The downbeat beige-and-brown palette and busy rug pattern made the room feel smaller than it was, as did the disordered items on the bureau and the bedside table. Sunlight (and a garden view) were blocked by curtains and needless layers of window accessories. “It was a poorly lit room,” author Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan says, “and the drab color scheme absorbed what little light there was.”

Get the Items Off the Floor

CDs once piled on the living-room floor are now stored in the Container Store’s Sky Blue library CD boxes ($12 each, www.containerstore.com). The Container Store’s Pandan box stores photos ($30, www.containerstore.com).

Keep It Bright

When the curtain rods extend beyond the window frames, the curtains allow in more light and draw the eye outward. “Windows are the eyes of the room,” Gillingham-Ryan says. “When you cover them up, you make your place smaller.”

Center the Room

The bedroom was made to appear larger by replacing the active patterns in the rug and the bed linens and the overall drab color scheme with bright, upbeat items, like a striped bolster pillow by Variegated Inc. ($110, www.variegatedinc.com), a rickrack duvet cover ($300, www.variegatedinc.com), and an Ikea Ringum solid-color wool rug ($35, www.ikea.com).

Create Reflections

Wendy Kuncken lacked a prominent mirror in her bedroom. The Umbra Arbo walnut-framed mirror ($550, www.umbra.com) was hung above the dresser to reflect light from the window, making the 9-by-10-foot room feel more spacious. “Mirrors are a tried-and-true way to open up space,” says Susan Zises Green, a New York designer. “They almost always help a small room.”

Find Multitaskers

One reliable way to get the most out of your square footage is to consolidate belongings by selecting furniture that contains storage space. Here, a pair of JCPenney bookseller tables ($249 each, www.jcpenney.com) act as shelving for books and containers.

Heads Up

Any room with a low ceiling seems loftier if you hang pictures up high. “The most important thing is to draw the eye up and not down,” says author Matthew Dennison.