9 Tips to Brighten a Dark Room

A perfect home doesn’t exist.

There are always parts of your new home missing something or could be better, which comes to a dark room most of the time. Either caused by lack of windows or weird lighting fixture locations, all of the fix to a dark room involve significant renovations.

But, our interior designers have a few little neat tricks you can try to add light through design details without doing massive house project.

Creative Ways to Brighten a Dark Room

Identify Dark Rooms in your Home and What Caused It
Add Neutral and White Colors in your Design
Brighten Up your Ceiling
Over Hanged Light could do the Trick
Nix the Heavy Curtains
A Colorful Rug Helps a Lot
Arts and Paintings with Bright Colors
Hang Mirrors Around the Place
Get Some Plants

Identify Dark Rooms in your Home and What Caused it

This first step sounds very cliché, but it is essential to find which part of the house is dark and its cause. In these steps, you have to be very critical as it is likely that you are accustomed to those dark areas. We recommend including your friends or family as they might help you spot unlikely dark spots in your dream home.

After identifying the dark areas in your home, try to hypothesize on the cause of the problems. The common cause of dark rooms is lack of decoration, poor lighting fixture location, and windows or doors.

Add Neutral and White Colors in your Design

Master Bedroom 01 (Podomoro - The Apartment in White)

Remember, back in junior high science class; you learn that bright colors reflect light while dark colors absorb lights. So naturally, avoid a dark and moody colour palette. We recommend adding bright colour to your home by repainting or adding light-colored decoration and furniture throughout your home.

Brighten Up your Ceiling

For many homes, dark ceilings are a common implementation practice. While the dark ceiling creates a dramatic and moody atmosphere, it makes your room feels like being inside an ancient cave. Additionally, the dark ceiling also absorbs lights, further darken the room.

There are a few interior decorating techniques that you could use to improve the ceiling situation. The simplest way is to paint the ceiling with bright colors, or you could opt for fancier options by using fancy paint detail or high-gloss ceilings.

Overhang Lights could be your Solution

If only a tiny part of your home is dark, consider using overhang lamps such as pendant lights to brighten up the area. With the wide variety and option of lamp designs, you can mix and match your home’s design and style.

In the case, the dark zone is in the middle of your home; a crystal chandelier is your perfect candidate. The chandelier’s crystal will help reflect other light sources such as lamps and sunlight to the room.

Ditch the Heavy Curtains

Sometimes, the answer is that simple, and it lies in your window shades. You might be using blackout blinds or shades that block sunlight entirely. Instead of getting rid of the dark curtains, you could install additional blinds with more translucent properties that you could switch during the day.

Having two different shade allow you to switch them up when you need them, translucent shade during the day and blackout blinds before you head to bed.

A Colorful Rug Helps a Lot

Bring light into your home with a superb and colorful carpet. A large carpet is not just a solution but also injects personality and style into the room you want to improve. Don’t forget that the carpet must be comfortable to your feet.

Arts and Paintings with Bright Colors

Love art or paintings; then you can indulge yourself and brighten your room at the same time. If your home is short on light, ditch the dark artworks as they absorb the sunlight in your space. Make sure all of your paintings are bright and cheerful so the painting could reflect any light source.

Hang Mirrors Around your Home

One of the commonly used interior designer methods to add light and space to a room is to add a mirror. A strategically placed mirror allow beams of natural sunlight to reflect off the mirror back into the room. It even works on artificial lights such as lamps and overhang lightings.

The addition of a strategically placed mirror allows people to perceive the room as bigger and open.

Get a Few Plants

If you’re not the artsy type of person, there is another way to make a room feel brighter by adding plants into your home decor. The plants add life to your home space, and the bright green leaves light up the entire room.

It is a bit of a hassle compared to painting, but it makes your living space felt much more alive and bright. Only adopt plants that match the location you’ve prepared for them; i.e., don’t get plants that require a lot of sunlight in a dimly lit place. Also, make sure you provide them with proper care and nutrients to grow big and healthy. Who knows, you will be a house plant expert in the future.