If there’s a particular room in your home that you feel has a dark and rather drab atmosphere and you feel it could benefit from ‘lightening up’, knowing how to achieve this look can be difficult. However, with some clever tips and tricks that the best designers from over the globe use, you can soon transform the room into the light, bright haven you’d dreamed of.
We’ve handpicked some of our favourite tips from the web to help you on your way to make the most of your room’s natural light and things that you can do if your natural light is limited in the room.
Keep the walls clean and light
It may seem a little obvious, but keeping the walls a light shade will really help to make the whole room feel lighter. White is a colour that is timeless in terms of interior design, so if you’re unsure what to go for, you can’t go wrong with white or a nice magnolia shade. You could always add a focus wall in one other colour too if you don’t want to go white completely.
If you like to hang pictures and photos on your walls, avoid using fussy frames; instead, stick to uniformed square or rectangular shapes that provide the wall with a clean line. We really like these simple black frames which would look great and modern on plain white walls.
Use splashes of a bright and cheery colour
If you want to make your room feel more homely but not dark, adding a few splashes of an accent colour can be really affective, rather than going for a certain colour scheme as a whole. For example, choose a bright, cheery colour (options like yellow, aqua and coral are huge right now) and pick a few details in the colour and add them to the room.
Things like accent cushions (we love the ones from H&M), side tables, candles and frames can give a real burst of life to the room without making it darker or cluttered.
Invest in some new curtains
Making the most out of your natural light in the room, regardless of how limited it is, is really important for making a room feel more airy and bright. If your curtains have seen better days, invest in some new ones. You could opt for sheer ones as well as thicker ones too and permanently have the thicker ones open.
We love the Abbey curtain range by Clarke & Clarke curtain fabrics as they come in a variety of simple yet elegant pastel colours which can really brighten a room. You can click here to have a look.
Eliminate clutter and mess
Any room that is ruled by clutter and mess will instantly feel drab and dark, so getting organised and being ruthless when it comes to chucking things out will be really important. Keep things off the floor and well maintained in terms of tidiness.
If you have things like shelving, avoid the temptation to display all of your possessions on them, too; instead, pick a few feature items for a more simplistic, clean feel.
