Add natural light to a room

Design Ideas By Room

Bedroom

By: Decorated Life Team | June 25, 2020

If you’re a fan of the light and airy design style, living in a home that is lacking in natural light can be a drag.

Even if most of your house has good light, getting natural light into a dark room is tough to do, too, which may result in that room never getting used.

You can always install windows throughout your home to try to increase natural light, but that’s expensive and there are much more simple ways to do it, even if it’s just creating the illusion of more natural light.  

Use Mirrors 

You can amplify light using mirrors in a room to help spread out whatever natural light is able to creep in on its own.

Additionally, you can strategically place mirrors in a hallway to reflect light into a dark room off the side of it. Mirrors can do wonders when it comes to brightening up a space, you just have to know how to use them. 

Pick a Door with a Window

If you’re looking for a way to get natural light into a room without windows, consider swapping out your existing door to one with a window (or installing a storm door if it’s your foyer that needs some light). 

For instance, if your laundry room is dark and dreary, hang a door with a frosted window and it will suddenly brighten up thanks to the light from outside of it. 

Consider Light Greys

Filling your home with light greys is a great way to give the illusion of more light, and are especially great for people who prefer cooler tones or aren’t fans of the all-white look.  

Just be sure to stick to the light greys because if you go too dark it will give you the opposite effect of what you’re looking for. 

Strategically Angle Your Furniture

Short of adding a window, it’s hard to get light into a dark room, so it’s better to play with the light you do have instead.

You can do this by angling your furniture towards the light so that it reflects off of it and fills the room up a little more. This is especially helpful if your furniture is light in color. 

Lean Towards Light Browns

Whether its floors, trim, or furniture, if you’re opting for wood, try to go light and warm rather than something dark like espresso.

Obviously the darker the furniture the darker the room, which will only make your problem worse. 

Add A Light Rug

You may not be able to forcefully get more sunlight in a room, but you can brighten it up with a lightly colored area rug. This is especially helpful if you have darker floors that aren’t helping the light situation. 

While you’re at it, make sure the ceiling of the room is white, too. Between the rug and the ceiling, the room will look taller which will help it look a little less dark. 

Skip The Blinds

Having windows without any treatments isn’t always an option for people, but if you are able to go without blinds in your dark room, do it!

The open window will allow even more light to come in and fill the room that much more.

Don’t Rely On Overhead Lighting

In addition to trying to amplify whatever natural light you can get, you also want to come up with some strategic lighting solutions for dark rooms.

Don’t rely solely on general overhead lighting (like a central light fixture or your ceiling fan light), add in some floor and table lamps to reflect light off the walls to brighten the space up. 

Make it Your Focal Point

No matter how little natural light you have in a room, you want to play it up as much as possible by making it a focal point. Drawing attention to the light will make it seem more substantial. 

Also, if you’d like to add in an accent or gallery wall, make sure it is opposite from your source of natural light, because the clutter can quickly darken a room.

Opt for Light Furniture

Selecting light furniture is a sneaky way to bring more light into a room because you’re creating the illusion of brightness with the lighter fabrics and finishes by letting the natural light bounce off of it.

It keeps things airy and open in a room that would otherwise feel claustrophobic. 

Invest in Recessed Lighting

If you don’t have a ton of floor space for lamps, you can brighten a dark room with overhead lighting, as long as it’s recessed. Recessed lighting is typically installed across a room, which means there are several lightbulbs to brighten things up, rather than one central location. 

Adding in recessed lighting is definitely an investment, so if that’s not possible and you’re still limited on floor space, try to get several small table lamps into the room.  

Think About Your Window Trim

Is your window trim dark or non-existent? Either way, opt for a wide white trim instead.

Doing this will create the illusion of a larger window and you’ll be surprised by how much brighter the room seems with this small project. 

Pick the Right Accent Colors

Your space doesn’t have to be all light greys, whites, and beiges, you can add a few colorful touches here and there, just be mindful about which colors you choose. 

As a general rule, you can do any color you like as long as it’s the pastel version of it. If pastels aren’t your thing and you want something bold, consider yellow or bright green. 

Keep Light Fixtures Minimalist 

This may sound counterintuitive, but in order to play up the light in a room, you want a low-key light fixture. It should still give off a good bit of light, but you don’t want the fixture itself to be the room’s focal point because that will take away from the light it’s giving off.  

So, steer clear of chandeliers and low hanging pendants and lean more towards flush and semi-flush mounts. 

Limit Colors To Accents

If the idea of having no colors, or only pastel colors, is driving you crazy, then definitely put some color into the room, because there is no point in putting all this effort into brightening it up if you’re just going to hate it and never use it.

However, when you do it, try to stick to accents pieces like throw pillows, picture frames, art, and other accents. This will keep your larger furniture bright to help lighten the room, but still give you that splash of color you crave. 

Lighten Your Lampshades

There is a time and a place for fun lampshades with colors and designs, but a dark room is not one of them. 

