Dark Spaces a Problem? Here are 7 Lighting Tips for Brighter Rooms

Love to entertain at home? There’s nothing quite like the pleasure of opening your home to people you care about—friends and family and even wonderful work associates you’ve gotten quite close to over the years.

But do you notice how many of your guests knock themselves against the wall in your kitchen or bump into the side table in your living room? Do you often have trouble keeping your eyes open in the hallway, where you have strong overhead lights? If this is the case, your home might be just be in dire need of a lighting makeover. Here are a few tips to help you get a handle on what you need to know:

Assess Your Home

Freshome makes this suggestion and it’s a good place to start. So take a look around. Sometimes, we often don’t see our home the way other people do. You might be so familiar with it that you tend to overlook obvious problems. Make a conscious effort to distance yourself from the space while you do your rounds then. If you can’t be objective and you end up thinking, there’s really nothing wrong, much less nothing to improve on in your home, then ask for the help of a professional. Sometimes, hearing a stranger’s take on something can help us look at a problem in a new light.

Open Up Those Paneled Ceilings

While having paneled ceilings or painted ceilings could add some interesting architectural details to a home, they also have the unfortunate tendency to make a room seem cave-like or caved-in. To open up that space, you can use recessed lighting to clear the shadows away from those panels and make the space seem brighter, roomier, and more welcoming in the process.

Pick the Right Kitchen Lights

Don’t let your breakfast nook or dining table for four be left under dull lighting. With artful pieces that are as modern and stylish as the rest of your furniture, pendant lighting from ET2 Lighting of Lumens offers you a lot of topnotch choices. From the Starburst model to the Larmes, you won’t have any problems finding the right lighting to go with your kitchen décor or illumination needs.

Don’t Forget the Task Lights

You perform a lot of tasks in your kitchen: chopping meat, skinning potatoes, and generally going through the motions of preparing meals. That’s why you shouldn’t forget about those task lights. With task lights, you won’t have to complain about dim lighting whenever you prepare and cook your meals.

Compliment Your Walls with Your Lights

Some people really prefer dark and dim bedrooms. Just stepping into the room makes them ready to snuggle into their blankets and sleep. If that’s you too, then you probably have dark walls on your room to reduce the light reflected on the walls as much as possible. One way to keep that vibe and ambiance going is to make sure you install soft lights in strategic places around your bedroom. The soft glow of these lamps will help you create the perfect ‘den’ ambiance you want for your bedroom. For your interior furniture or decors, make sure you pick them out in colors that contrast nicely with your walls. For instance, if you’ve got gray walls, then a smattering of white and orange furniture pieces will absolutely come across as wonderfully sophisticated and warm. The contrast will keep your gray walls from becoming staid and boring.

Check Your Wattage

Don’t forget to check if your lighting fixtures have the proper wattage, says HGTV. For instance, if you’re using lamps and the wattage is too stark and bright instead of the soft glow you were hoping for, then all you have to do is replace those bulbs with lower wattage bulbs. However, if you want brighter lights and yours seem dull and inadequate, then you can try upping the wattage by going for bulbs with higher wattage levels. Just make sure your circuits are compatible with the wattage.

Use Dimmers to Cut Costs

Houzz suggests cutting on your energy bills by going for dimmers. By choosing lighting with dimmers, you can efficiently reduce the light output over a certain space while still providing enough illumination for you or your guests. For instance, imagine a hallway. If you’ve only got overhead lighting installed—without the dimmers—then you’ll have to keep those lights on all the time. And that could mean a lot of bright light wasted. With dimmers though, you can adjust controls to ensure that only the minimum amount of light is produced, allowing you and your guests to pass through the hallway with ease. Dimmers also help you reduce the heat output reducing the required energy and slashing your energy consumption bills along the way.

So don’t let you, along with your friends and family, suffer in the dark—or dim rooms, for that matter. By knowing the best way to use lighting fixtures around your home, you can make the most out of your space to provide the inviting, welcoming vibe your friends and family love.