There are many ways to make your kitchen look bigger without breaking the bank. Whether you’re selling your home and want to improve value perception, or simply want to remodel to open up your space and provide a more homely atmosphere, making your space bigger is certainly possible. This is especially important when you’re dealing with tight spaces and cramped areas. But with the right strategies, you can make even the smallest of rooms feel a little more spacious.

Repaint Your Walls

Giving your kitchen walls a fresh coat of light paint opens up your space. After all, the color of your room is a major design component that influences how spacious it feels. Additionally, this is a very simple fix. Dark walls will make a space feel more crowded than it actually is. On the other hand, because white walls reflect light, it allows the walls to recede and feel bigger.

Reflective walls allow the kitchen to feel air, leveraging the effect of natural light and maximizing natural light. Think of this as an optical illusion. You can also benefit from clever contrasts. For example, you might paint your trimmings and molding a lighting color than the wall, which will make the wall appear to be further back.

Update Your Cabinetry

Your cabinetry takes up most of your kitchen real estate. Therefore, it’s natural that you focus on it when it comes to making your kitchen feel bigger. For instance, with kitchen cabinet refacing, you can change the appearance of your cabinets completely without taking them out and starting from scratch. For the most part, the structural integrity of cabinetry is solid. In many cases, the wood isn’t rotting or falling apart, so why throw it away?

Refacing can help you dramatically change the look of your kitchen at a fraction of the cost. You can use the same tactics employed for your painting efforts with your cabinetry. This means using light colors and contrasting fixtures that pop.

Rethink Your Lighting

Lighting can really open up a space when you incorporate it the right way. When possible, get in as much natural light as you can. For instance, sheer window coverings help cover your windows without blocking too much might. If you don’t have a ton of natural light, you can be a little more creative with your lighting fixtures.

Adding accent lights creates shadows and draws the eyes in. This is because naturally, the human eye gravitates towards the most contrasting point in a space; in the kitchen, this is sharp lines created by upper cabinetry. Therefore, adding some LED lights along the bottom of upper cabinetry create a nice visual tone. This uplighting will create a gentle illumination that eases any unappealing visual contrast created by shadows by filling in those spaces.

Clear Your Countertops

Clearing your countertops will work wonders when it comes to making your kitchen feel light and airy. Even if you’re tight on space, if you put the effort into organization, you’ll quickly discover that there really can be a place for everything. Small appliances, spices, cookbooks, and other countertop items detract from small spaces. In many cases, you’ll find that by reorganizing your cabinet’s interiors, you can free up that countertop space. You can find plenty of kitchen organization items on Amazon and other retailers.

Items like cabinet hooks for mugs, pegboards, and hanging pot racks help free up some much-needed space in your cabinets, thereby opening up your countertop space. If you absolutely must use your countertop space, do so in a way that is organized and aesthetically pleasing. For example, if you want spices on the countertops, use a nice space rack. If you want cookbooks on the countertop, use a recipe or cookbook holder.

Add Glass to Cabinet Doors

Incorporating glass into your cabinetry adds another layer of depth. You don’t have to add glass to every cabinet, but it does make a difference and helps trick the eyes. With glass cabinets, gazes are drawn into the cabinets, rather than simply stopping at the door. When you have glass cabinetry, be sure to keep your cabinets organized and clutter-free. There are different types of glass depending on your preferences; if you don’t want total transparency, you can opt for a heavy frost. Keep in mind that glass cabinetry isn’t as effective with dark cabinets.