Almost all home decorating tips are geared for two major principles:

  • To make rooms feel more open
  • To make rooms look and feel larger

People prefer big living spaces, and if they can't have them right away, they want the space they do have to at least look bigger. The question is, how are you supposed to make a small space look and feel bigger than it is?

The answers are lighting and reflection.

Mirrors and light reflection

While empty walls make a room seem larger, decorating living spaces is rather difficult if the decorator can't obscure the wall in any way. When putting up wall decorations, it is important to understand the grocery store shelf principle. Ever notice how many mirrors there are in the average grocery or retail store? Mirrors provide the illusion of larger spaces because they reflect light.

Using the same principle in your home, decorating is simple. For example, you can outfit your family photos, wall mirrors, and posters with acrylic frames. Not only does this make your decorations more resilient, but it will reflect strategically placed light and inspire a bright feeling of openness and peace.

Colors and light reflecting frames

If you go out of your way to choose quality art to decorate a room, you don't want poorly constructed glass to tarnish it. This is one of the strongest arguments for using acrylic picture frames. Glass can tint pictures, and can distort shapes based on temperature changes, light angles or even time of day.

Acrylic surfaces don't suffer from these limitations, which means if you choose a picture for its color appeal, you can be sure you'll get the full benefit of your decorative instincts. The colors you choose will have a dramatic effect on the space principle as well, so your decision isn't limited to aesthetics.

Wall decorations and size

The size of the pieces you put up, weather horizontally or vertically, will affect the way a room feels. What better way to make a room seem larger than to have a high-quality panoramic work of art covering an entire wall.

A glass frame will make this decision not only impractical but potentially dangerous. Very large pieces of glass can shatter in ways that can create hazards for nearby people and property. This is one among many reasons pane glass is rarely recommended. Acrylic frames, on the other hand, are stronger and more flexible. They are also lighter, which often makes them a better choice for large-scale picture frames.

Taking a small space and making it seem larger sounds like a feat of legerdemain until you see it in action. While your visitors might not realize what's going on, subconsciously they will pick up on how open and pleasant your newly decorated room is, and you will too.