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Living room lighting plays a huge factor in how we manage our day-to-day lives. If you really think about it, lighting is everywhere we go. Accent lighting can lead to dynamic environments whereas dimmed living room light fixtures can make a place seem more moody and dramatic.
But what happens if you don’t have proper lighting in your living room? Mary Lee Smyth, the interior designer at La-Z-Boy Kingston, says lighting can affect people’s moods.
“If you have the right living room lights it can make a room appear larger and welcoming,” she says, “But, poor lighting can make a room feel cramped, closed-off, which can in turn affect the way you perceive your surroundings.”
At La-Z-Boy Ottawa and La-Z-Boy Kingston, there are many living room lights that you can get, depending on the space you live in. In fact, any living room furniture in Ottawa can be well-complimented by our statement lighting.
Surprisingly a lot of people may not realize they have bad lighting, simply because they’re used to what their house looks like. However, with these helpful tips in this article, we can help you take off those blind spots, and help you figure out if your living room lighting is poor.
In This Article…
- Use Windows As a Focal Point
- Balancing Light with Mirrors
- Arranging Your Living Space
- Adding Solar Tube Lighting
- Adding Artificial Light Sources
- The Position of Where Your Windows Are Facing
- Repaint Your Walls
1. Use Windows As a Focal Point
Natural lighting is an important part of everyone’s life. Playing a significant role in our mood, natural light can help reduce levels of stress and anxiety and even help with those suffering from seasonal affective disorder.
If your living room has less natural sunlight coming in, your living room may come off as uninviting and naturally darker than other rooms. The best way to combat this is by assessing where your natural lighting comes from in your room.
If you don’t have a large living room window, one way to fix this is by renovating your room and installing a larger window. Larger windows can help create a focal point in your living room, which can, in turn, help you orient the way your furniture is laid out.
However, sometimes home renovations like this can take some time and can be more expensive than some other ways.
As we’ll explain in other sections, some cheaper ways to add more natural light can be by adding mirrors to your room, rearranging your furniture so that more light can come in, and removing heavy draperies that may be causing less light to come in.
2. Balancing Light with Mirrors
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If you have a small window or a large room, natural lighting might have a hard time reaching all corners of your room. One of the more common solutions that Mary Lee points out is to help balance your light through mirrors.
Mirrors are a great way to help balance the light in a room. An effective way to do this is by placing a mirror on the wall that faces your nearest window. With your mirrors now facing your window, your mirrors can help catch as much light as possible without any interruptions!
3. Arranging Your Living Space
Speaking of interruptions to your windows, however, sometimes the thing causing you to not have as much lighting in your room is… yourself!
What we mean by this is perhaps the way you’ve arranged the furniture in your room has indirectly played a factor in where your light is coming from. One of the biggest things homeowners should remember is to not obstruct your windows with furniture close by.
Not only could this be a potential fire hazard, but it could lead to your living area not getting as much natural sunlight. If you have the space for it, arrange your room to see what else you can do with your space. Who knows, you might even surprise yourself with the possibilities in mind.
If you’re unsure how to rearrange your furniture, an interior designer may have the advice you’re looking for. To learn more about What to Expect From La-Z-Boy’s Interior Design Services, take a look at this article.
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4. Adding Solar Tube Lighting
Sometimes a small change can make a huge difference, like adding a solar tube to your room. Becoming a popular modern lighting solution, solar tubes are an alternative way to add living room ceiling lights to your space.
The way this innovative natural lighting solution works is by using metal materials to help direct light into the interior of a room. The tube’s interior is also very shiny, which helps reflect light back and forth resulting in tunnelling that brightens and illuminates a lot of space without needing artificial light sources.
Not only are they energy-efficient, but they can lead to huge reductions in your energy bills. They also come at low installation costs, which can be great if you don’t have the money to install a larger window.
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Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to solar tube lighting, like taking into consideration the slope of your roof. Solar tubes can only be mounted to a roof that has a slope between 15-60 degrees.
What’s more, natural lighting can only come on sunny days, which means your solar tube can be rendered useless if there’s no sunlight outside.
5. Adding Artificial Light Sources
As explained above, natural light is not a foolproof solution. Unfortunately, there will be days that the sun will not shine. Rainy and cloudy days are inevitable, but that doesn’t mean your room needs to reflect that type of environment.
This is where artificial light sources can come in handy! Most living room lights can be categorized by three different types of lighting you can add to your room: ambient, task and accent lighting.
Ambient lighting refers to the general lighting you add to a space. Examples include living room ceiling lights, wall lighting and even floor lighting.
Task lighting is more catered to a specific part of the room, instead of the general space. This can refer to a reading lamp, counter lighting in a kitchen and cabinet lighting.
Finally, adding accent lighting to your room can not only help with illuminating certain places you want in your home that feel untouched but can also help personalize your living area in interesting and fun ways.
It is important to note that adding too much lighting to a room can also be unhealthy for a space. Finding the perfect balance between where to place lighting can help with creating a great living space.
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6. The Position of Where Your Windows Are Facing
Sometimes a lighting problem may not even be internal, but an external factor you had no control over. For example, maybe the windows of your apartment or home are facing the north side of the sky, making it more difficult for light to reach the inside.
Although it may seem like the odds are stacked against you in this situation, your living room lighting can still be saved. Using one of the methods mentioned above, bouncing the light off of refracted materials, such as mirrors, can help with bringing extra light into your room.
There are also some living room furniture pieces that can help with light reflection as well. Some examples include accent tables with either a glass top or metal legs. These reflective materials can help bounce off more light in the room, thus creating a more balanced room.
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7. Repaint Your Walls
Last but not least, one of the solutions to your dark living room can be as obvious as the type of wall colour you have in your room.
Some colours absorb more light than others. For example, darker colours can make a space feel more moody and closed off, while lighter colours can help make a room feel more open and airy.
If you feel as though your living room might have dark colours and are looking for a change, try repainting your walls to a lighter colour. To get inspiration as to what colours you might want to repaint your room, check out our Colour Trends article for 2024.
What's Next?
After reading this article, you now have a more comprehensive idea of how to brighten your dark living room with these 7 expert tips.
While you’re taking a look at furniture stores in Ottawa to help with your lighting, you may also consider La-Z-Boy as an option. La-Z-Boy also has a wide selection of stylish and various lighting that will fit in any type of living space.
Take a look at our subsidiary lines from Hammary, American Drew or Kincaid, to see what kind of artificial lighting sources best interest you.
You can start shopping by visiting any of our showrooms located in Ottawa or Kingston, or you can schedule a visit online before coming in.
Our design consultants are always eager to lend a helping hand. Take advantage of our interior design services to see how our furniture can fit in your home.
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