Making Cramped or Cluttered Bedrooms Appear Larger - Market Ready Q. Our two children share a bedroom, and it looks cramped. What can we do to make the room appear larger? A. It's important to make your space feel as generous as possible before opening your home to potential buyers - particularly if your sleeping quarters, or those of your children, appear cramped and uncomfortable. "When you're selling your apartment, you're selling someone else's vision to them," said Fanny Montalvo, a managing director at A. C. Lawrence & Company real estate in New York. If a room is already stuffed full of furniture and other belongings, "it doesn't allow them the opportunity to imagine what they could do to it." And when you're considering the design of a child's room, remember that some buyers may have other intentions for the space. "You're looking to attract every buyer, not just someone who has children," Ms. Montalvo said. When a couple or single person is looking to buy the space, they're looking at that room as a den or guest room. One solution, she suggested, is installing a pair of Murphy beds: "When the beds are folded up, it really is a den." Murphy bed units also offer the opportunity to add built-in wardrobes, drawers and shelving, she noted, which would create more storage space for toys and clothing. A set of bunk beds is another excellent option, said Cortney Novogratz, a New York designer with seven children who is a host of the HGTV show "Home by Novogratz" with her husband, Robert. "You can put it against a wall, and have two kids sleep there," she said. What kid doesn't like bunk beds? They're a great way to go. Most bunk beds will fit in rooms with ceiling heights as low as eight feet, she said (but maybe "put the younger child on top," she added). A work surface is also a good idea. "Kids always need an area to create, but it doesn't have to be very big and it doesn't have to be very deep," she said. She recommended the Besta Burs desk from Ikea, which is less than 16 inches deep, but long enough to provide space for two children. Pair the desk with stools, she said, "because they can easily be tucked underneath, which creates more floor space." Similarly, she suggested removing any floor lamps from the room and using only desk lamps and ceiling-mounted light fixtures: "Any time you can create more room on the floor, it gives the kids not only space to wrestle and hang out, but also makes the room seem bigger." Using these strategies, she said, she and her husband were able to create a comfortable space for a client's triplets in a small bedroom in Hell's Kitchen. But the most effective intervention, she noted, is probably the least expensive: clear out clutter. "With children, we go to birthday parties and come back with all these goodie bags, and before you know it, you have so much stuff," she said. Donate toys and clothes, and give things away. Even if you just spend an afternoon making bags, you'll be surprised how much stuff your kids have accumulated.