If your room is dark, you won’t see adequately, let alone enjoy it. It would be in your best interest to ensure that the room is as bright as you want.
However, brightening a room is much easier said than done. The lighting of a room depends on many factors, including the placement of light fixtures, availability of natural light, and many more.
A significant renovation will often be the solution many people choose, but completely renovating a room is expensive and involves a lot of work. The good news is that interior designers know what to do to ensure that your room has better lighting.
The following are some of their tips:
1. Use Reflective Surfaces
Light is an exciting element in that it can reflect off surfaces and increase in volume and intensity. Therefore, if you want to have a brighter room, you should consider utilizing some reflective surfaces.
A fantastic solution in this regard would be full-length mirrors on a wall. These would reflect the maximum amount of light and make the room even brighter if there were several.
You can transform any other surface in the room and make it reflective if possible, including the furniture and doors. The windows can also be reflective, ensuring they keep the light in the room and not let it escape.
2. Change the Bulbs
If you have electrical fixtures in your room, but it still appears to be dark, then you should consider changing the bulbs inside them. It can make a tremendous difference to the brightness of the lights they produce.
One of the best options in this regard is LED lighting. Using LED lighting provides you with one of the most potent energy efficient solutions and vastly brighter light than most other types of bulbs.
You might have to spend more than you would with other types of bulbs, but the results will be fantastic. Brighter lights in a room create a different ambiance than dull ones.
3. Change the Paint
The paint of a room is one of the most significant determinants as to how bright it is. So, if your room is often dark, it may be that it is because of the dull colors within it. Therefore, you should consider a brighter coat of paint in your room. White, cream, yellow, and orange are an example of bright colors.
Painting the ceiling blue, in particular, seems to be effective at brightening up a room since it mimics the sky.
You do not have to change the paint in your room completely; you may have to pick a lighter shade. You should still have the color you want. For example, if your room is colored grey, a brighter shade of grey can turn up the brightness.
4. Add Ambient light Sources
If you want to improve the lighting in your room without going overboard, adding some light sources might do the trick. Ambient light sources will have the best results when it comes to brightening up a room.
Therefore, you should consider adding some large candles, orb lights, light strings, or other ambient lights to your room. They will not only make your room brighter, but they will provide it with charm and even a therapeutic effect.
The key in this regard is to place the lights strategically. Otherwise, your room will become too bright and cluttered, which are issues on their own.
5. Accessorize the Room
One of the most challenging jobs an interior designer has is to accessorize a room. Most interior designers will do too much, which can have the effect of dulling the room.
It is particularly so when it comes to art. Having too much art in a room will cover the bright surfaces; hence it will darken the room. You would be better off with large pieces of art that make the room brighter.
Another accessory that can help make a room brighter is what you cover the floor with, which in most cases is a rug or carpet. If you have a dark-colored rug or carpet, then you will probably have a dark room. Vice versa is also true.
The larger the bright area rug or carpet, the brighter the room. The accessories you buy from your room will make a tremendous difference to its brightness, so choose wisely.
Brightening up a room is an interior design challenge. However, wherever there is a challenge, there is also an opportunity. Therefore, you should consider where you can make changes to your room that will not cost you that much money or effort. The above examples are a great starting point, but you can do more.
6. You will need a variety of lighting in each room
The general rule of thumb for all interior lighting is that every area in your home should have a range of lighting at varied levels. Consider a kitchen with lighting above the island and task lighting below the cabinets or a living room with ceiling lighting and table lights around the perimeter.
This mixture of lighting will make the areas more useful.
7. Incorporate dimmers whenever possible
Consider the use of dimmer technology when installing your lighting. This is particularly helpful if you frequently change the overhead lighting in your kitchen or living area.
Installing dimmers has a number of benefits, including improved output, lower energy costs, cost savings, and more adaptable lighting settings. Imagine being able to brighten your kitchen while preparing supper or dim the lights for your favorite movie.
8. Be strategic with your lighting placement
Consider the room’s purpose and focal points when choosing the lighting for your rooms.
Living Room
To make the space cozier, increase the area’s indirect lighting. Near a couch or chair, place a tabletop lamp. Use wall and ceiling lights to make the space feel cozier and keep visitors from getting lost in a room with high ceilings.
Dining Room
Install lights such that the area around your dining room table is the brightest. It will draw folks in and entice them to assemble for family dinners.
Entryways
Install lighting around the entryway’s walls to make it safe to pass through. Depending on the shape, size, and style of your doorway, you may mix architectural lighting, recessed lighting, or a stylish ceiling light. Your mudroom’s lighting scheme may be more industrial in style, emphasizing the importance of illumination. However, you may employ the lighting as the design’s main focus point in your formal doorway.
