Looking for ways to brighten up your home? You don’t have to spend thousands on remodeling your rooms or trying to put in more windows to bring in tremendous amounts of natural light. Sometimes, replacing your current lighting with the right lighting can open up your space and make it feel completely new. Read on for some tips on how you can brighten up your home.
9 Ways to Brighten Up Your Home:
Examine Dark Places In Your Home
The first tip, according to Freshome, is to check your home. Walk around and examine the dark spots, nooks and corners. Are there rooms that need more light? Do you need brighter or darker interiors? Sometimes, your choice in interior decors and furniture could be putting your room in the dark. If you could rearrange the furniture, would that make a difference?
Identify Rooms that Need Specialized Lights.
Are your lights basically the same everywhere? Then you’ll need to go around and determine which spaces need specialized lighting. For instance, you can’t expect to put in the same light you would use for a library in the nursery. Or put one in a room full of paintings since heat and humidity could hurt art pieces in an irrevocable way.
Use Recessed Lighting Fixtures for Your Ceilings.
A lot of houses have wood paneled ceilings. While this architectural detail often provides a dramatic design element in the home, it could also inadvertently create the impression that you’re inside a cage. You could use recessed lighting fixtures to help expand the space though. By throwing light up in the ceiling, you can dispel the shadows and create the illusion of more space.
Pendant Lighting is Ideal for Your Kitchen.
Pendant lighting can turn your breakfast nook or kitchen island around. Eliminate dark kitchen corners with pendant lighting. And with plenty of pieces that run from the kooky to the classy, the humorous, Jonathan Adler lighting from Lumens provides you with choices guaranteed to turn any space into feeling like home in no time.
Determine the Right Wattage.
Sometimes, you’d find the perfect lighting decorations for a room—only to have to turn on those pieces and find yourself blinded by the strong light. While having plenty of light is great, too much brightness can hurt and strain your eyes. So be careful about that. Make sure your rooms have the proper wattage. If the light is blinding, HGTV suggests swapping those out with bulbs with lower wattage.
Dim Your Hallways.
Another lighting tip is to find lights to create the right mood for your hallway. However, Houzz says it helps if you pick out lights that you can dim. That way, you can have as much—or less—light as you need easily enough. With dimmable lights, you’re able to reduce heat output as well as lower energy consumption levels. This doesn’t just help lower your bills and make your home more energy-efficient, it also helps lengthen the lifespan of your lamps.
Make Your Light Switches Handy.
Make sure your switches are just at the right distance from the floor and handy for you whenever you need to reach out. The distance often varies. Some home owners prefer their light switches a little lower, probably to height restrictions. Others are more comfortable if when they put those switches a little higher. It’ll really all depend on the height you’re comfortable with. So if you always find yourself bending down a little to reach the lights or standing on tip toes, you might want to have your light switch transferred to a better location.
Balance Your Lights and Your Walls.
Do you have dark walls in your bedroom? Having dark walls makes it easy for you to catch a long snooze even in the middle of the day so that’s a definite advantage. So make sure you don’t ruin the mood. Install a few soft lighting pieces that would allow you to keep that restive vibe going. You could also provide some contrast by picking out interior decors—bedding, mats or anything else—in shades or colors that are lighter than your wall color. Put it all together and you’re certain to end up with a dramatic and sophisticated bedroom that suits your equally dramatic and sophisticated taste.
Lights in a New Room.
If you’ve got an empty room you’ve been dying to renovate for some time now, then make sure you factor in lighting considerations before you start on anything else. For instance, does the room have large windows or are you planning to install a few? A space with many windows would get ample amount of natural lighting so you could go darker with your wall color. However, if the space is already quite small and there aren’t that many windows to begin with, you might want to go with a lighter wall color paint to help that space breathe.
So don’t spend a fortune trying to renovate your dark rooms. A couple of new lighting pieces strategically placed in your home, along with a fresh coat of paint, might just be all you need to brighten up your home!
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Onica {mommy factor} says
I loved those idea for being an tremendous house looking.! I would to like challenge those tips to my Mini house:!
Sarah says
Love how much more light you have now. What a really cool and affordable idea.
Nolie says
Thanks for these tips. I have quite a few dark spots in my home that I need to brighten up.
Emily says
I thought we were good on lighting, but my Father just told me he thought our home was too dark… So thanks for the timely tips!
Mistee Dawn says
Thanks for all of the great ideas! My house is definitely way too dark! Gonna use a few of these!
Janis @MommyBlogExpert says
What an indepth post about lighting. I’m a huge fan of pendant light in kitchens that are both beautiful and functional. Thanks for all these great tips.
Elizabeth Lampman says
Changing your lighting is a great way to freshen up the look in a room. I love to add colored lights.
Tammi Roy says
Lighting is such an important part of a room. These are all great choices. I love the look of pendant lights.
gingermommyrants says
This is great information about lighting. I am remodeling a home and will use these tips.
Krystal says
I need WAY more lights in my house. This is a great starting place for me to make change.s.
Cocoweb says
A lot cheaper than knocking down some walls to add new windows.