Make a Dark Home Brighter

Sometimes, even with the knowledge of the best design magazines on the market your rooms turn out to be pretty dark and gloomy. You tried your best in researching all sorts of colour schemes but the final result gives you the creeps. Some people like that feeling because it calms them down but others want to change things and make a certain room brighter and more happy looking. Here are the best and most simple things that you can do to improve the lighting in a certain room.

First and easiest way to brighten a room is to place portable lamps around the room. The best thing about this method is that you can set the brightness of the just the way you like it and if you want to return the old look of the room , you just remove them. There is a great variety of choices on the market and you can choose the fancy, expensive ones or something more affordable that will do the same job.

Light fixtures are another very affordable way of making the room brighter. Of course you might have one already installed, but you can change it with a different one that is bigger, has more light bulbs or is closer to the floor. Placing them lower will allow the light to fall at a more direct angle. This method is more to my liking because the light is coming from above and will not put a strain on your eyes like the portable ones. Also, they don't take up any additional space in the rooms.

Task lighting has become more and more popular. This type of lighting is ideal for rooms where you have a lot of furniture like cabinets and counters. You can add lighting there that has a separate switch from the normal light fixtures and turn them on when you need them. These lights can be also used over a piano, a desk or a sewing machine. It's also perfect for pictures that you want everyone to see clearly.

Experimenting with different light bulbs is also a very affordable and easy solution. There are tons of light bulbs on the market that can provide you with just the light you need for the room. If you're going for the more settle yellowish lighting best choose a tungsten light bulb. It provides very mild and warm light. If you need very bright, daylight look, go for the halogen or fluorescent ones.

If lights are not the problem and the room is dark during the day you might consider getting translucent curtains or blinds. They will let the light in the room quite well and of course will prevent prying neighbors from peeking through the windows.

Since we're talking about natural light, skylights have been very popular these days. They reflect sunlight quite well and brighten up the room with natural light. But their installation is not very easy and cheap. Also, they're not an option for multi-story buildings (except for people that live on the last floor of course).

For dark corners in a room you can use diffused lighting. This type of lighting doesn't create shadows and the reflected light provides a very mild glow that will not strain the eyes like the normal ones. It will make the corners bright but not too bright.

Mirrors. Sometimes you don't have where to put extra lights in the room due to the lack of sockets and then the simplest solution are mirrors. Placed correctly, they will reflect the existing light and of course make the room seem bigger and brighter.

And last but not least when you're out of other options repainting the whole room can really help. Choose bright colours like the good old white or bright yellow. Of course, if you have to change paint that's very dark (dark blue, dark green) it's best to choose a brighter equivalent of it (light blue, light green). This way you will save countless coatings of paint.

I hope you liked these ideas and if you have any other suggestions you can share them in the comment section.