Every home can benefit from extra light, whether you live in a cosy cottage or a spacious townhouse. Studies show our mood lifts as the light levels improve in our personal spaces. Bright light also shows off your furniture and décor in style.
Don’t panic, you don’t have to knock down walls or enlarge windows. Here are some simple tips for letting the light into your home.
1. Switch Your Curtains
Want to let more light into your living room? Take out the heavy drapes and replace them with curtains in a lighter, airier fabric. Light curtains instantly transform a room with a summery feel, making these curtains ideal for a warm room or a south-facing space. Consider pale wood shutters on the full windows or the bottom half of the panes, if you want privacy but still need to let in sunlight all day.
2. Mix Your Lights
Light doesn’t always need to come from outside. Consider your lighting scheme when looking to brighten your living spaces. You want a mix of task lighting and ambient lighting. Table lamps with luxury lampshades bring a cosy and elegant glow to the corners of a room. A standard lamp with a bold shade creates a bright statement. Spotlighting and pendants provide the overall radiance that your room needs.
3. Don’t Forget the Mirrors
Make the most of the available illumination with a clever mirror trick. Make your room brighter with mirrored surfaces. These are ideal for enhancing a dark hallway or reflecting brilliance in a sitting room. Make a statement with a large mirror in an ornate frame or take a more subtle touch by lining windowsills with reflective silver coasters or mats.
4. Brighten Your Walls
Traditional wisdom suggests that white instantly brightens a room. But a whitewash can be too overpowering and often a combination of dark shades and a light touch creates a winning contrast. Go bold with bright colours in your living room or choose a striking shade for an accent wall in your bedroom. A matte finish to the paintwork is warmer and more subtle, as silk or gloss is often too harsh.
5. Bring Back the Green
Take inspiration from the outdoors and bring a sense of life and space into your home with plants. Gorgeous green leaves, when regularly maintained, shine with health and vitality. Choose low-maintenance plants if you have little time to spend on your indoor garden. Or choose faux blooms to create bright focal points in your home.
6. Remove All the Clutter
Create the brightness you crave in an afternoon – simply remove all the unnecessary items that are cluttering the space. Overflowing bookcases and crammed tabletops are overwhelming and create blockages. You don’t need to remove everything. Instead, take out anything you don’t like or don’t need. Then focus on the statement pieces and rein everything else back. You’ll have a clearer space, and a clearer head, in no time at all.