Living in a dark, gloomy home is depressing! Guest contributor Vikki Serpas shares some tips on how to use light to turn your home into a cheerful abode!
There’s nothing appealing about living in a dark dungeon. Actually, it’s a gloomy way of life and can have quite the negative effect on your mood. If you want to turn your depressing home into a bright spot in your life, consider adding light and opening up your space with these seven tips.
Instead of trying to brighten your dark rooms with different types of lights, you can embrace the darkness of the rooms and paint the walls with deep colors to make the room feel cozier. A deep charcoal gray is perfect for living room spaces where guests would gather in. Chocolate browns are better suited for bedrooms, creating a comfortable and relaxing space. Greens, blues, and reds work well in bathrooms and kitchens.
Mirrors aren’t only great for opening a room up and making it look bigger, but they’re also great at reflecting light if you place them in strategic spaces on your walls. Essentially, you’ll want to use big mirrors in small spaces, make them a focal point, and consider feng shui methods. What you don’t want to do with mirrors is use them on the ceiling, bedroom, or kitchen. Also, consider using mirrored furniture. There’s plenty of options available in this regard.
This seems like an obvious point, but many people get so caught up in decorating their home with fancy blinds or curtains that they forget about letting the light pour through the window. If you don’t have many windows in your home to begin with, you should probably ditch the curtains altogether. There are plenty of options when it comes to window treatments that allow plenty of light into your home while still giving you a sense of privacy, so take advantage of them.
There are so many lighting options available in the market today that you might drive yourself crazy trying to find the one that best fits your home’s décor and caters to your personal preferences. Regardless, there are plenty of options and you should take full advantage of them. One of the cheapest ways to brighten your home up is to use ceiling lights. Not only can one of these brighten an entire room on its own, but the incandescent bulbs used in these are inexpensive and use low wattage.
If you live in a home where you have the option to make some renovations, installing bigger windows to let more natural light into your home is probably the best thing you can do. Although this can seem like an expensive project, the benefits are well worth it in the end. Remember though, as tempting as it might be to do this yourself, you should definitely hire a professional because installing windows is not an easy task.
Another renovation you can make to your home to open it up is to knock down some walls that are making you feel claustrophobic. Again, this isn’t so much a do-it-yourself project if you’re not handy with the sledgehammer, so you should consult the professionals. Although this might seem like a major step to take to open up your spaces, it’s one that’ll provide results that you’ll be satisfied with.
If you have a home in Denver, then sprucing it up with Aquilegia saximontanas (Colorado state flower) is the perfect way to open it up and add more flare to your rooms.
Many flowers and plants which thrive indoors, including Philodendrons, Pothos, and Chinese Evergreens, provide your home with color and textures that’ll help brighten your home and as a result your mood.
Transforming your dark dungeon into a bright and open dwelling isn't hard. Not only will your home seem more inviting for guests, but it'll also have a positive effect on your mood.
Are there other ways that you've shone more light into your home? How about opening it up some more? Leave a comment below and let us know.