9. Exposed lighting components versus recessed lighting
Recessed lighting is a type of lighting fixture whose structure is concealed so that you just get the light itself and no architectural details. For the sake of aesthetics, this is ideal for contemporary, clean-lined rooms. In homes with low ceilings, where hanging lighting fixtures can be an issue, it is also highly practical.
You should decide early on if you want recessed lighting in your house since it will influence your builder and electrician.
10. Pick your Big Lighting First
Your lighting design should start with the largest lighting components after recessed lighting.
You may wish to choose these lighting fixtures so that they go well with the room’s general style and color palette. In order to retain a clean, contemporary appearance, the lights over the island in this kitchen complement the white color scheme.
Add lighting as an accessory to your spaces to improve functionality
With the right lighting, you can undoubtedly increase the coziness and comfort of a space
- Create a reading nook in the corner of living rooms by adding a table light (along with a cozy blanket and a bookshelf if you can)
- For a bedroom, install recessed lighting above the headboard if you like to read in bed
- To make it simpler to accessorize, place task lighting in the master walk-in closet around your shoes and jewelry.
- Install architectural lighting in a gallery hall to highlight the artwork.
11. Use your Lighting for More Than Just Function
Consider some of the ways you might utilize lighting to highlight smaller, more individualized aspects of your house when developing your lighting strategy.
12. Layer your lighting
The ideal mood may be achieved by layering your lighting with several sources at various levels. You may utilize interior lighting, especially in houses, to brighten a space and give the impression that it is larger. For the best potential space savings, use recessed spotlights or low-hanging pendants to create the appearance of height.
Visit our blog on the value of interior design for more information on layered lighting. Here, we go through how accent, task, and ambient lighting may improve a home’s interior.
13. Keep things (relatively) simple
Maintaining consistency with lighting design is as vital to maintaining a consistency with color schemes and themes in interior design. Too many diverse designs, color schemes, or layouts might make visitors feel uneasy.
Darker colors exude a sense of coziness or richness, lighter colors help open up a room and make it look larger, and statement lighting or colorful accents call attention to a specific feature or object.
Whatever mood you want to convey, maintain a feeling of continuity. But it does not mean you cannot be brave!
14. Choose lighting carefully
Despite the fact that technology has greatly facilitated our lives, some products can also increase energy costs and have a detrimental effect on the environment. Thankfully, most lighting today employs LED technology, which is more energy efficient and has a less carbon footprint.
LEDs are undoubtedly the better alternatives when it comes to selecting your lights because they provide far more benefits than conventional, incandescent luminaires.
15. Choose dimmers for flexibility
You can instantly control your lighting setup by installing dimmers. You may adjust the brightness of your lights to fit your mood at any moment by increasing or decreasing their intensity.
Each sort of lighting in your plan should be able to be regulated individually for more versatility. This not only broadens your possibilities for interior design but also generates a more durable answer for both homes and companies.
16. Get a Lighting Control App
Let us assume you were watching TV on the couch and forgot to turn off the light upstairs, or you were planning on taking a trip but didn’t want the house to seem empty. Alternatively, you could wish to switch on the living room lights before you enter the house to prevent stepping into a pitch-black space. The lighting, window coverings, temperature, and other aspects of your house may all be controlled with the aid of today’s simple-to-use smartphone and tablet apps. Many applications also let you create settings, so you can set your lights to “dinner party” or “wake-up time” with the press of a button.
17. Fix Your Media Room Lighting
Spaces when watching TV require more ambient and job lighting, such as lamps, rather than overhead lighting. This aids in lowering screen glare. A table lamp can provide adequate lighting for someone who wants to read even if the room may be dim overall. This is known as good task lighting. When designing a media room, take into account the available natural light sources and install effective light-controlling window coverings to ensure that bright days will not interfere with your entertainment activities.
18. Change Your Oldest Lighting Fixture
Lighting makers have made switching out energy-guzzling fixtures and bulbs with ones that last longer and save electricity costs easier than ever. Simply check for goods with the Energy Star designation when you are at your lighting showroom. An area may rapidly become dated by old lighting fixtures. Your home’s appearance may be refreshed by swapping out outdated flush-mount lights and chandeliers with newer versions.
19. Check the Height of Your Dining Room Chandelier
What makes a dining room so stunning? Of course, a striking chandelier. Keep in mind this lighting guideline and the general rule of thumb to make your area truly shine in most cases, the bottom of a chandelier should be around 30 inches from the top of your table.