Who doesn’t like a home that appears spacious and airy? If your rooms are large, that’s an easy thing to have. However, even if you have smaller rooms, it’s still possible to make them look larger and more open! One way to do that is with the flooring you select.

Interestingly, it doesn’t matter whether you choose hardwood, luxury vinyl or laminate! Any of these hard flooring types can be deployed to make a room look bigger. The critical factors lie elsewhere, and they include plank size, color and the way the flooring is installed.

Plank Size: More Is More

In all types of hard flooring, larger planks are becoming more popular and more widely available! That’s especially noticeable in luxury vinyl plank (LVP), where planks can be as wide as a foot and as long as seven feet. Laminate flooring plank dimensions are just about as large. Even hardwood, which used to have a standard width of two to three inches, is now available in wide plank hardwood flooring of five inches or more.

That’s good news for anyone who wants a bigger-looking room! Wide plank flooring provides depth and stretches the eye. It’s not just the plank size; it’s also the fact that there are fewer seams. Minimizing seams avoids a crowded, busy appearance and makes the whole room relax into an airy spaciousness.

As a bonus, you might save some time installing the floor more quickly!

Try a New Angle: Diagonal

Most floors are installed with the planks parallel to the long wall. However, to take advantage of the way the human eye sees things, try laying out the floor in a diagonal pattern.

You can install your floor with corner-to-corner diagonal pieces, but you increase the eye appeal if you use a herringbone pattern. This type of diagonal is rife with vibrant energy and creates a focal point! When people walk on a floor for the first time, they are naturally drawn to the largest part of the pattern. It’s similar to the way we look at art. It brightens the room even more if the pattern points toward a window!

Also, if you have rooms with odd angles and corners that aren’t quite square – commonplace in older homes – the diagonal pattern draws attention away from these imperfections.

Roomy Light-Colored Floors

It’s no secret that light colors brighten things up. In hardwood, it’s a big part of the reason that white oak has exploded in popularity! Some manufacturers even whitewash hardwood to achieve a lighter and more expansive ambiance. In LVP and laminates, which can imitate whatever variety of wood they choose, off-whites and creamy colors lead the way! Light-colored planks aren’t only for the beachy or coastal look; they add brightness and space in any style of room. They do the job even better with lots of natural light or warm artificial lighting!

Roomy Dark-Colored Floors

Light color isn’t the only flooring option for making a room appear bigger. Interestingly, dark flooring can work, too! It depends on what you do with the rest of the space.

Dark floors can expand the apparent size of a room when they’re paired with light walls and a light ceiling. It’s the contrast that does the trick! It makes the room feel not only wider but also taller. You may not have a vaulted ceiling, but this dark-and-light combo can make a standard flat ceiling seem like it’s higher above your head!

Wide Open Spaces: Uniform Color and Pattern

In an open concept home, people sometimes use different flooring patterns to divide a room into two sections. However, this works poorly in a small room. It makes it look even tinier.

Whatever color or pattern you choose, keep it the same throughout an entire small room. Avoid multi-color tiles as well. If there are doorless entryways between rooms, consider extending the same color and pattern across both rooms. And while we’re talking about patterns, be cautious about checkerboards! Smaller checkerboards have the potential to shrink a room.

Give the Flooring Some Help

When it comes to making a home look bigger, large planks and smart pattern choices work best when the rest of the room cooperates! One way to do that: keep as much of the floor visible as possible. You can accomplish that with fewer pieces of furniture, and you can also do it with such visual tricks as glass tables, mirrors, metallics and open furniture with narrow legs. Also, thin window coverings, kept open as much as possible, yield expansive natural light, and you can supplement that with subtle artificial lighting. A white ceiling enhances brightness and accentuates an open look.

You don’t have to knock down walls to make a home look more spacious! There are a number of design tricks to expand the apparent size of your dwelling, and your choice of flooring is an ideal place to start!