

Sneak a desk or recessed seating into a second floor hallway eave and your stair hall can do double-duty as a reading nook or computer area.

We’ll have more of our favorite residential interior design and architectural ideas for you as our thirtieth anniversary year continues. In the meantime, head over to our website to see a lot more of our ideas in action!