Have you ever walked into a room and instantly felt your mood shift? Did you happen to notice if the room was decorated in darker colors or lacked natural light? Chances are if you’ve ever ambled into a room only to want to leave immediately, the room was lacking brightness and warmth. There’s nothing worse than feeling like your home is a dark and dreary place, and it can negatively impact your mental health to live in such a place. Prolonged exposure to dark colors and environments can affect our moods and even cause worsening depression.
You wonder how you can create a brighter home without installing new windows or knocking down a few walls. That’s where we come in. Below, we have several of the best tried and true tips to help you create a brighter home that won’t require a hard hat.
Ways to Create a Brighter Home
Your home will appear brighter, warmer, more welcoming, and bigger if you employ the following tips:
1. Clean Your Windows
Dust, pollen, dirt, grime, and air pollution can accumulate on your windows, inside and outside. Deep clean both sides of your windows to help let as much natural light in as possible. Even if the space only has one window, deep cleaning will instantly make it brighter. We suggest making a solution that’s a one-to-three-part mix of water and distilled white vinegar. This solution can be used on the glass and window frames.
2. Utilize Mirrors
Place mirrors on walls opposite light sources, whether natural or artificial. Doing so will cause the light to bounce off the mirror and spread out within the room. You can take it up a notch and invest in some furniture with mirrored surfaces as well.
3. Rearrange Your Furniture
Make sure that your furniture isn’t obstructing your natural light source. You also want to arrange your furniture so the room looks bigger and doesn’t feel overpowered by objects. One dark living room idea is to invest in new furniture (or furniture coverings) that are white, off-white, beige, etc. Lighter, natural colors make a space look larger. This is especially helpful if your room has dark wood floors or carpeting.
4. Invest in Some Natural Light Substitutes
We understand that utilizing natural light isn’t possible in every room, and that’s where natural light substitutes come in handy. You can strategically place more lamps around your room and invest in new lightbulbs too. Most lightbulbs you purchase off the shelf have a color temperature of 2700K, which puts off a warm (read: orange) glow. Natural daylight is rated at 5000K. A good in-between is 3500K. You can play around with different color temperatures and watts until you find what feels best to you.
5. Paint Your Walls
Refresh the paint on your walls and opt for a light glossy color. Remember, lighter colors make spaces appear to be larger and naturally brighter. Opting for a glossy finish helps refract more light around the room, resulting in a brighter home. When planning what paint to choose, the best colors to brighten a living room will be on the neutral palate: light grey, off-white, linen, beige, dusty rose, etc.
6. Add Plant Life
Nothing brightens and freshens up a space better than plants and flowers. Not only will your home look more vibrant and full of life, but it will also smell amazing and your indoor air will be cleaner, too! Plants and flowers are a great way to make a room with very little natural light appear brighter too.
7. Cut Back on Clutter
Keeping your home tidy and clean is another great way to brighten it up and make any space seem bigger. The fewer objects a room has, the airier it will look and feel.
Having the brighter home of your dreams is totally possible – and easy – to achieve by employing these simple tricks. To learn more about home design, the importance of the paint colors, and more, contact a member of our expert team today!
