How To Brighten Up A Dark Living Room
How To Brighten Up A Dark Living Room From less natural light to smaller spaces, there can be a lot of reasons why you may have a dark living room.
With just a small addition or change here and there, you can help to brighten up a dark living room. While you might not be able to change elements such as windows and size of a room, the contents of a room can help to brighten a space. And here’s how…
Bring In Colour An easy way to brighten up your living room is to bring in lighter and brighter colours. Or simply, introduce any colour if your room is quite minimal. In recent months, interior trends have been shifting away from neutrals towards maximalist hues. Make the most of this and bring cushions, to chairs into a space that help to add a bright accent. We love this Marlin Saffron Yellow Chair.
Try one in a corner or multiple to tie together a living room. Or if you have an open plan living/dining room - try these around a table to see it lift a dark room.
Yellow can help bring some true sunshine to a darker room. Try Some Texture It’s not simply colour that can brighten a room, but adding in different levels can help to open up and brighten a space. You can do this through different heights of furniture, or adding in pieces that bring texture where before it was just one level. Adding in a fabric like the velvet of this Ava blush armchair can stop a room looking flat and adding interest.
Plus, the blush hue means it brings an extra interest to the piece. Boucle and velvet have become popular in bringing texture to a space in recent years, so embrace this with the Ava. The soft and dappled blush velvet brings a Mediterranean feel to a living room, brightening it instantly.
Mix In Lighter Woods If you want to add furniture that will lighten and brighten up a dark living room, but prefer to not add colour - work with lighter shades of wood. Wood is neutral without washing out a space like white and beige, as it has warming tones depending on what you opt for.
Choosing something like an oak or mango wood can bring in a subtle bit of colour in a versatile way. We love this Albie desk in oak, which can help to bring an airy hue to a darker living room space. Perfect for an at home work corner, combined with a living room, it will help to add a light and bright space in a corner with oak.
A Touch Of Lighting An obvious addition to bring in more light is to add some extra lighting. With this, it’s best to choose lighting that offers ambient and soft lighting to ensure that it’s not brightening in a harsh tone. You can do this by adding in lamps, such as this Halliday Floor Lamp. The natural linen shade means the light colours further brightens a dark living room space.
A floor lamp is an optimum way to add some light to a smaller space particularly, as it doesn’t require any further furniture to sit on. It can sit by itself, and the height of the lamp means the light is able to reach corners of a space more effectively.
Open Up A Space A smaller space can often feel darker, the more closed in a space feels the more it needs clever furniture to help brighten it up.
A lot of furniture in a dark living room can only make the space seem darker than it is. Using pieces that show as much floor space as possible is best. So, pieces that have legs rather than being solid as well as opting for glass where possible, from shelves to tables.
A style that is great to do this with is the Blake Round Glass Coffee Table. Want some more coffee table inspiration? Check out our top pieces here. This piece has oak legs for a contemporary feel, opening up a space with the glass table top allowing the eye to see as much floor space as possible. This helps to amplify any light, brightening up a dark living room.
Be Smart With Mirrors Another failsafe interior trick to open ip and brighten a space, is the use of mirrors. Whether you use it to reflect windows to double the natural light, or simply use it to make a room look bigger. Try a style like this Stasia Iron Framed Mirror in a modern champagne colour for a piece that will change up your living room space.
When hanging your mirror, make sure it is set around eye-level on the wall, to allow it to be the most seamless projection of light. Having at eye level means most people will see the benefit of the amplified light, without having their eye drawn up or down.
Browse the rest of our homeware pieces online to discover more to brighten up a space, or to simply add a Shabby twist to your current interior.