Ideas for Room Designs

Light Colors Add Roominess

• Adding a sense of spaciousness and light helps any room. Even a tiny bedroom, for example, can look bigger with a larger window or wall of glass blocks on the exterior facade. Light colors used on the top half of any room, especially, will open the space. Pale neutral colors work well on walls; it's easy to select a neutral color that looks upscale. Use pale green or pale taupe for a living room or bedroom with a high-end look.

Buy High-End Materials in Small Amounts

• Expensive materials, such as marble floor tiles or cherry cabinets, can be used in small amounts. In a bathroom, install green marble tiles just around the border of the floor. Place less-costly white porcelain ceramic tiles in the center of the room. Use cherry cabinets on upper walls in a kitchen and cream-colored painted cabinets for the base cabinets. Buy an expensive leather sofa to use with less-costly upholstered chairs in a family room. Try to invest in some high-end materials or furnishings in every room to give the whole house a polished look.

Add Molding for Upscale Ambience

• Create elegance via crown molding and chair railing. A small living room, for example, will look well-designed with crown molding around the ceiling perimeter and chair railing along all walls. Paint all the woodwork and the upper walls bright white. Paint the lower half of the walls a pale taupe for an upscale look. Use crown molding around the ceiling perimeter of a small bathroom to give the space elegance. Kitchen cabinets with crown molding added at the ceiling level will look high-end. Use crown molding around the floor areas of kitchen cabinets as well.

Go for Arched Doorways

• Interior door openings can be arched versus squared off. A curved arch overhead can accommodate interior French doors with arched tops as well. You can leave off interior doors between a living room and dining room, if you wish, and install a tall, arched opening built of framework and drywall. Arched doorways can be installed in hallways and other parts of the home.

Install Wall Units for Storage

• Use floor-to-ceiling cabinets on one wall of certain rooms. For example, a small bedroom with a wall unit can be kept a lot neater. Shelving about 18 inches deep covered by doors that close works well. This way, the room can have a bed, chest and a small upholstered chair only. A small kitchen space with a similar floor-to-ceiling storage unit on one wall can store a lot of items: small appliances, pots and pans and groceries. The kitchen will look bigger with few or no upper wall cabinets on the other three walls.