Lighting Solutions for Dark Rooms

Lighten Up a Dark Space

Dark Room Ideas: How to Make a Room Brighter

When the days get shorter and the nights get darker, a little brightness becomes particularly important. Dark rooms can feel dreary and dull with less sunlight, so you may want to consider updating your layout to create a brighter, more inviting space. To lighten up dark rooms, you’ll want to add plenty of light sources and change out your furniture and decor for something brighter.

Of course, making a dark room feel brighter involves more than just opening the windows. Lighting solutions for dark rooms also include evaluating the color of your walls and floor, adding some bright decor and adopting a lighter, more streamlined design style. Here are some dark room ideas to make each day in your home a little brighter.

Use natural and artificial light, brightly colored decor and pale color palettes to make darker spaces feel bright and open.

Overview

This post will provide suggestions and tips about:

Using natural light
Lighting your room
Choosing wall colors
Rugs & dark floors
Styles for darker rooms
Using plants in dark rooms
Brightening up your decor

Using Natural Light in Your Home

Natural lighting is the easiest way to illuminate a dark room, as it requires little work on your part. Simply pull back the curtains on windows, doors, skylights or other openings in your space and let some sunlight in to give the room a healthy glow. Natural lighting isn’t as harsh as direct artificial light, and sunbeams streaming through windows set a soothing mood.

Depending on how much sunlight you’re getting, simply leaving your curtains open all day can deliver the benefits of natural lighting. If you’re still not getting the full effect, you may need to trim back any hedges blocking your windows or consider brighter shutters that reflect the light into your room.

Letting some natural light in through your windows is the simplest way to make dark spaces feel bright and lively.

Illuminate Your Home

Lighting is key when trying to brighten dark rooms in your home. The best lamps for dark rooms fill the space with an inviting glow without creating heavy shadows. You’ll usually want more than one light source in a room to illuminate separate parts of the space and ensure a balanced look.

Consider how you will decorate around the light and shadow cast by your lighting setup. A crystal chandelier in the dining room or foyer is a dazzling choice, as the light refracts through the crystalline structure to bounce across the room. Conversely, in small spaces, a tall lamp with a large shade is the best floor lamp for a dark room, as its shadow won’t overwhelm the space.

You’ll also want to be aware of the practical aspects of each room you’re lighting. Bedrooms benefit from some nearby table lamps to serve as bedside lighting, while more open spaces might require an overhead light source. The best light bulbs for dark rooms are bright white LEDs as opposed to more traditional yellow halogen bulbs.

The right lighting illuminates even the darkest walls, making furniture feel bright and vibrant.

Brighten the Corners

Your walls set the dominant mood of your space. If your room feels too dark, touching up your walls with a brighter, more cheerful color lightens the mood. In addition, the contrast between light walls and dark furniture makes bolder accents pop without casting the room in a dark and gloomy atmosphere.

Choosing lighter shades doesn’t limit your color palette, either. You can choose tones from all over the color wheel to find something bright and engaging to complement your interior design style. Some popular paint colors to brighten a dark room include:

Warm colors: Hues that evoke bright sunlight, like warm and vibrant red, orange and yellow are all great choices for painting your walls. A warm palette is a straightforward way to establish a bright, cozy atmosphere in any room.
Cool hues: If you prefer a room on the cooler side, shades of green, blue and purple are bright and upbeat while offering a more soothing mood. Try pairing blue walls with brown furniture and decor for an open, organic feeling.
Keep it neutral: Want a universal color palette that works with a variety of design styles? Pale neutral walls in shades of white, gray and beige give rooms their own inner glow. Add splashes of color with vibrant wall decor to bring in some extra visual appeal.

Brightly colored walls, including dazzling neutral options like white, help illuminate rooms and make dark furniture stand out.

Bright Rugs & Floors

Just like your walls, your floors help establish the brightness of your room before you add furniture or decor. Dark carpet or hardwood floors can make even the brightest furnishings seem dull, so it’s important to consider how bright your floors are when figuring out how to make a dark room feel brighter.

A colorful area rug adds bold hues to otherwise dark floors. Place a rug in your living room, bedroom, home office or dining room to elevate the natural brightness in the space. Rugs in red, blue, yellow or green with striped patterns or geometric prints add depth and vibrance from the bottom up.

A brightly colored area rug stands out against darker floors, making the space feel lighter.

Choose Lighter Design Styles

If these simple steps have a limited effect, or if you need to figure out how to lighten a dark room with no natural light, consider your design more broadly. If your room features darker traditional or industrial styles, try lightening the mood by switching things up with some bright furniture and accents.

Consider updating your living room in glamorous fashion with the crisp whites and shiny chrome finishes of a chic contemporary design, or add retro charm with a colorful vintage modern layout. White or beige sofas and chairs make for a bright centerpiece, while accents like light wooden coffee tables or tan leather ottomans fill your space with warmth and light.

Some contemporary and minimalist styles offer lighter upholstery and streamlined silhouettes that instantly make rooms feel more inviting.

Plant Some Light

Bringing in some greenery completely changes a room’s overall vibe. Plants brighten up dark rooms with simple, organic grace. Whether you prefer fresh flowers for their color and natural beauty, or you want to keep things simple with a leafy decorative plant, incorporating little hints of the great outdoors into dark rooms helps refresh your look.

If your dark room is short on windows or other light sources, you can still use the natural beauty of plants to lighten the mood. Consider low-light calathea or snake plants that can thrive in indirect sunlight. Or, opt for silk florals to brighten up a coffee table or an end table, or choose larger artificial ferns as a cheery, organic focal point.

A few strategically placed plants can make the whole room feel lighter.

Lighten the Mood with Decor

The last thing to consider when bringing a little light into your dark room is your decor. Artwork, wall hangings and other accessories can make the space feel unique to your tastes and experiences, and with a little planning, you can use decor to make the whole room feel bright.

Hang some brightly colored wall decor throughout the space to add color, texture and light to your layout. Use mirrors in large, open spaces to reflect light from one part of the room to another. In your game room or entertainment center, use strip lighting along the walls to create a lively and engaging atmosphere. The right home decor can revitalize the darkest spaces.

Hanging mirrors on the wall can make your space feel bigger and brighter.

Depending on your layout and your goals, lighting dark rooms can be as simple as cracking open some windows or as complex as overhauling your decor. Whatever it takes, you’ll find that the result is a brighter, cheerier and more inviting space. Good lighting makes for a more enjoyable atmosphere, whether you’re looking to create a productive work environment or a fun family room experience.