Making your home look light and airy can be a challenge if your rooms aren’t endowed with the largest of windows. The tricks to making rooms look larger with light tones and mirrors are well known but there are some clever tricks to make your windows look larger too.
Soft framing
Choose curtain rods that are much wider than your window, and hang them higher. Curtains that extend beyond the dimensions of your window blur the point where your window stops and the walls begin, creating the impression that it’s wider. You can trick the mind into thinking that your windows are taller, too, by layering your curtains, using pelmets or a shade directly under the curtain rod. Think about patterns and fabric: vertically striped curtains will make the window appear taller while horizontal patterns will accentuate the width. Hiding the top of your window makes it look taller, as do floor length curtains.
Play with perspective
Photographers use some great tricks to deceive the eye on the size of an object, by placing it in a setting or with other objects to make it look larger or smaller than it actually is. Using similar techniques to those shown in some of these pictures, you can make your window look larger by placing small or low profile furniture underneath it.
Contrasting frames
If you’re altering your frames, a wider frame can enhance how large the window looks, both on the inside and the outside of your home. Outside, considerations like cladding, paintwork and UPVC fascia and soffits will also have an impact on the look of your windows. Companies like https://www.absolutebuildingplastics.co.uk/upvc-fascia-boards/ are a good place to start if you’re renovating outdoors.
Draw attention to your window
Ask any make-up artist, and they’ll tell you that one of the fundamental techniques used to make eyes look larger is adding shades and highlights to the lids and surrounding areas to draw attention. Likewise, choosing darker wall colours to contrast a light frame can make a feature of the window.
Making your window the focal point of your room will trick the mind’s eye into thinking it is larger. Surrounded by cleverly chosen curtains, objects rich in colour, combined with a colour scheme that enhances light, your room will have the illusion that it – and its window – really is bigger.
