Go all white and neutral to make a small room feel big, they say.

Leave colors for the accents in a small house, they say.

Boy, They have a lot to say about how YOU should decorate your house!

I’ll admit, I’m a lover of crisp, white paint, especially when selling a house (as it gives buyers a "blank canvas" to apply their own tastes to.)

You’ll find many opinions on my preference for light paint colors all over this site, but sometimes you need more flavor in a small space.

Little houses usually don’t Have big rooms where you can experiment and close them off until you’re ready to reveal your creativity. That luxury of space doesn’t exist for small homes where the all rooms are literally steps away from the front door.

So, it’s totally understandable to not want to challenge tried and true small space decorating ideas in favor bold, gutsy choices. But, when you think about a bold decorating choice as a way to highlight the good or diminish the bad, then the prospect of embracing that choice isn’t as scary.

The reality for a lot of small houses is that you can’t easily change the size of rooms or capture space that doesn’t exist. To this I say, it’s better to embrace the “liability” of a space in order to reimagine it as an asset instead.

Don’t think you can? Here’s how 8 bold decorating ideas will change the way you feel about your small rooms!

1. Decorating with Bold Colors

When it comes to using bold colors in your home, there’s a couple surefire ways to play up or downplay some of the features in small rooms.

One way to change how you feel about a small room is to infuse color or pattern either on the ceiling or on the floor.

This will bring attention up or down away from the middle area, the walls.

If you’re attention is focused on the ceiling, the focus is not on the size of the room. Your perspective changes and you notice the color or pattern over the walls.

I like to keep the walls light if you’re going to go for a bold ceiling.

Try the wallpapering on the ceiling trend to draw your eye up. It’s a great way to decorate with a funky pattern to make the ceiling recede.

If you’re more interested in dark floor ideas, then this technique can also work in your favor.

By drawing attention to the floor and keeping the rest of the space neutral, these stenciled tiles takes the focus off the walls.

If painting your floor isn’t your bag, there’s lots of dark laminate flooring decorating ideas online. Try doing an image search on Google or scrolling through Pinterest to gather inspiration.

If you’re not interested in a permanent choice for floors, why not put a large, bold patterned rug in a small room. Get the biggest rug you can find for a small room, you’ll immediately highlight the floor.

Rugs are amazing ways to anchor any space and going big with a rug in a small room is always going to take your decorating game up a notch.

Don’t forget a rug pad. Rug pads extend the life of your area rug, protect your hard wood floors and increase sound abatement and a lot more.

Here’s some help for how to combine colors in a room if you need to figure out a starting point. Hint: you’ll be amazed by how fast you can pull a decorating scheme together from the area rug you choose.

2. 60-30-10 Rule

the rule of 60-30-10 is a ratio of color for a room.

Simply put, 60% is the main color of your room. This would be wall paint color, wallpaper colors or whatever has the most color and pattern.

The 30% is a secondary color that shows up in relation to the main color. It would be the color of your window treatments, upholstered furniture, bedding, or painted pieces like furniture or trim work.

10% makes up the last part of the equation and will be the color used as small accents: pillows, artwork and accessories. The 10% is the punctuation for your color scheme.

Here’s a handy resource for how colors work together if you’re looking for a little inspiration or to figure out how to choose colors that will be right for your space. It’s based on the color wheel and you’ll get up to speed fast on what colors are always a knock out together.

Color will always help you change the way you feel about your small rooms.

3. Rule of 2/3 to 1/3

Similar to the 60-30-10 rule, the rule of 2/3 to 1/3 will help you refocus your attention away from the “liabilities” and toward the “assets”.

One of my favorite ways to use this rule is with decorative trim like wainscoting and board and batten

Rooms like:

• bathrooms

• nurseries

• bedrooms

• home offices, usually have one thing in common, they’re small. They’re also the perfect spaces to try out some creative ideas like installing wainscoting, board and batten or fancy bead board.

Measure the wall space between the floor and the ceiling. 2/3 the way up the wall from the floor to the ceiling is the tall wainscoting or board and batten and the rest is wall.

Try adding a bold color to the wainscoting or board and batten or to the wall. Maybe install wallpaper above the bottom portion to add some interesting character.

4. Floor to Ceiling Wallpaper in a Small Room

Earlier I mentioned placing wallpaper on the ceiling to draw your eye up in a small room. But, what if the room is super small, like a coat closet you’ve converted into a office nook, or a walk-in closet off the master. What do you do with a very small powder room?

If you’re small room is only big enough for one person to be in at a time, I say there’s an opportunity to make a bold statement that will change how you feel about that space.

If you have a small, bland powder room, give it some octane with a modern powder room wallpaper treatment!

