Tips To Make Your House Look Spacious

Some things cannot be easily changed, one of them being your home, of course most of us do not have the luxury of changing residences periodically at the whims and fancy of our bored existence, but there are quite a few interesting ways, you can employ to give your home a complete makeover in surprisingly low budget…

Let us have detailed look at some of the pointers, which you can use for the purpose:

• The clutter has to go – 

The first and foremost step in this regard is to clear out all the mess and clutter which takes up most of the extra space in your house. There is in fact a very logically approach to this activity. It is said that if you have not used an item in your home for over six months, then in all probability, you’ll never use it in your life (excluding winter wears). Hence, take a good look around and identify such items…the kitchen is a good place to start…keep your OLX app handy…The next important area to de-clutter is the entry hallway of your house. If you enter into a clean and open area every day, you will automatically feel that your house is more spacious.

• Make do without too many fancy items – 

This is another thing, which needs to be carefully edited. Get rid of all those fancy items, which are not really necessary for your house either by gifting, selling or by just by throwing away. You will be surprised at how much space opens up after you are done gifting!

• Redesign your furniture – 

Another great step towards making space in your house is to change the shape and size of your furniture. For instance, you can replace your shoe rack with a hanging shoe organizer, which will not only save a lot of floor space, but will also keep your house cleaner. Another example can be that of a shelving unit, which can be built into a wall or the back of a door.

• Repaint your walls – 

Another trick, which can be used to make your house look bigger, is to lighten the shade of color of the walls of your house. The lighter the color of the walls, the bigger the house would look. Dark paints make rooms look cozy and comfortable, but they also make them look smaller and cramped.

• Decorate the ceiling – 

This is one of the most frequently used tricks to increase the height of the house. If the ceiling of your house is painted or has wallpaper, your house will automatically get more height. So if the height of your house is your main concern, consider this option to be a perfect solution for your problem.

• Re-arrange the furniture – 

Avoid putting the furniture close to the walls, as it makes the place to look cramped and closed. Pull the furniture away from the walls and you will automatically add more space in your house. You can also build your own vertical shelves and make it more fun!

• More vertical furniture – 

Instead of expanding your furniture horizontally, try to expand it vertically. Bunk beds are a good option instead of double beds in your children’s bedroom.

• Stripes go a long way – 

Try to put out rugs and wallpapers, which have stripes on them. This will give you an illusion of more width and height. Hence your house will appear far bigger than it actually is. Arrange the stripes in the direction of the longest length of the room for best results.

• Mirrors, more mirrors – 

As you must have seen in many shops, there are many strategically placed mirrors, which create an illusion that the shop is bigger and more spacious. You can use the same concept for your house as well. Place mirrors in the entryway and room entries to double the width of the room by a large margin.

• No overhead stuff – 

The more things you will hang from the ceiling, the more cluttered that room will look. Avoid hanging lights and decorative items in your house if it is already very cramped up. Instead of hanging a light bulb, try to put on a decorative lampshade instead!

• Uncover the windows – 

Remove those bulky curtains from your windows and bless your house with some sunlight. Leaving the windows uncovered automatically makes the room to look bigger and brighter. It would also have the right energy and create a positive vibe; if the windows are left open and off-course some cool breeze would be good too.

• Remove some doors – 

If this is feasible to you, you can try this unconventional method to literally open up some space. You can remove some doors, which connect rooms together and leave those particular areas open. This will not only increase the size of your house, but would lead to good ventilation too.

• Color code – 

To make things appear more organized and cleaner, one should try to keep them in accordance with their color tones. If you keep all the colors together in one place, separated by even and thin margins, your room will open up by ten folds and also it is a visual treat!

• Large scale flooring – 

The floor pattern, which you choose for your house must have large blocks. The larger the pattern, the more spacious your house will look. Also, try to arrange the floor tiles in a diagonal fashion to give the illusion of more space. Tiling is a crucial and costly step, so try to do this in the beginning itself.

So now that you are well equipped with these easy tricks on how to create more space in your house and make it look bigger, what are you waiting for? Choose your top 5 and start with them right away! These tricks are so simple and cost effective that you will be really happy after you are done revamping your house.After all a bigger place is so much better to live in!


