How to Brighten Up a Dark Room in the Home
If your home has a room without exterior windows or that only has small windows that don't bring in much light, you might note some simple decorating tips to lighten that space. These can keep any room of your home bright, cheerful and welcoming.
Use high-gloss paint
High-gloss paint, as the name implies, has a very shiny, glossy finish. This finish can actually reflect light more than a flat, matte or otherwise dull paint finish. You may find that a room's walls and the entire space itself seem brighter when you use a high-gloss paint finish, even if you choose a darker paint colour itself.
Change the light bulbs
Obviously adding more light fixtures will make a space seem brighter, but you may have tried to do this in a room of your home only to find that the space still looks dull and drab. If so, change out the light bulbs in those fixtures, as old and yellowed bulbs can create dull and dingy light that does little to brighten a space. Halogen or bright white bulbs may brighten that space without creating a glare or too much brightness, and LED lights may also cast a soft glow and avoid making the room seem dull and drab.
Relocate the lighting
Along with changing the bulbs, you may need to rethink the location or type of lighting you have in a dim, dark space. Lamps that you put next to the one window of a room will do little to light the corner opposite the window, and undersized lamps that are only meant for small spaces will also do little to brighten a large room. Invest in large room lamps that are meant to brighten up dark corners and entire rooms, or invest in wiring for overhead lighting that will illuminate the entire space, rather than using table lamps that do little to brighten a dull room.
Use mirrors
Decorative mirrors can reflect what light there is in a room of the home, even bouncing around that light so that dark and dreary corners seem brighter and more visible. Be mindful of where you place decorative mirrors; adding one to a dark corner will brighten up that corner only if the mirror actually has a light source to reflect. Place a lamp directly across from the mirror, or angle a few mirrors around the window in the room to bounce sunlight between them, brightening up the space.
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