1. Paint one wall a color and the others a different shade of the same color, and you’ll trick the eye into believing the space is larger, says Melissa Birdsong, director of trend, design, and brand at Lowe’s.
2. Natural colors—chocolate, reddish brown, deep green, warm gray—absorb artificial light and give a room depth, says John Bruce, an interior designer on TLC’s While You Were Out.
3. Select two adjacent colors from a color swatch and paint in 12-inch alternating vertical strips. Like a short guy in a striped shirt, the room will appear taller.
4. Paint the ceiling the same color as the walls and you’ll achieve an infinity effect, says Bruce.
5. If ceilings are lower than 10 feet, overhead lights are claustrophobic. Place several small lights around the room and wash one wall with light to create a sense of space, says celebrity designer Stephen Saint-Onge.
6. The eye perceives more room when there’s less visual pollution. Control clutter, keep artwork simple, and leave space on your shelves. Perhaps it’s time to retire the bowling trophy you won in 10th grade.
Upgrade Your Living Room
137 WAYS YOUR HOME CAN MAKE YOU A BETTER MAN
From the editors of Men’s Health Living
Keep dust off the set
Gently wipe down your television set with a clean dryer sheet to banish dust. The antistatic properties of the sheet prevent the static cling that attracts dust in the first place.
Improve your picture instantly
Ambient natural light washes out a TV’s picture. Cellular shades, like the Levolor Evening Star Blackout, can block out 99 percent of sunlight while insulating the room. 24”x24”, $100. levolor.com
Cut the cords
It’s difficult to hang a plasma television without its cabled guts spilling down the wall. Samsung’s 94 Series Wireless 1080p plasma uses Wi-Fi to receive audio/video connections, leaving only the 50-inch set’s power cord to contend with. $3,600. samsung.com
Cut corners confidently
HDMI cables are digital, so either they work or they don’t—there’s no fuzzy-picture middle ground. Save yourself a small fortune and buy online; that’s how we picked up the XtremeMac HDMI cable from the Apple Store. $20. apple.com
Declare a no-eating zone
University of Massachusetts scientists found that people who watch TV during a meal consume, on average, 288 more calories than those who don’t chew while changing channels.
Revive your floorboards
Erase pockmarks in your floor in three easy steps: (1) Poke all over the indentation with a safety pin a dozen times. (2) Wet with a few beads of water, which bloats the wood into shape. (3) Cover with a damp rag and run a hot iron over the dinged spot to lock the fix in place.
Clean spills quicker
If you’ve spilled wine on the carpet, cover it with shaving cream, let it set for a few minutes, then sponge off with cold water.
