In designing a living room, one of the challenges to provide solutions to is brightening up a space, especially when you are fond of dark and solid colors. During the remodel or redesign, expand your options on how to make the ambiance a little lighter for the common area. Whether it be through adding plants, working with light colors, painting the walls, or even dressing the windows, there are still ways on how to induce a light and airy space for the household to enjoy. We have scooped ideas that are worth the steal for your next remodeling project. Here are 11 styling tricks to try on how to make your living room look brighter.
1. Locate Mirrors Opposite to the Window
Managing the light’s interaction with the space is one way of making the living room look lighter. The best way to manage the lighting in a living room is by placing mirrors on the opposite side of the window. Windows are the primary source of natural lighting that is both sustainable and energy-free. Using a mirror on its opposite side will help in spreading the natural light throughout the room. It reflects the acquired amount of light making the living room look brighter. Mirrors also help in creating the illusion that the living room looks bigger making the space look less congested.
2. Work with Lighter-Colored Furniture
The living room is fundamentally comprised of pieces of furniture put up to make a room. From the tables, chairs, and sofas, the living room reflects the personality of the household when it is up to you whether which ones work together. Making decisions for the pieces of furniture to put, will have an impact on lighting towards the room. Working with lighter-colored furniture will have a floating effect on the living room. They will not look like they are taking up so much floor space. Thus, looking less congested. In addition, the furniture will look classy too with its light-colored materials. It makes the furniture look clean and well-maintained.
3. Spice Up White Canvas Walls
What better way of brightening up the space than starting from the basic white canvas wall. This gives an opportunity for natural lighting to be acquired and spread throughout the living room. When the living room is light and airy, it tends to give a vibrant impact, especially during the mornings. White canvas walls are easier to design with considering that they are flexible to be paired with different colors and materials. Embracing white walls will help in elaborating the depth of the living room bouncing lights throughout the given space. At some point, it may seem to be a boring and plain color to begin with, but with added details, textures, and finishes, it indicates a refreshing color for a living room.
4. Accentuate with Ambient Lighting Sources
More than just the windows, another important lighting source is ambient lighting fixtures. They are the ones supporting the main lighting source but used for direct lighting. Ambient lighting fixtures tend to cover a particular area of space to boost its source of lighting providing direct lighting to a specific activity. This includes wall sconces, track lights, and even strip lights. Even though they are used for direct lighting, they help in building the ambiance of a space making it look cozy and comfortable to lounge in. You can play with a variety of colors to define the character of the living room or even opt for a color-changing light.
5. Add Metallic and Reflecting Touches
We love a little razzle dazzle as we walk into the living room. Metallic and reflecting finishes indicate elegance and grandeur that create an eye-catching character. These shimmery touches are a more convenient way of transforming a poorly lit living room environment into a vibrant and refreshing space. Whether it be a mirror, artwork, tables, or even lighting fixtures, options are flexible in choosing which ones to have a metallic or reflective touch introducing a luxurious accent to the living room. Any metallic materials such as silver, gold, bronze, or even copper make a statement highlighting the features of a piece of furniture or fixture. On the other hand, glass finishes also work the same in helping bouncing lights be diffused to the entire room. Imagine a full glass coffee table in the center of the living room. It creates an illusion of not taking any floor space and at the same time, helps in acquiring natural light and creating a vibrant environment for the living room.
6. Free the Space from Clutter
As much as we want to create an illusion of making the room look brighter, you might want to focus on the things that you can control. This pertains to clutter. As the busiest space in a house, it is inevitable to see the living room all jammed up. It is a contributing factor why space may seem too congested or too disorganized. It would be best to start cleaning up the mess before anything else. Ensure that there is storage for all the items that are not in always in use in the living room. This way, it would be easier to organize cables, remotes, and other necessary items. Besides, they are the ones that are often lost when you need them most. Allocate space for all the forms of literature. It would be best to designate a shelf or a side table where you can keep them instead of these pages lingering in the living room space.
7. Layer the Floors with a Light-Colored Rug
If you are remodeling the living room, it would be best to opt for lighter-colored materials for the flooring. More than just the walls, light-colored wood planks, tiles, or even carpets do help in managing the acquired light in a space. On top of that, they look clean compared to other types of flooring. If you are just redesigning the interior with the idea of retaining its original built, you can work with carpets and even area rugs. Wall-to-wall rugs tend to make a statement in inducing a more cozy environment to any space. In addition, they also add acoustic benefits. This is ideal, especially if you are living in an apartment building. It can be a little off to hear your footsteps as you walk throughout the living room space. Light-colored rugs create an illusion to make the area look bigger and more vibrant.
8. Maintain the Cleanliness of the Windows
As much as we want to focus on the things that can be added to the space, let us also pay attention to the things we often forget. Cleaning the windows is one of the most commonly disregarded household chores. If you are living in a building, there is maintenance to do it for you. But still, you have to wipe and clean the windows from the inside. As much as they bring light to the living room, they can also distort the amazing view and minimize the acquired lighting. Once or twice a month of window cleaning would suffice just to get rid of the dust and dirt that can also jeopardize the health of the household. A wiper, soap, and polish would do the trick in keeping the windows free from marks of dried raindrops with dust.
9. Organize the Framed Art on the Walls
Opting for plain-colored walls can sometimes make the room look basic and boring. Adding flavor to the walls will add character to the living room satisfying tastes for art and culture. Hanging framed art on the walls will not only ace aesthetic value but it tends to draw attention to a particular wall. Regardless of whether you want it hung or just leaning on the wall, ensure to organize them according to scale, color, material, and finish. The arrangement of the fine pieces matters how you want the living room walls to look. Make the walls look less timid and highlight its features with ambient lighting. Using track lights, wall sconces, or even recessed lights will help in highlighting the details of the piece of art. Besides, placing them in the walls means they are worth looking at. The combination of colors and materials of the frame helps in bringing a more vibrant outlook for a living room.
10. Minimize the Use of Window Treatments
Maximizing the use of an artificial lighting source requires minimal use of window treatments. At some point, not all are fond of having a living room looking too bright to even look at in the morning. Thus, the use of curtains, blinds, and other types of window treatments. We only want to acquire light and not heat and that is the common challenge of designing a bright ambiance for a living room. It would be best to work with thin or sheer materials for the window treatments. This way, the acquisition of natural lighting is managed and at the same time, the heat from the sun is at a minimum. Besides, the hot temperature for a living room will contribute to the factors why most people barely use it during the day. Sustainable ideas will save you energy and money in making the living room be more functional any time of the day.
11. Feed Empty Spaces with Indoor Botanical Plants
What better way of making a living room look vibrant and refreshing than using indoor botanical plants distributed throughout the space. There will be times when designing a living room can tap empty spaces, especially in the closed corners. Instead of making it look awkward and boring, a fine piece of the plant would suffice. Apart from the refreshing feeling it contributes to the entire room, plants also help in inducing natural ventilation. It keeps a space cooler than it is supposed to be. In addition, it helps in purifying the circulating air too.