You want to make sure your lampshades are white (or as close to white as possible) so that the light is able to come through them. Also, the shade itself will give the illusion of more light (much like window trim).  

Create an Illusion 

Another way to make a dark room brighter? Create the illusion of windows where there aren’t any at all.

This picture is a great example of this method. The room only has one small window in the center of the wall, so they spread out white curtains from corner to corner to make it appear as though the whole wall is lined with windows. 

Minimize Decor

If you want a space to feel claustrophobic, then fill it up with clutter. Add the absence of natural light and you have yourself a very unwelcoming room. 

You can lighten up a dark room by simply minimizing the amount of decor you have. Keep walls a little more bare and limit the amount of accent furniture you have to only the essentials. By creating space, you’re giving the room a larger (and brighter) appearance. 

Opt for White Curtains

Just like white lampshades are the best for floor and table lamps, white curtains are the best for windows because they reflect the light and can even make windows seem larger if they’re hung correctly.  

If possible, hang your curtains higher than the top of your windows, and have them stick out further on each side (but still covering wall space directly to either side of the window) because it will make the windows appear taller and wider. 

Keep the Walls Light

As with the furniture, floors, ceilings, and basically everything else in the room, you want to keep the walls as light as possible, too.

While a rich navy blue wall is gorgeous in a room with a lot of natural light, it will make you feel like you’re in a cave if it’s in a dark room. The lighter the walls, the better! 

Conclusion

Getting more natural light into a dark room isn’t exactly easy (without some major construction, at least), but it’s doable with some strategic design and decor skills. 

The biggest thing to remember is to create light through bright and airy colors in the room because otherwise, no matter how many mirrors you angle or floor lamps you put in there, that room will continue to look dark.  

How to make a room brighter: photos and tips on how to make a dark room with a small window lighter and more spacious

Simple tricks to multiply the amount of incoming light and even make a dark room with windows to the north more spacious and lighter

In a typical high-rise building, an extra window is not " cut through”, there is no way to add natural light. Therefore, techniques of visual correction of space come to the rescue. Here's how to make a dark room bright and effectively multiply the sunlight.

VVDesign

1. Lighten up the background
If the room is gloomy, there is no point in aggravating the situation by using dark tones in interior design that absorb natural light. The correct decoration of the walls, ceiling and floor will help to make a dark room lighter.

Architectural studio Astar project

Shades do not have to be snow-white: just choose any light option. Imagine that the built-in wardrobe in the photo was made of dark wood.

DSGN HUB

Important : be sure to make a light wall opposite the window. And do not try to hang dark pictures on it or move a dark rack to it - immediately ruin the main idea.

———————————————
IN YOUR CITY…
► Houzz can hire a designer or architect in any city or country. Start looking for a specialist
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Victoria Glaz

2. Use sunny shades
White walls certainly create a wonderful atmosphere on sunny days. But not in our latitudes, where half the days of the year you won’t even see the sun. If you do not want to enjoy the atmosphere of the gray sky in your own bedroom, choose the whole range of yellow and close tones for decoration. In a similar way, you can make a room lighter with wallpaper or paint - and then even on the dullest day it will seem to you that the sun has visited you.

Urazmetov Rustem

In the photo: the interior of this Moscow apartment is made in the colors of Mondrian's paintings, while the bedroom got yellow for a reason - it fills the owners with energy and optimism, even if the weather is cloudy outside the window

ECO CEILING INC

3. Let everything will be glossy - even the ceiling
A stretch ceiling will not fit into every interior, but it is guaranteed to bring the room, as in the photo, out of the status of a gloomy lair. By the way, to make the space of the room brighter, you can use paint with a metallic effect or foil hanging structures - the effect is comparable!

Well Done Interiors Olimpiada Arefieva

The same applies to semi-mirror and glossy furniture surfaces that distribute and multiply light. If possible, use as much gloss as possible in the setting - this will make the room more spacious and lighter.

Alexandra Tkacheva

4. Hang a mirror on the wall… of any room
Use the ancient mirror trick. The best solution is to hang it directly on the wall opposite the window. This will not only make the room much brighter, but also visually enlarge the space.

TS Design | Taras Bezrukov and Stas Samkovich

Ideally, when the mirror is placed opposite the window, it multiplies the amount of light.

5. Make the walls transparent…
Did you get an open-plan apartment? Do not risk losing the last rays of the sun behind a deaf interior partition.

BY TOPIC…
I wish I could: Showcase dressing room

Yuliya Telnova

To preserve light in the interior of a dark room, we strongly recommend glass blocks and frosted glass instead of solid partitions.

REMONSTROOM

6. Dissolve furniture
Plastic tables and chairs, glass tops - transparent structures visually disappear, allowing light to freely pass through them.

Anne Chemineau - Decor Interieur

7. Get rid of dark furnishings
In general, there should not be dark and massive objects in the room: they prevent the penetration and distribution of light. Choose a bed, sofa or wardrobe in light colors. This does not mean that the room should look like a surgical department: build the interior on the nuances of warm pastel shades. In this case, inclusions of any bright colors are quite acceptable.