This is a guest post by Anasua Mitra, Associate  Manager - Marketing, Wienerberger India Private Limited

Rent vs Buying a house? What should I look for?

Author: Sachin Gupta | Find me on Twitter Follow @sach_gupta

This piece of the blog is primarily meant for residential end users/occupiers who will either end up owning or renting a house. Now, owning or renting is a dilemma which most of us face sooner or later in our careers. As easy as it may sound, but the decision is never without its fare share of glitches. Sumit Sharma, 29 years old, got recently married. He moved to Gurgaon 3 years ago and is currently working in a reputed company with decent salary and like most people of his age group he was stuck with this dilemma of owning vs. renting. On one hand there is easy access to home loans and plentiful of home supply with most builders screaming aloud from the rooftop to sell their real estate projects across India (oops...Houses) but on another hand there are some worries such as monthly installments, maintenance issues, locality, property valuations, and so on.

So, what are the factors that encourages owning as compared to renting and vice versa. Let’s Break It Down (L BID) to smaller elements. The core elements in this dilemma are:

- Down Payment element
First thing first, the most important element of making a decision to own a house boils down to down payment issue. In most cases, 15-20% of house value is paid towards down payment while the remainder is provided by the bank loan if credit worthiness of the person in consideration is good. Now, minimum price for a ready to move apartment in low rise or high rise building in Delhi NCR region (check the prices for other regions) ranges from 35 lacs to 40 lacs (prices vary for different locations). So, one has to have a minimum of 6-8 lacs in his/her pocket before even thinking of owning a house.

- Cash Flow element
Now, having passed through the first element with flying colors one has to do some cash flow calculations before going to the builder. Minimum rent for a similar apartment in Delhi NCR region (check rentals for other regions) ranges from 12 to 18 thousands with no overheads of property taxes, maintenance, insurance etc, whereas cost of owning will include loan installments + property taxes + insurance + maintenance charges. Monthly loan installment for the remaining 29 to 32 lacs will dent one’s pocket by at least 25 to 30 thousands depending upon the interest rate and tenure of the loan. Globally, housing is considered affordable if it is accessible at 25 to 40 percent of gross monthly household income for either rent or loan installments.

- Bubbles in House Price/Future Value
Bubbles normally lead to exorbitant prices when considered in relation to the underlying fundamentals. In Delhi NCR region, one would have noticed that residential property prices have appreciated sharply compared to the rentals. In most areas of NCR, the prices have appreciated by about 3-4 times in last 5 years whereas rental appreciation had been rather weak. What does this suggest; I guess you guessed it right, the price appreciation in property is not indicative of the actual demand & supply elements. Rather it’s the result of expectations that investors, builders are placing on the region due to forecasted economic growth. Now, when expectations are multiplied by expectations year after year, it leads to bubbles and you & I can only be the victims of the bubbles positively or negatively (in case the bubble bursts).

- Flexibility element
Flexibility element is crucial for those who tend to relocate because of employment, family, or other reasons. It doesn’t make any sense for a person to buy a house for 2-3 years and then again have to sell it because of relocation unless the house is purchased with an investment perspective.

- Credit Quality element
Those who are just starting their career with limited salary and no previous bank record will find it difficult to get the loan unless one has sufficient equity at his/her disposal and hence renting is the most likely choice for them.

- Ease of transportation
In metros and especially in Delhi NCR region, home-office-home travel is getting longer by the day. Buying a house nearer to the office is being considered a vital element. However, that comes with a heavy price tag. However, renting a house close to the office could be a serious consideration if one’s primary focus is the proximity to the office.

- Recreational activities
With changing lifestyle, recreational activities play an important role in one’s decision to own or rent a house. Other facilities such as shopping malls, schools, local connectivity also adds to decision making process of buying/renting the house. However, all these facilities come with a price tag especially in case of buying.

So friends, having considered all the above elements, a certain weightage can be given to each element and final result should be evaluated in favor of owning vs. renting. The analysis can yield different results for different individuals depending upon how much weightage they assign to each element.

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