Five cost-effective ways to make any room look brighter

In the summer, keeping a home looking bright doesn’t often pose major challenges. Sometimes, literally all that’s needed to light up a gloomy-looking room is drawing curtains. However, the situation can be very different in the winter and autumn, when natural light is harder to come by.

Fortunately, even at times like these, brightening up any given room of a residential property can largely be just a matter of “easy once you know how”. For example…

Keep the window free of unnecessary obstructions

These can obviously include curtains drawn during the day, but it’s a good idea to also make sure that any plants left on the windowsill, or otherwise in front of the window, are trimmed back so that more sunlight can abundantly stream – rather than just modestly trickle – into the interior via the window.

Even dirt and debris left to accumulate on the window glass could reduce the amount of light that gets through – in which case, the glass must be cleaned sufficiently regularly.

Apply reflective paint to the walls

Many have already heard that white and off-white walls are able to reflect more light than walls in darker colours such as black, blue and red.

They might not have realised, however, just how many paints are purposefully designed to be reflective. House Beautiful explains: “Reflective paints such as gloss or eggshell finishes, when used alongside matt finishes in the same colour, can provide the room with a striking highlight.”

Install the right lighting for an ambient effect

Real Homes advises that a well-lit living room needs three different types of lighting: ambient, accent and task. However, it might not be necessary to buy as many lighting fixtures as that suggests. For general ambient lighting, for example, a single, central pendant light could do the job.

It’s easy to online-order one of the many different pendant ceiling lights and then choose a warm bulb for placing in the fixture.

Don’t overlook flooring 

Of course, if the room that needs brightening up does have a ceiling light, it should be shining directly towards the floor. Hence, light can be further bounced around the room if that floor is covered with something particularly reflective.

If the exposed floor surface is currently carpet or wood, it’s worth keeping in mind that there could be paler carpets or woods available. Affixing shiny tiles to a floor suitable for them would be another good idea.

Add something sparkly

Yes, literally sparkly. After all, that would also be reflective, and thus good at bouncing light even further. HowStuffWorks recommends “crystal photo frames, mirrored coasters and glass collectibles (in groups of three or five).”

If the budget stretches far enough, it might even be a good idea to purchase some glass-topped tables with bevelled glass inserts or edges. If money is rather tight, however, it’s not a big deal to just strategically position a few mirrors around the room rather than go shopping for sparkly accessories.

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