How to Brighten a Dark Room: Our Favorite Tips and Tricks

 

How to Brighten a Dark Room: Our Favorite Tips and Tricks

Brighten a Dark Room Interior Designs

Dark rooms are often the bane of a homeowner’s existence. Lightening up a dark and dreary room takes more work than those rooms flooded with light. Luckily, you don’t need to pull out a sledgehammer or call a handyman to brighten up the dark places in your home. Forget about making structural changes and listen up.

Whether you are an apartment dweller with minimal windows or a homeowner with a dull living space, you can correct the issue without any major renovations. Here are our interior design experts’ tried-and-true tricks for making your dark room look lighter, brighter, and a lot less heavy.

Your Go-To Guide to Lighting Up a Dark Room:

 

Opt for Light Wood Flooring

Crowd your dark room with heavy flooring, and you can make everything in the space feel limited. Instead, swap your current flooring out with a light wood. Light wood flooring with light stains will open the space up and bounce off any natural light the room affords. It is also great for masking scratches and any other blemishes.

Brighten Dark Room Interior Design

Hang a Few Mirrors

Mirrors are perhaps the oldest trick in the interior design book for brightening a dark space. Try the mirror hack in your dark room, and you will immediately notice a difference. This design trick can even double the amount of light, whether it is natural or artificial. Our interior designers suggest hanging a mirror directly across from a window or displaying a variety of smaller mirrors throughout the room.

Take Away Heavy Fabrics

Don’t weigh down the design of your space with heavy fabrics. Instead, opt for lightweight materials. Our team of interior experts recommends getting rid of dark curtains and other darker fabrics. These choices absorb light and can make your space feel like a dungeon. Choose translucent and lightweight materials instead and watch as the light floods into your room.

Paint Your Ceiling Bright White

Don’t crowd your space with colors on your ceiling, instead keep things bright white. Bright white ceiling paint is one of the best ways to bright light into a room without any major optical illusions. You can even experiment with a high-gloss finish for an unexpected twist that reflects even more light than other paint finishes.

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Add Metallic

Another tip for brightening your room is adding gold, silver, and brass fixtures and accessories. These choices reflect light and can transform any dark and dreary space. A few options our designers lean towards are decorative objects with metallic finishes. You can even add a sizeable metallic light fixture for an ultra-luxurious touch.

Perpendicularly Hang Shelving Next to Windows

Another tip not many homeowners know is hanging bookshelves and open shelving perpendicularly to windows. By placing them perpendicular rather than parallel, you let the light flow through the space without any obstructions. It also draws your eye towards the natural light, which is an added plus for any interior design.

Strategically Place Light Fixtures

Speaking of light fixtures, you should also consider where you place them in the space. Our experienced interior designers believe that indirect lighting that aims upward can better flood the area with light. It can also make up for the lack of any natural light for those rooms lacking windows.

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Pick Light Paint Colors

Your dark room isn’t the space for experimenting with a dark color palette. A good rule of them to keep in mind is keeping it light, bright, and white in rooms with limited natural light. These light paint colors will reflect any and all light in the room. However, if you want to try something a little different, keep the color scheme in the light color regions rather than the dark.

Whichever brighten tricks you choose, pick those that speak to you the most. You can use these tips as guidelines for lightening your space as needed. For additional help styling the dark rooms in your home, contact the interior design at Miya Interiors.

Miya Interiors

Miya Interiors is the leading Utah-based firm specializing in full-scale commercial and residential interior design. Over the years, we have successfully collaborated with some of the most talented architects and builders to produce the highest quality custom design. Our specialty is designing a space where you’ll feel happiest and at peace, that’s both practical and uniquely beautiful, and that tells the story of who you are.