tips to brighten up a dark room

Genius ways to brighten a dark room

dining room brightened with sliding glass doors

dark living room brightened with a french door and colorful area rug

If yous take a room in your house that doesn't have any windows, or the windows it has don't bring in a lot of light, and then yous know how hard it can be to make a dark room experience bright, warm and inviting. Luckily, there are plenty of means you lot can brighten a night room with a few pattern ideas and tricks.

tips to brighten up a dark room

Virtually homes accept a few dark corners, whether that is the basement, bathroom, or even the living room.

Information technology can be caused by due north-facing windows that don't go equally much sun, or sometimes by depression ceilings that affect how bright a room looks.

Exterior, overhangs such as a deck or awnings can touch the low-cal coming in through the windows. Even trees in a thou can block the sun's beams from reaching inside the home.

Or maybe you have a room with no windows at all (like my mother's living room).

Regardless of the issue, there are plenty of design ideas that either bring more low-cal into the home or mimic its reflective qualities.

Keep on reading to learn how to brighten a dark room, no matter the size or severity of the lighting problem.

ane | Add unlike types of lighting

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Dining room buffet with wall sconces above it and candles on it

The offset footstep to brightening a dark room is to focus on the lighting.

It may seem obvious, merely about people don't add enough calorie-free sources to their dark room so wonder why it isn't bright enough.

While overhead lights do their job to illuminate a room, adding other calorie-free sources can make a huge difference in a infinite..

Ideally, you want to have at least 3 sources of low-cal in addition to whatever natural light.

To ensure the whole room is lit properly, these should be set upward in a triangular pattern, rather than all in ane line.

Hither are some options to consider:

  • Table and flooring lamps: Lamps are the most versatile lighting source since they can be moved where you need them. They also provide eye-level lighting that is the most flattering since it reduces facial shadows that can make people look older.
  • Perimeter lighting: Adding low-cal sources effectually a room's perimeter will aid ensure that the walls and corners are lit and so they don't appear as shadowy dark areas.
  • Overhead lighting: Switching out your electric current overhead lights can not but make the lighting meliorate simply tin can make the design more stylish too. Aim for semi-flush, pendants, or chandeliers that hang further from the ceiling, allowing low-cal to move in all directions instead of just downwardly.
  • Hidden lighting: Lite sources that are hidden between beams, under cabinets, or in bookshelves can be an unexpected way to burnish a space. Employ these to highlight features in the room, all while calculation more light.
  • Candles: Even burning a few candles throughout the room tin can add to the room's lighting., and they definitely create some ambiance.

2 | Better the light quality

a shiny lamp base with a white shade on a desk, perfect to brighten a dark room.

Across adding new lighting to an area, await at what is already in that location and see if in that location's room for comeback.

For instance, accept a look at the wattage of the bulb. If the lighting fixture can handle a higher wattage, get ahead and bandy out the current bulb for a new ane.

Also, look at what types of bulbs you are using.

Some rooms await good with cool white low-cal but warm lite works all-time in a dark room. It volition prevent the space from feeling cold and harsh.

For lampshades or covers, avoid amber or yellowish shades. Information technology affects the quality of light and won't diffuse likewise every bit pure white, frosted, or clear drinking glass.

Finally, consider moving the position of the lamps in your room. Remember, you want to create a triangle with your sources of light. If the overhead fixture is adjustable, y'all can also play around with angling it to light up a room.

3 | Hang mirrors

an intricate white mantle in front of a purple wall, with a large mirror sitting on top.

If you don't have a window, mirrors are the next best thing.

They replicate having an extra window, working to reflect all natural and artificial light in the space.

Not but do they reflect lite, just they too help to make a room appear larger, creating the illusion of more space.

To double the light reflection of an existing window, hang a big mirror straight across from it. Or at a 90 caste angle to it if the window is shut to a corner. Y'all tin can also practise this with doorways to reflect whatever ambient calorie-free they provide.

4 | Swap out your doors

Sliding french glass providing more light to a dining room

If your room has interior doors in information technology, consider swapping them for a door that has windows.

French doors permit more than low-cal to pass in from neighboring rooms.

Better withal, if your room has a door to the outside, brand certain it has some windows, too.

v| Add transom or internal windows

An internal window to a living room that has no outside windows

Transoms and internal windows are an underused design feature in homes.

And while they are more of an involved project than nigh of these tips, they tin can exist an splendid mode to become light from adjacent rooms into spaces without natural lite.

Without this internal window in her living room, my mother's infinite would be really dark since it has no exterior windows at all. Withal, the kitchen in the side by side room over has light to spare so this solution worked out actually well for this room.

