8 Ways to Brighten Up Your Home During Cold Dark Winters
Winter is a time of holidays and festivals. With Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve celebrations, you can expect to have company over at your place regularly.
However, after the festival lights are switched off, the drabness and dullness of the short winter days can take over your once lively living room. The dry and dreary weather can make your surroundings gloomy.
You may want to lighten your spirits even after your friends and family have left. Use the following methods to brighten up your home during the cold, dark days of winter.
Use Bright Paint on Your Walls
It goes without saying that the paint job in a room significantly impacts the overall appearance of the room. The color of your room adds character and can make the space look bigger or smaller.
Initially, paint is essential to protect your walls, but a lighter shade can really brighten up the room. You can use a white shade to cover the walls of your living room. Paired with wooden floors and darker furniture, it can make the space warm and inviting.
This neutral color even looks great in bedrooms and bathrooms. White gives you the perfect canvas for you to reimagine your home.
If you already have dark-colored walls, you might think repainting your walls will be expensive. Great Guys Painting can help you find the best painting companies while keeping it affordable.
With a professional paint job, white walls can brighten your home even during the cold, dark winters.
Place an Area Rug in the Living Room
A dark home can be unappealing when many people come over for a movie or game night during the chilly evenings of late December. If you are the party-thrower in your family, you want to create cozy vibes in your home for winter. An area rug adds texture and warmth to your room. They come in different colors and designs to enhance the beauty of your space.
If your room is already painted in a lighter shade, you can go for a grey or dark brown fuzzy rug. For a more calming look, pale yellow, cream, and even natural fiber rugs can brighten up your living room or bedroom.
You can even adorn your dining space with a rug under the table or cover a large unused area right next to it. Area rugs make it comfortable to place your feet on the floor and brighten it during cold, dark winters.
Change the Light Settings in Your Home
Windows are usually a great source of light for your home. During winter, it is out of the question to open your windows as the dreary, dry, and cold wind will fill the interior of your home.
Your home might feel like a dark cave if you have the shades drawn in order to keep the cold out. Under such circumstances, artificial lights become your only source of light in the house. There is a visible difference in how a cool white versus a warm white light illuminates the room.
Test out a few lights to find the best fit for the room. Depending on your room’s position and interior decoration, different lights can be fitted to brighten your home and make it feel like a warm, inviting space.
A bulb between 2700 Kelvins (K) to 3500 K is classed as warm white light. The light is classified as cool white when the hue ranges from 6000-7000 K. Try to stick with bulbs in the former range, for a cozy space.
Hang Big, Bright Artwork
Decorating your home is something extremely personal. You will want to decorate your home to fit your own style.
You might want to decorate your home with meaningful home crafts, such as a family photo collage or small pieces you made together as a family. However, what will really brighten up your home during the drab days of winter, is big and bright artwork.
Keep the color of your artwork in mind before you hang it up. If your walls are currently a darker shade, you can avoid the extra work of a repainting job by hanging a couple of bright paintings around the room.
If it is the living room, you can hang a large sunflowers painting or use a bright portrait of your family for the bedroom. Consider adding colorful canvas prints depicting nature scenes, cityscapes, or even abstract art to other areas of your home.
Use Mirrors to Reflect Light
One of the cheapest, most artistic, and smart ways to decorate your home is using mirrors. It is especially helpful to make small spaces feel more open and roomy, not to mention a modern dining table and chairs sale UK.
Even though opening windows will bring cold air into your home, you can simply open the blinds to let natural light illuminate your space. An even better idea is to place mirrors facing the windows.
Mirrors are great reflectors of light. If the window projects light at the mirror, it will reflect it back into the room. Placing many mirrors in the room will reflect the brightness at multiple angles.
You can use mirrors of different sizes and designs to fit the decor of your room. Big square designs will go great in an open space, such as the living room, whereas tall, narrow ones can brighten up your bedroom or dining area.
Use Light-Colored Slipcovers
The furniture that stands out the most in your home is either your couch or bed. They take up a huge portion of the space in the room they are in. A couch works as the centerpiece of your living room, while the bed is the hero of the bedroom.
Putting covers on them is essential during the winter. However, a dark cover will make your room look darker and less spacious. Imagine a brown couch laying on a wooden floor in a room covered with dark paint. The room is bound to look dim and uninviting.
When using slipcovers, lighter, neutral shades are the way to go. Lighter furniture helps to reflect light around the room and gives it an overall brighter look.
It also makes your room look bigger and feel less congested during cold, dark winter days.
Make Smart Use of Accessories
Do not underestimate the use of accessories in decorating your home. They can make your house look extravagant or artistic, according to your taste. Pillows, books, magazines, plants, and rugs are great additions to any room.
You can use these extra elements smartly to brighten your home during the dark, cold winter days.
Accent pillowcase designs pair well with both dark and light shades of slipcovers. You can even add a bold-colored blanket on your bed or couch.
Place a few colorful books on your corner table to catch the eye and liven up the space. Plants put in simple, white pots can also add a lot of character and life to a room.
Using bright and bold color patterns on your rugs and curtains can also help to reflect light around your home and brighten it up. Place big accent lamps around the room to serve as decor and functional light.
If you accessorize correctly, your winter days do not need to be dull and bleak.
Declutter Your Home
Clutter around your home can make a room appear crowded and seem darker than it is. Take some time this winter to declutter and organize your things around the house.
The more stuff you have lying around the house, the less light can travel through. As a result, your home will appear gloomy. Nothing gives ‘I need to step out of the house’ vibes more than unwanted stuff lying around the house.
If you are unsure what to do with the things you are ready to throw out, there are multiple options. You can donate your things to those in need or sell them for extra money.
Your home will let out a sigh of relief if you manage to give it a deep spring clean before the dark, gloomy winter days arrive. Brighten your house by making it seem lighter and more spacious.
Final Thoughts
Your home can become dark and bleak during cold winter days. With a few steps, you will be able to brighten it up in no time.
You can start by painting your home with a nice coat of paint in a pale white shade. It will brighten your rooms and complement your light slipcovers. Add artwork, an accent pillow, and a big area rug to add character and liven up the space.
For an added effect, you can place mirrors across your home to bounce back ample light. Use the right hue of light for your rooms to make them look brighter. With these steps, you can curl up with a steaming mug of cocoa and enjoy a cosy and inviting space all winter.
*This is a collaborative post
