We all have that room in our house that we walk past wishing, hoping and praying for it to magically become that little bit lighter and brighter. Of course, we do this in vain. But that doesn’t stop us from doing it on a bi-daily occurrence. Everything about this room ticks the right boxes – space, size, view, everything – but it falls six-miles short when it comes to the lack of natural light.
That’s where these tips step in. You see, just because you have a depressingly dark room doesn’t mean you have to live in it. Nor do you have to undergo any expensive renovations to install Velux windows or bi-fold doors. Yup, you’ll have a sunnier room quicker than you can say “winter is coming.”
Mirror-Mirror On The Wall –
The easiest way to double the amount of sunlight that floods into your room are to hang mirrors on the walls. The bigger they are, and the more there are, the more they will bounce the sunlight around your once gloomy room. Of course, positioning is all important. It is also very easy to get right too. Simply hang a gigantic, gilded mirror – or loads of little delicate mirrors – on the wall opposite the window and, voila, you’ll have your room back. That glorious room you’ve pined after for so long.
Bring Colour Into Your Life –
Getting this bit right can be a touch tricky, but not impossible by any means. The first bit of advice you need to cling onto is the fact a color in a light room looks totally different in a dark one. That means you will really want to avoid using cool colors. Instead, run this town with warmth and pale shades. This is relevant to paints and fabrics, so keep it in mind when you are next curtain shopping for Blendworth fabric at onlinecurtainfabrics.com or looking at which Dulux paint to go with. That’s step one. Step two is knowing the room you are trying to brighten and choosing a color based on its primary use. For example, a living room would benefit most from something like a gold or a honey or a pale yellow. Your kitchen, however, that’s really going to glow if you use warm greeny color or a turquoise. As for the bedrooms and hallways, they’re all about the peach and apricots.
Gardens Know All The Dirt –
It can be way too easy – and we mean way too easy – to focus all your efforts on brightening up the interior of your home from the inside of your home. You can paint the walls you want, put up a hundred mirrors and give the inside of your windows and window seat a lick of white to make them more reflective, but if the light can’t reach your room then it will all be pointless. That is why you need to step outside with a hedge trimmer or pair of secateurs and trim any trees or bushes that may be blocking your windows. This is going to be an ongoing task by the way. Not every day or every week, but it could be worth assessing the regrowth every month or so.
Life Without Art Is Stupid –
Whoever said that phrase was an absolute genius. Life without art is stupid, and so is a home without art. However, it could be your big piece of gorgeous art that is sucking up all the light in your room like a dementor. We’re not saying you have to choose between art and Vitamin D, we’re just saying you should consider what art you have where. Light pieces of art are absolutely fine to hang in dark rooms. Big, dark portraits, however, should be hung in those rooms that aren’t short of a sunbeam or two. This is because art has a way of absorbing sunlight rather than reflecting it which, as you can probably tell by your subconscious nodding, is not what you want.
Don’t Deny The Obvious Things –
Sometimes the most obvious things in life are the ones that get overlooked and ignored. So when you next walk into that dark room of yours, make sure you pull your common sense cap firmly onto your head. First on our list is the small matter of your dirty windows. To put it as bluntly as we possibly can, you need to clean them. It’s logical; the less dirt and dust and everyday splatter you have covering your windows the more light there will be. The next thing to consider which, admittedly isn’t as obvious, is what type of paint you decide to roll onto your walls. Matte is better than gloss. This is because glossy walls create glare, which is very different to reflecting light. That’s why matte is the far better option.
Love,
*This is a collaborative post