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Home Decorating

Lightening up a dark north room

15 years ago

My LR is on the north, and it's just dark. I painted the walls a lighter khaki color this week, but what else can I do? I have a huge 8ft window and just put up wood blinds but still it's dark. I have 4 lamps in the room, but can you have lamp overload? Even with all 4 lamps it's still not very bright. Any suggestions I'm not thinking about?

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Comments (4)

parma42
15 years ago
Do you have overhead lighting?

My preference is always for warmer colors, then if the room is dark, at least it doesn't look 'cold'.
caminnc
15 years ago
Do you have mirror/mirror's across from windows? Anything that reflects light (like silver,glass & gold) will help.
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Happyladi
15 years ago
I have a north facing living room, too, and I know where you are coming from. I think one of the problems with just lamp light is that most of the light goes down and is concentrated in small areas. The rest of the room is still dark.

I have three windows with a valance over them. My husband put fluroscent lights behind the valance and what a differece they make. You can't see the lights but they lights up the ceiling area near them and it really brightens the room.

I also think ceiling lights would work well to brighten the whole room. You could also look into those kinds of lamps that shine their light up to brighten up a dark area.
n2cookin
Original Author
15 years ago
I may check into getting a light kit for my existing ceiling fan. I have no place to put mirrors on adjacent walls as it's an open floor plan. You'd think with a huge 8 ft window it would be bright in there.

Remember when lamps use to put off a lot of light? Now their shades are all thick and covered with darker fabrics and a lamp basically does nothing.

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