TIPS FOR INCREASING THE APPARENT SIZE OF YOUR HOUSE

By Terence,

How many homes ever come up to all your expectations? What happened to those dreams of grand and spacious living? But wait a minute: let your imagination go, and think how the existing space in your house or flat could be rethought to work better, look better.
Can you use the rooms differently
Most of us are slaves to tradition, taking it for granted that living rooms are downstairs, bedrooms upstairs. But something as simple as rearranging the way you live in a house can make all the difference.
If there is a better view from the upstairs window, why not live up there and enjoy it, and sleep downstairs?
Using the existing space better
 There are arguments for keeping within the existing structure if you can. You wont be adding to your external maintenance expenses, services will be easily available, heating should cost only a little more, and you wont be eating into your garden.
You can often increase the apparent size of your home simply by replanning and simplifying your furniture layout; making new doors where there none before; blocking up others; opening two rooms into one, dividing others into two, and rationalising the way you store things; inserting a gallery into a high ceiling room, or exploiting a dark, dead centre area, using artificial ventilation.
Adding on
If all else fails, you may be able to increase the actual floor space of your home by going up (attics), out (extensions), or down (basements).
The creative use of space can make a vast difference to the appearance and enjoyment and enjoyment of a home which no amount of tinkering about with cushion covers and saucy gadgets can ever equal. This creative use of space is the prime service of architects and designers, but developing, enhancing and fulfilling it is the prerogative of householder.before you get out your hatchet, consider the following points:

1. Can your house or flat be improved by just changing the function of the existing rooms?
2. Will your projected improvements prove practical in terms of service circulation, storage, cost?
3. Will the inside and outside benefit aesthetically?