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If your home has several small rooms sch as bedrooms and bathrooms, it can be a challenge to create the illusion of spaciousness. Mary Carol Garrity, writing for Scripps Howard News Service, has developed this sure-fire list of tricks that you can use to help your little rooms live large:

1. Use fewer pieces of furniture. If you have a guest bedroom that is very small, instead of using a twin bed and under-sized dresser, got he opposite way. Use just three pieces of funiture, a full sized bed, an armoire and a writing desk.

2.  Include one over-scaled piece of wood furniture. Furnish a small room with one big piece of furniture such as a breakfront or armoire that serves as the room’s statement piece.

3.  Scale down upholstered furniture. Oversized pieces used in small rooms gobble up the floor space making your room seem overpowered by furniture. To make your room seem larger, look for smaller-sized and smaller-scale sofas and chairs. For example, if you’re looking for a sofa, opt for a 72 inch-long piece rather than one that is 86 inches.

4. Add height with drapes. To make a room with lower ceilings feel more spacious, hand draperies high on the wall, just below ceiling line, instead of at the top of the window. To lengthen the look, make the drapes long enough to puddle on the floor. You can also make narrow windows appear to be wider by hanging draperies on the outer edge of the window so the fabric covers the wall not the glass.

5. Cut the clutter. When smaller rooms are filled with too many accessories, they feel congested and confining. Keep just a few well-placed accents and leave plenty of “negative” space on tabletops so the eye can rest.

6. Learn the art of hanging art. If you want to create the illusion of height, group artwork in a vertical band that extends low on the wall up to the ceiling. Or hang just one large painting.

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