Be bold and cover the walls and ceiling and make it a special focal area. I’ll guarantee that it will delight you and your guests every time you walk in the room.

I especially like the modern wallpaper touch in a traditional home aesthetic because it’s an adventurous treat to play with style cues in small rooms. It gives you a chance to be bold enough to change up the style of your home even if it’s one tiny room’s style.

If you’re not comfortable with this “permanent” solution, try removeable wallpaper for your powder room. If you tire of it in a year, it’s super easy to peel right off.

Source: Perigold

5. Extra Large Crown Molding

If you want to change the look of a small room dramatically, give installing large crown molding a go.

There’s so many options and styles to choose from and depending on the profile you want, you can highlight a traditional aesthetic or something more contemporary.

Adding in decorative ceiling molding will also bring your eye to the ceiling because it provides a visual stop.

Tip:

If you have shorter ceilings, paint the trim the same color as the wall. This helps to blur the line between the wall and ceiling but still gives the trim some definition and ability to catch light and shadows.

If your ceiling is tall you can paint the trim the same color as the ceiling to provide a “cap” on the space. This will enhance the ceiling.

If your ceilings are regular height, 7’ to 9’, keep the base trim under 5” so as not to make the room feel short. This is especially true if you’re planning on having a dramatic difference between the wall color and trim color.

Tall rooms do well with 8” baseboard molding because they reinforce the progression of your gaze up the wall. Your eye will catch the detail and keep moving up the wall.

If you’re interested in a very inexpensive way to build up existing baseboards, I’m a fan of using a thin pencil molding fixed to the wall a couple of inches above the existing base molding or skirting boards.

• 1. Fix the pencil trim to the wall. Miter the inside and outside corners.

This trick works like a charm to make it look like the base molding is thicker than it actually is.

• 2. Paint the existing trim, the section of wall between the trim and the pencil molding, and the pencil molding itself the same color. The effect is a chunky base trim made with only thin trim and paint.

6. Oversize Art in a Small Room

Oversize art on a small wall is bold. It’s also 1000% better than putting a small piece of art on a small wall. Nothing will make a small wall look dinky faster than a little piece of art.

Large art in small spaces is bold. It’s exciting and dynamic. It will bring energy to a small room because it’s surprising.

If you’re nervous about installing wallpaper or painting a dark, moody color in a small room, then art is your solution! It gives you an opportunity to bring in color, texture, pattern, shape, contrast. All these things and more will make your room feel decorated and special.

7. DIY Feature Wall

Sometimes the best way to change how you feel about your small room is to add a feature wall.

Sure you can paint a fun color on one wall, or wallpaper an alcove or the wall behind the TV, but, it’s also effective to add picture frame trim to walls if you want a hint of architectural detail.

Adding in picture frame molding to a feature wall, or throughout the room, is a great way to add a touch of traditional detail that gives a space a sense of history, class and warmth.

If you’re after a more modern look, try installing vertical wood strips on the wall. This gives a feature wall dimension and texture.

If you’re a bit more daring, install the wood slats on angles , like a herringbone pattern for some drama and interest.

8.Picture Rail Shelves

If a full on wood slat feature wall isn’t your cup of tea, then perhaps you’d prefer a picture rail installation instead.

First, these installs are very easy. There’s literally 100’s of picture rail diy videos on youtube and in various blogs.

Here’s one of my favorites:

Second, I love these applications because they work in so many different spaces:

• Playrooms to hold children’s books.

• In family rooms to hold small accessories, books, pictures and art.

• Use them in an office to hold a library of books.

• Install a couple in the kitchen to hold your favorite cookbooks.

Picture rail shelves are great because they are slim in profile and you can easily change the décor for whatever occasion or season you want.

They give you the opportunity to add temporary color, texture and scale and when you’re tired of the arrangement, switch it up!

Best of all there’s no plethora of nail holes to fill every time you want to change things.

There you have it, how 8 bold decorating ideas will change the way you feel about your small rooms!

1. Decorating with Bold Colors

2. 60-30-10 Rule

3. Rule of 2/3 to 1/3

4. Floor to Ceiling Wallpaper in a Small Room Extra Large

5. Crown Molding

6. Oversize Art in a Small Room

7. DIY Feature Wall

8. Picture Rail Shelves

If you’ve found any of these tips helpful I’d love to hear about that in the comments section below. Tell me what you’ve done to embrace bold decorating ideas that changed the way you felt about your small rooms.

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I write about small space design and decorating, sustainable furniture options, positive self care and a variety of do-it-yourself home décor.

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Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s a space planning expert, offering online interior e-design services for folks living in small homes, or for those with awkward and tricky layouts. He’s a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating, interior design, diy projects, and more. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.