If you’ve been with me on Instagram for a while, by now you know I host decor question and answer sessions on my Instagram stories every month. One of the most frequently asked questions during these is ‘How to brighten a dark room’. Today, finally, I’ve got down to answering that question with my go-to tips and tricks.
How To Brighten A Dark Room
There can be many reasons a room doesn’t get enough natural light. It might have small windows, a window that is covered by tree shade or blocked with another structure in front of it. It could be a window that opens into a duct, as with most bathrooms, or even a windowless room that you’ve squeezed into your layout.
The most significant feature of natural light is how it floods the entire space evenly. While light in certain corners might be less than others, you don’t really have dark corners, or shadows following you around as you walk through the space.
While a room flooded with natural light is obviously the best option, there are many ways to optimize light in darker spaces. Let me show you how to brighten a dark room.
1 – Layer Your Lights
Layering of light helps to spread it evenly across the space.
That one window at the far end of the kitchen is not enough to light up the entire kitchen. We’ve layered our lights to overcome this. We have bright panel lights on the ceiling and LED strips above the counter and along the floor.
Pendant lights above the breakfast table and spot lights above the artwork make sure that the breakfast nook is well lit too.
This helps the light spread evenly across the kitchen.
If we had only used ceiling lights, depending on where you stood with relation to the light, your body would throw shadows against the floor, counter and walls as you moved around the space.
The only source of light in this foyer is from the door to the left. In addition to the ceiling pendants above, there are LED strips behind the carved panel. The light from these reflects off the wall and spreads more evenly than it would have from just the pendants.
This dining nook is in the windowless, darker ‘L’ of this living room. Just the pendant lights above the dining table would have thrown shadows on the bench and the walls. We layered these with spot lights that fall all along the length of the ‘L’ wall. We also have ceiling panel lights here which were not on when we took this pic.
This study is a windowless space just off the passage of this home. We made sure it doesn’t miss a natural light source by layering the lights. We have panel lights in the ceiling, spot lights on the top most book shelf and LED strips just above the study table and in the glass book case behind the study.
2 – Go For White Walls
White reflects light best and so is the best colour to use on walls in poorly lit spaces.
Whether it’s a paint finish or tiles, using white in darker spaces helps make it brighter.
This bathroom, for instance, has a tiny window that opens into a duct. We used white tiles on all walls to brighten it up.
Do you remember this teen bedroom with only a small window letting in light? Painting all the furniture white helped reflect so much more light.
3 – Use Light Floors
Using the same logic that we did with the walls, light floors reflect more light too. Like the off white floor in this kitchen with a tiny window.
The small window in this bathroom opens into a duct which means this bathroom has almost no natural light. We used white walls and flooring to keep it from looking dull.
4 – Shine Your Lights On Walls And Ceilings
Having the lights reflect off the walls and ceilings of a space also helps even out the light across the room, similar to the effect of having natural light.
You can do this using cove lighting in the ceiling.
Lights in a cove facing inwards reflect off the ceiling and give an even ambient glow across the room.
Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)
Lights in a cove facing outwards reflect off the walls to give a similar effect.
See how the glow is so much brighter on the wall below the railing with the light reflecting off it. Also, remember the light reflecting off the wall behind the carved panel in the Buddha foyer above?
You can also use spot lights directed at the walls like we did in this windowless passage.
Uplighters that reflect light off the walls and the ceiling above are a great idea too.
5 – Use Light Furniture
The word ‘light’ here has more than one meaning and each one helps brighten up dull, dark rooms.
Firstly, do away with heavy, overbearing furniture to clear up your space and allow light to reflect more freely. Do you remember how we removed the heavy, cluttered shelves here and swapped them for a plain white wall instead?
Then, use light furniture that is off from the floor. For example, leggy sofas that don’t go all the way to the floor don’t block the light by allowing it to pass below them. It helps to have more light reflect off the floors too.
Finally, make your furniture ‘lighter’ by using light colours on it. You saw above how painting brown wardrobes white helped. In the living room below, you can see how changing the upholstery from a dark colour to a white breathes so much more ‘light’ into the room.
6 – Use Mirrors
One of the easiest answers to how to brighten a dark room is to use mirrors. Mirrors reflect light and so can be used cleverly to help light up a dark space.
For example the windowless passage I showed you above. We then panelled the opposite wall with an end to end mirror. This instantly doubled up all the light reflecting off the walls in this space.
Using lights directly above or in front of the mirror is another smart way to increase the light in a room.
We easily amplified the light in this room by hanging chandeliers in front of mirrors.
We used the same trick in this windowless bar corner. The mirrors behind the bar cabinet reflect all the shelf lights in the cabinet and you don’t realise you’re in a space that has no natural light.
7 – Use Glass Doors
Using glass doors and windows on external walls is the most obvious way to let light into a room. Also consider using glass doors between two indoor spaces to allow the flow of light further in.
For example, this glass door between the living room and this passage allows light from the living room to come into the passage, which would have been duller without it.
You can see how these glass doors allow the sunlight to stream into this connecting room.
You can use frosted or textured glass if you want to maintain some privacy.
It blocks the view while still allowing light to flow through.
I’ve used fabric sandwiched between two sheets of glass in this glass door. It allows to light to come into this dark passage while yet giving privacy to that room.
8 – Minimal Window Treatments
It isn’t always necessary to cover every window with heavy curtains that block light.
Where privacy is not an issue, go for light sheer curtains that will allow the natural light to come in.
We also used a simple sheer in this office space which had just that window to one side as it’s source of natural light.
Blinds are a clever option when you want to keep the option of blocking the light or view some of the time. They are almost completely out of the way when folded up and so won’t block the light then.
9 – Light and Bright Colours
We’ve already discussed how white works wonders in dark spaces. Light pastels work similarly.
When combining colours with white, go for brighter shades that reflect light rather than darker shades with black / grey undertones that absorb it.
Combining brighter colours with white makes the space look luminous.
10 – Use Reflective Surfaces
Shiny surfaces such as metals, glass and polished stone all help to reflect light. See how the table there adds light to that corner versus a wooden one that would absorb light and look dark?
Brass chairs, light fittings, handles and the steel finishes on the hood and cooking range all reflect light and help brighten up this kitchen.
So many of the tips we have spoken of above come together to make this bright space. We have white walls and flooring, a brass table with a glass top that is high off the floor, a brass framed mirror on the wall and decorative accents in white, pastels and metallic finishes.
11 – Decorative Lights
And the final trick for how to brighten up a dark room. If you’ve used every trick in this post to brighten up your dull, gloomy space, and you still have some dark corners, use lights as decor accents.
Table and floor lamps are the most obvious way to light up a dark corner.
Pretty chandeliers and pendants in bunches look glamourous and automatically allow you to add in more lights.
Throw in some string lights across the room. They always look pretty and they always add light.
Hang in some extra lights among your plants.
Or wind the string lights through tall plants or sculptural objects.
Add fairy lights in lanterns or glass jars and place them on your table tops.
And light up pretty candles to add the golden glow.
Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)
If you’ve reached all the way till here and followed most of the tricks that you’ve read along the way, you most likely have a well lit room by now.
Artificial light can never completely match up to natural light. Yet, using these tips will make sure you can use a poorly lit space comfortably, without really missing natural light. It will certainly give you many answers to how to brighten a dark room.
Let me know your fave tips from the above and how they helped your room in the comments below.
Here’s to more light!
Thank you do much for the detailed walk through this most commonly asked question. Loved all the pointers
Pleasure is mine, Sujatha. 🙂