Bjurfors Göteborg

8. Remove curtains
If the window is small, it is better to do without any curtains. If you live on the first floor or your windows are well visible from neighboring apartments, choose a light organza. Through it, the light will be pleasantly scattered around the room. Let the fabric flow from the ceiling to the floor (this will create the visual illusion of a larger window), and hang the curtain rod as high as possible.

Roman Spiridonov

9. Let sunbeams into the room
Sparkling chandeliers, crystal vases, thread curtain with decorative beads - a well-known recipe for brightening up a room and making it sparkle and shimmer in the sun.

MAKEdesign

10. Clean your windows
Cleaning windows is hardly anyone's favorite activity. However, if you have not touched the glass and the frame for a long time, conduct an experiment - wash the windows clean. We promise: it will make the room at least a little, but brighter.

This is archival material. First published in 2015, updated in 2021

what to do if there is little light in the room - INMYROOM

Tips

The owners of bright rooms are real lucky ones. However, spaces with little natural light can also be made cozy. All about the features of the design of dark rooms - in this material

The owners of spacious bright rooms are real lucky ones. They can experiment with the interior to their heart's content. But what if the room is dark? Today we will look at several ways to lighten rooms.

Technique #1: Choosing the right color

At first glance, many people think that white and pastel colors make a room brighter. And this is undoubtedly true, but not in the case of the interior of dark rooms: on the contrary, they become gray and dull.

White makes a dark room feel cold and damp, so be careful with it. Painting a dark room in light colors will accentuate the existing shadows in the space. And for them to really play, you need a sufficient amount of natural sunlight.

This is why home theatres, walk-in closets, washrooms and other areas with little natural light tend to be painted some deep saturated color.

Usually these rooms do not have windows, and you always have to turn on the artificial light when you enter them.

Yellow and olive colors will fill the space with freshness and energy. Blue or turquoise accents will help the room become visually lighter due to the association with the daytime sky and water bodies sparkling in the sun.

Do not be too zealous - there should not be too many color accents in a dark room. Black and orange colors are not recommended, as they absorb light, which is already in short supply.

Try a combination of light and dark materials. The bottom of the wall is about 1/3 darker, and the top is lighter. This method will add light and allow you to visually make the ceilings higher.

Technique #2: Set up light accents

Install several light sources at different levels and add lighting to work areas. Place "warm" lamps directly above the window - behind the curtains. So the room will become more comfortable.

Daylight lamps in lighting closed rooms, paradoxically, it is undesirable to use. The fact is that they emit light that is too harsh for the eyes, which does not add comfort to the home environment.

If you still want to use them, please note that fluorescent lamps differ in saturation. Depending on the power, they give light of different temperatures, and daylight can be cold or warm - closer to the yellow or blue part of the spectrum. The soft color of the low temperature lamp gives a warm yellowish tint to the light.

An intriguing contrast of light and dark will create an impression of special chic in the interior. Focused light focuses attention on individual elements, and the surrounding space looks brighter. Highlight some subjects with directional lighting.

Use track or pendant type LED spotlights (LED MR16') with a beam angle of 10, 15, 25 or 60 degrees to match the beam width to the size of the illuminated interior element. The light source is installed at a distance of 2.5-3 meters from the object.

Technique #3: Place mirrors

A pair of mirrors is enough, depending on the size of the room. Catching all the sunbeams will fill the dark room with radiance. Mirrors are also hung at an angle to direct light into the work area. Pay attention to the glossy furniture and ceiling.

Reception No. 4: choosing window decor

One curtain (tulle, organza) should let in maximum light - this is a daytime option. Make the second curtains (night) light, but dense. They will let in little street light into the room, but will not absorb indoor lighting, unlike dark draperies. For a very gloomy room, choose white curtains.

If the windows of a dark room face north, the owners are worried not only by the twilight, but also by the visual coldness. Light yellow curtains flood the room with warm light.

Remove doors between rooms. If this is not possible, put bright doors with large-scale glass inserts or transparent partitions.

Hang a stained glass or illuminated painting in a frame to simulate a window.

Reception No. 5: remove excess furniture

Do not overload dark rooms with objects. Use furniture with graceful legs with open space below. This will give lightness and airiness.

Technique #6: Decorate a dark room with light colors

Use wall decor: paintings or posters in light, light colors. Images of nature, the sky, the sun look favorably - the effect of an additional window. If you want more brightness, let the decor be bright colors, but let the background and overall color be light, and be sure that the top of the picture or poster is lighter than the bottom. Light flowers are very good: orchids, jasmine, white peonies, white lilac, sakura, lilies.

Today experts have shared some secrets of arranging dark rooms with us. Who, if not them, knows how to make problematic rooms cozy and comfortable.

If you have dark wallpapers in your room, take a close look at what they are made of. Today, 80% of wallpapers can be easily repainted and all problems can be solved in just a couple of hours. Then you will be surprised at how your interior will change.

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