Tips to lighten a dark room

Throughout this rather warm and muggy summer we’ve been working on improving the garden. Trying frantically to overcome the couch grass and make a vegetable plot however the longest day of the year is gone and our thoughts are turning to autumn and winter.

Did you know we lived in a bungalow? It’s wonderful and we have plans to eventually move up in the loft. This jars slightly with a plan we need to put forward before the darkness of winter. From the living rooms to the bedrooms we have a long dark corridor which gains no natural light. Even if you fling open all the doors you can still feel the need for the light to be switched on. We would love to make this dark corridor a lot brighter. So what are our options if we wish to go up in the loft later on?

1, Add in light reflecting paint. Apparently they bounce around the light which is there to make it seems as though there’s more. As far as I can gather it’s as though there little bits of glitter in the paint.

2, Put up fake panelling. Rather like the above. Pop up glossy white walls and the light will just bounce around!

3, Not my idea but a friends – Remove a wall to make the bedroom at the side larger thus removing the corridor but make a walk way through the study instead. Wonderful but it would mean traipsing through my husband working at his desk every time I wanted to fetch something. Also if we have guests to stay it could cause some awkward fun situations. 

4, Install a solar tube. Reflective tubes that require a good size hole in the roof and space above and reflect light down in the dark areas. A fabulous idea BUT it would restrict if we went up to the roof. A long tube in the middle of a room could be off putting!

5, Install a Velux or skylight. It would mean making the ceiling higher but it’s an investment which if we went up into the roof would be incorporated easily it the design. A Velux lets in a great deal of natural light and also of course could be opened to allow for air flow too. They are now fairly inexpensive too and would make a stylish ceiling , just take a look at some of these design from the webshop Itzala

6, Lighten up the carpet. White or cream carpet would of course brighten up the passage way but although a lovely idea in practise but with two boys and a bouncy pup I have vision of the rug doctor being permanently on!

7, Replace the overhead light with soft perimeter lights. Use track lighting to light up the floor edges and individual lights over the pictures and mirrors. This could be a lovely interesting one and the floor lights of course could be left off for night time trips to the bathroom. Some of these by Houzz look fabulous.

So what would be your suggestions folks? I’m thinking the Velux or adding an awful lot more lights? Of course if I win the euro lotto this week I might try them all out and let you know which is most successful!