What makes a place feel spacious? Key word here is feel. There is no absolute room measurement that determines whether a room is spacious or not. For example, my office is in a room that used to be a tenant’s bedroom. With a double bed, clothes all over the place, a small desk and chair and a dresser, the room felt cramped! Now, same room, setup differently feels spacious.

A small space, be it for office or no, is still a small space. But it doesn’t need to feel cramped. What makes a space feel spacious? Here are some of my thoughts on the subject. Additions?

• Seeing things have a place and are in place.
• Stuff not piled on the floor.
• You can see the floor and quite a bit of the baseboards (perhaps using wire shelves instead of solid wood).
• Plenty of light illuminating the space.
• More light colors than dark colors in furniture, especially the large objects.
• You don’t have a fear of bumping into something or knocking something over if you aren’t really careful.
• There aren’t large items looming overhead.
• There are a few aesthetic items for comfort. This keeps you in the mindset of spacious and not sparse.
• Every shelf isn’t crammed to the max.
• Big patterns of organized things-Yes (file trays each holding a different kind of paper).
• Lots of small pieces-No (little scraps of paper/business cards all over the wall).

What else?