Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reveals the floor colour to avoid in small rooms

Trying to work out how to make a small room look calm and curated rather than cramped and cluttered can quickly bring on decorating fatigue, and it's all too tempting to throw in the towel. From small living rooms to narrow hallways and pokey downstairs loos, a lack of space brings many a design dilemma. 

So we asked Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen for his top tips, and the flamboyant interior designer surprised us with his response. LLB explained why a dark, shiny floor is in fact the perfect solution to a tiny living space.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's flooring tip for small spaces

'One of the big things is contrast, and when you have a very dark thing in a very light context, it will make that light thing feel bigger and further away,' Laurence begins. 'A dark, shiny floor in a small room would maximise the amount of daylight you've got in there. 

'A pale, shiny floor won't do anything like that,' he asserts. Whether you choose polished concrete flooring or some shiny black engineered wood flooring ideas or parquet, dark polished floors will enhance the sense of space.

As well as avoiding pale, matte living room flooring ideas, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen says we need a 'tough love' approach when decorating a small room. 'You've got to be much more adventurous with a small room, you've got to be much more emphatic, you've got to take more risks,' he enthuses.

If you're feeling a renewed motivation to decorate those tricky spaces in your home but can't change the flooring, you could consider having one dark, shiny item of furniture. Above all, it's essential to have things on display: 'Don't get bullied into this idea that if you use pale colours and put nothing in it, you'll get something that feels bigger.

'It's going to be a small, empty room, it's as simple as that.' Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen spoke to us ahead of the publication of his new book, More More More: Making Maximalism Work in Your Home and Life, which is available now.

More More More: Making Maximalism Work in Your Home and Life | £18.40 at Amazon

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More More More by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is published by DK, 15th September 2022 £20.00.