Making sure that your living room is warm and inviting is often a challenge. Decorating trends change all of the time. If you have just bought a property with a dark living room, you are probably looking for ways you can improve your living room lighting on a budget.
Changing The Color On The Walls
If the walls are currently dark, or painted with matt paint, investing in new wall colors is worth your while. There are many colors that work well in living rooms. Two of the best colors include off-white or yellow. As well as brighten up the room, they are easy on the eyes at the same time.
Yellow and off-white are easy colors to match. You may want to match them with bright colors such as green or red. When you want to tone down the impact of yellow, you can try adding a brown or maroon sofa and rugs to your living room.
Mixing and matching colors can brighten up your living room and have a positive impact on the overall effect of light.
Change The Drapes
Is the problem dark drapes? Dark window drapes can reduce the amount of light that naturally comes into your living room. A good idea would be to swap out the old drapes for sheer lightweight drapes or nets. That way, outside light will flood into your living room and brighten it up. Later at night, you may want to shut the dark out and prevent others from seeing into your home.
If you are concerned about others looking in, investing in blinds is a good idea. A few years ago, blinds were only available in dark materials. Now, thanks to new exciting and easy clean materials, blinds are available in all sorts of bright colors.
What About Adding Mirrors?
Having a few well-placed mirrors on the walls will increase the effect of living room lighting. When you shop in furniture stores, you may have noticed that mirrors are often put to good use.
A mirror will bounce the light around your living room. Having mirrors placed in a few locations around your living room will pick up both natural and artificial light.
Playing Around With Light
If you are not sure what kind of lights and lamps would look good in your living room, why not check out Pinterest.
This user-friendly site is packed with all sorts of easy-to-follow ideas on lighting.
Today, there are many different styles of lighting. It all depends on what effect that you are trying to achieve.
When you want your living room to be a peaceful space, using up-lighters and smaller lamps is a great idea.
If you are after a very bright living room, add plenty of ceiling light, and don’t be afraid to turn to technology. LED light bulbs in the ceiling can luck amazing.
What About Small Fairy Lights?
Smaller light chains and fairy lights are popular. The problem is that they are not very bright. They make look great draped over your fireplace at certain times of the year or on a plant.
Many of us do really like fairy light and lighting chains. You can use them to create bright focal points throughout your living room.
Simply put them together in a glass object and you will have instant light. You can try using a vase or a glass wine cooler. Using lots of different fairy lights can light up dark corners without forcing too much light on other areas.
What About Candles?
Candles are great but they really don’t throw out as much light as electric and natural light. But, that being said, they are great when you want to create a certain atmosphere. Perhaps you could place a few big candles on a table or sideboard.
Are Lights Cheap?
Before you start lighting up your living room, it is a good idea to set yourself a budget. How much do you want to spend?
Look out for stores that are running special offers or go online. Amazon is a great place to pick up lighting ideas, but there are also online stores that have many unique living room lighting fixtures. After all, not all living rooms need to look the same. You want your living to have the wow factor when it comes to light.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
Speak Your Mind