Creating The Illusion of Open Space Through Home Decor
What do you do if you have a room that is so small and/or irregularly shaped, that it makes you feel claustrophobic? What if there are no windows? Not everyone has the means or the permission to knock down walls and renovate.
However, most people can paint their walls and ceilings.
That may be all it takes to transform the room from feeling cramped to comfortable.
Take the example of an attic that's been converted into an apartment in California.
The ceilings are low and sloped.
The living room looks more like a hallway in an ant farm, than a place to relax.
To feel good in there, you'll need to turn your walls and ceiling into continuous murals that create the illusion of open space with depth of field.
You want the walls to look like they've vanished in a landscape you could walk right out into.
Choose a landscape with a horizon line far off in the distance, and using perspective drawing techniques, pencil the landscape on to the wall, with the horizon line at about the height of a low couch.
You want to have layers in the drawing, so that it looks as though you have topography in the foreground, mid ground and back ground.
This will help trick your brain into believing there is more space in your room than there really is.
From the horizon line up, paint a mural of the sky that continues onto the ceiling and joins every other wall seamlessly.
Good choices for landscapes include deserts with animals and desert plants shown at different distances from the viewer, or undulating dunes receding from the eye.
Oceans with boats drawn at different "distances" and rivers that appear to wind away from where you are standing are good choices for people who are soothed by water.
The rolling hills of Tuscany, covered in sunflowers, vineyards, and other agricultural fields are also good options.
You could paint the 360 degree views from a top a Himalayan peak.
Whatever vista puts you in the best mood is the best choice, as long as it looks like you have miles of visibility in all directions.
If there is an odd shaped nook in the floor plan, as you have in many attics, you can improvise with the landscape.
A canyon could be part of a desertscape, or a water fall part of a riverscape, or a bay harbor part of a seascape, or a glacier part of a mountainscape.
Openings provide fun opportunities for landscape decor.
In a desert, twin palms could make an arch over a door way.
Whales could spout water vapor over windows.
The possibilities are endless.
Murals are even more important when you lack windows.
In Israel, where people spend a lot of time in their subterranean bomb shelters, murals help to keep people calm and keep them from getting stir crazy.
Murals help to comfort frightened children, and reduce fighting among stressed refugees.
Murals also make bomb shelters more pleasant during peace time, when they are used as libraries, discos, and various other functions.
If you can make a bomb shelter feel good, you can make any room feel good.
However, most people can paint their walls and ceilings.
That may be all it takes to transform the room from feeling cramped to comfortable.
Take the example of an attic that's been converted into an apartment in California.
The ceilings are low and sloped.
The living room looks more like a hallway in an ant farm, than a place to relax.
To feel good in there, you'll need to turn your walls and ceiling into continuous murals that create the illusion of open space with depth of field.
You want the walls to look like they've vanished in a landscape you could walk right out into.
Choose a landscape with a horizon line far off in the distance, and using perspective drawing techniques, pencil the landscape on to the wall, with the horizon line at about the height of a low couch.
You want to have layers in the drawing, so that it looks as though you have topography in the foreground, mid ground and back ground.
This will help trick your brain into believing there is more space in your room than there really is.
From the horizon line up, paint a mural of the sky that continues onto the ceiling and joins every other wall seamlessly.
Good choices for landscapes include deserts with animals and desert plants shown at different distances from the viewer, or undulating dunes receding from the eye.
Oceans with boats drawn at different "distances" and rivers that appear to wind away from where you are standing are good choices for people who are soothed by water.
The rolling hills of Tuscany, covered in sunflowers, vineyards, and other agricultural fields are also good options.
You could paint the 360 degree views from a top a Himalayan peak.
Whatever vista puts you in the best mood is the best choice, as long as it looks like you have miles of visibility in all directions.
If there is an odd shaped nook in the floor plan, as you have in many attics, you can improvise with the landscape.
A canyon could be part of a desertscape, or a water fall part of a riverscape, or a bay harbor part of a seascape, or a glacier part of a mountainscape.
Openings provide fun opportunities for landscape decor.
In a desert, twin palms could make an arch over a door way.
Whales could spout water vapor over windows.
The possibilities are endless.
Murals are even more important when you lack windows.
In Israel, where people spend a lot of time in their subterranean bomb shelters, murals help to keep people calm and keep them from getting stir crazy.
Murals help to comfort frightened children, and reduce fighting among stressed refugees.
Murals also make bomb shelters more pleasant during peace time, when they are used as libraries, discos, and various other functions.
If you can make a bomb shelter feel good, you can make any room feel good.
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