Small bedroom ideas

Here are the changes in order, in a bedroom we designed with real IKEA and B&Q products, each picture adding one change to the one before. The same steps work in a small living room or home office.

What do the changes look like in a room?

This is a double bedroom we designed, seen from the doorway: a Dulux Heritage Mid Umber wall colour (£49 for 2.5L at B&Q), an oak-effect engineered floor, an IKEA IDANÄS storage bed (£499), a jute rug (IKEA LOHALS, 200 x 300cm, £179) and grey-green linen curtains (IKEA DYTÅG, £69 a pair). The whole room came to £1,625.96 for 13 products.

In the first picture the walls are mid-tone and the ceiling is white. The curtain pole sits just above the window frame, and a slim oak-framed mirror is on the left wall.

There's nothing wrong with it, but the white ceiling is a hard lid: you can see exactly where the walls stop.

In the second picture the ceiling is painted the same colour as the walls.

The line where wall meets ceiling goes soft and the room reads as one shape. It also gets a little darker overall, which is the trade-off.

In the third, one large mirror hangs on the left wall, angled so it picks up the window.

It shows the window, the curtain and the end of the bed, so you get a second view across the room. The room looks wider than it did, and brighter at the window end.

In the fourth, the curtain pole has gone up close to the ceiling and out wider than the window, with the curtains just reaching the floor.

The window looks taller, and the curtains, when open, sit beside the glass instead of in front of it.

Should you paint the ceiling the same colour as the walls?

In most small rooms we'd try it, even though the usual advice goes the other way. Dulux says a bright white ceiling "can create the illusion of more space and light", especially with low ceilings, while House Beautiful UK takes the opposite side in its list, with darker paint and oversized curtains among the "weird" tricks that work.

We lean towards matching because of the pictures: when walls and ceiling match, you stop seeing where one ends and the other starts. Dulux also says walls and ceiling in the same shade give "a cosy, cocoon-like feel", and a handyman firm, Fantastic Handyman, puts the downsides plainly: dark shades "may create a feeling of sitting in an even smaller space", scuffs show more, and it takes more paint.

So the colour matters. In a room with a small window or not much daylight, we'd keep the ceiling white or only a shade lighter than the walls. The walls here are a mid-tone, not a dark one, and that's what stops the room closing in.

Where should the big mirror go?

On a side wall, in a spot where it reflects the window, and as large as the wall allows. IKEA says larger wall mirrors "make a room look brighter and bigger". A mirror site, Hollywood Mirrors, recommends placing it directly opposite a window or other natural light, and says one that's too small won't help much.

The slim mirror in the first picture is the IKEA HOVET, 78 x 196cm, at £129 (the same price in oak-effect, black, gold-colour or aluminium finishes). The one in the third picture is a large frameless mirror, wider than that, and isn't one of the room's listed products. What changes is the size: the same wall, with a lot more reflecting surface.

IKEA sells these mirrors if you're choosing from its range:

• LINDBYN, 80 x 80cm: £49
• LINDBYN, 60 x 170cm: £79
• HOVET, 78 x 196cm: £129

The £49 LINDBYN is £80 cheaper than the HOVET, but it's a square, so you see less of the room in it. We'd still rather have one big mirror than several small ones.

How high and wide should the curtains go?

Near the ceiling, wider than the window, down to the floor. Tracks Direct says the general guideline is a pole wider than the window. That fits this room, where there's space beside the frame for the curtains to stack clear of the glass.

Measure from where the pole will sit to the floor before you drill. DYTÅG curtains are 250cm long, so a pole much higher than that won't let them reach.

The curtains here cost £69 a pair. The pole in the picture isn't one of the room's listed products, but IKEA sells the BEKRÄFTA black curtain rod set (120-210cm) for £15, which gives you a rough idea of what a plain rod costs.

What about furniture on legs?

Seeing floor under a bed or chest of drawers makes a room read as less crowded. This room doesn't have it: the bed is a storage bed with drawers down to the floor, which is what the £499 bought. If you need the storage, we'd keep the drawers and put the effort into the three steps above.

What did it cost?

The three changes are a small part of a £1,625.96 room.

• Ceiling paint: the walls used Dulux Heritage Mid Umber at £49 for 2.5L, and a matching ceiling is more of the same tin. Every Dulux Heritage colour at B&Q that we looked at is £49 for 2.5L, so the colour you choose doesn't change the price. We haven't worked out how many tins you'd need; that depends on your room.
• Mirror: the HOVET is £129, about 8% of the room total. A £49 LINDBYN 80 x 80cm would be £80 less, at the cost of a smaller reflection.
• Curtains: DYTÅG at £69 a pair, plus a pole.

The mirror is the one you can trim. The ceiling is the cheapest change by a distance, and it changes how the room feels more than either of the others.

How do you check it at home?

1. Hold a paint sample card against the ceiling and the wall at the same time, at the time of day you use the room most. If it looks heavy, go one shade lighter for the ceiling.
2. Tape a sheet of paper or card, the size of your mirror, to the wall and stand where you'd normally sit or lie. If you can see the window in it, it's in the right place.
3. Tape a line on the wall where the pole would go, and a second line just past the window frame on each side.
4. Measure from the pole line to the floor and compare it to the curtain's length.