6 Expert Tips to Make the Most of Small Spaces

 24.06.2015

This spring, Dulux Creative Director Marianne Shillingford was invited to take part in the program of talks at trade show May Design Series. The event played host to a number of discussions and seminars with some of the industry's leading experts, covering a breadth of hot topics in the design world. Marianne spoke on the subject of designing for small spaces, a theme that's increasingly important as space in the urban built environment becomes an ever more valuable commodity.

If you missed out on attending the talk at May Design Series, don't panic. Here's her top tips on how to use colour to maximise space:

1. Use colours that are highly light reflective. If you look at a colour stripe card, there are lines of numbers across each tonal variation - the middle number tells you how light-reflective the colour is. The closer the number is to 100, the more light it reflects and therefore the better it will be for a small space.

2. Use receding colours: These are colours that visually fall away from you and include blues, greens and violets. Blue is the most receding colour and will make the space seem larger than warmer colours like oranges and pinks.

3. Dulux's Light + Space colour range is a huge innovation for small spaces. The the colour range is light, clean and crisp, and paint reflects twice as much light as an equivalent emulsion - your walls will look like they've been switched on like a light.

Architectural and Interior designer Naomi Day was in conversation with Marianne on the subject of small spaces and also offers some invaluable advice on how to squeeze every inch out of a room:

4. Think about the floor surface in a space - if you can see the edges of the floor, the room will seem bigger.

5. Use wall-mounted fittings and fixture wherever you can (such as wall-mounted sinks and toilets in bathrooms, or wall-mounted shelves in other rooms) to keep as much of the floor visible as possible.

6. When choosing freestanding furniture, go for furniture with legs rather than a solid base so you light can come through - this will stop the room feeling crowded.

Watch the video below to hear Marianne and Naomi explain more.