Living rooms, hallway entrances, kitchens, bedrooms and even bathrooms can benefit from a transom or internal window. If placed loftier enough, it won't touch on your privacy.

6 | Pick high gloss finishes

A light reflecting glass topped coffee table with a tray filled with vases on top.

Even your décor can help to light upwardly a room.

Only like mirrors, any blazon of shiny or coated decor can help to keep a space nice and vivid. As if I needed an excuse to add a little fleck of bling! Anything bling-similar tends to reflect the light of the room, while solid surfaces absorb rather than reflect light.

Recollect of glass, shiny metal and anything with a glossy end. Glass tabletops for java tables, metal paintings, coated vases on bookshelves, and crystal bowls are all some great examples.

If you lot want to get all out, you can even paint your walls with a loftier gloss finish.

7 | Limit the amount of article of furniture

A blue and white living room with a sofa and two chairs that do not block the light from the window

Your furniture choices can as well make a large impact on the overall brightness of a room'due south appearance.

First of all, call up that less is more when it comes to brightening a night room. A crowded room will automatically look darker and smaller.

And the furniture itself absorbs and blocks light, creating dark shadows in a room. So try not to have too many tall dark pieces, especially shut to windows where they absorb the calorie-free before it fifty-fifty enters the room.

Drinking glass-topped tables and other articulate furniture pieces work well in these spaces since they allow the light pass right through.

A room that lets the calorie-free circulate through it will experience brighter.

8 | Cover nighttime floors with expanse rugs

A small and dark living room with a large area rug brightening up the floor

Flooring is a more difficult thing to change in a home compared to pigment colour or article of furniture. Which is why area rugs are a skillful idea.

A large rug helps to make sure the room is light and bright from top to bottom, especially if you have night hardwood floors or vinyl.

The rug also makes the room feel cozier and adds texture.

9 | Use the right paint colour

The right paint choice tin can make or interruption whatsoever room, just it is especially of import when you're dealing with a dark ane.

By definition, lighter colors reflect more calorie-free.

Which ways if you lot have some calorie-free to reflect, your room volition look brighter. And so if you've practical our tips and increased the overall light level in your room (specially natural light), a calorie-free paint color may work quite well.

Even so if your room still doesn't have much lite bachelor to be reflected, those low-cal and airy pastels tin cease up looking drab and dull.

In that case, opt for brighter colors that will bring life to the space. They will fill the room with energy and you won't observe how dark it is.

Getting small exam cans of paint and putting up large swatches on the wall is the all-time way to know for sure what works best for your room.

10 | Install a skylight

Attic bedroom with a large skylight

Okay, I know this is a pretty big project and not every budget tin can accommodate it.

Just if you accept a dark room with a roof immediately to a higher place information technology, installing a skylight is a great style to allow in a lot of natural calorie-free. Which can instantly transform a dark room into a bright and blusterous one.

There are even bogus skylights (and windows) coming out now that merits to mimic the look of sunlight without requiring a roof opening. Still, when I looked up the price of them, they were a lot more a real skylight would exist. But if you're curious, yous can read about them Hither.

xi | Take advantage of natural calorie-free

Hallway with french doors providing natural light

Of course, if your room does happen to have some windows, you'll want to make certain you're maximizing the corporeality of natural lite that comes in through them.

Remove outdoor elements that are blocking the windows

First, take a look at what is on the other side of the window.

Then, trim back any tree branches, bushes, or other landscaping features that cake light.

If you take awnings, you might want to consider removing them. Or getting the retractable kind then they're only blocking the low-cal when you lot're outside.

You'll be amazed at how much of a difference this makes!

Keep the windows clean

Next, requite your windows a deep clean.

Nosotros ofttimes forget to wash them regularly, but stained or dirty windows exercise limit visibility and low-cal.

Make clean both sides to get the total effect.

Fix your defunction

Lastly, change out any curtains that are blocking the light coming in.

Or hang them high enough and wide enough that when they're open up the whole window is exposed.

Also, move whatever furniture that blocks light or makes it more difficult to open the curtain. The more than accessible the lighting is, the better.

While it may not be for anybody, you could avert having any window treatments at all. Even open up blinds still block lite. Instead, having open windows volition allow every bit much natural low-cal in as possible.

Well, that's information technology for our ways to brand a night room wait brighter. Hopefully, yous've found a few that will burnish upwards your dark space.

Other decorating tips you might like

  • How to decorate with mirrors
  • Interior decorating principles you'll actually want to follow
  • Common living room layout mistakes (and how to fix them)
  • Infinite saving design ideas for small bedrooms

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Genius ways to brighten a dark room