Anyone else have a living area that doesn't get much light?

10 years ago

Due to our screened porch on the back and large covered porch on the front, our living room doesn't get much natural light. There are two regular 3'0/5'2 windows with transoms, so not the largest windows considering there are 11' ceilings in this room. We're out in the woods also, so trees block some light. Dimensions are 16x16 and it's open to the kitchen/dining and the large foyer.

I feel like we'll always have to have a light on in that room in order for it not to feel dim. Please tell me we're not the only ones with a room like this.

So, what did you do to compensate for the lack of natural light? Sheetrock is finished, so I'm trying to pick paint colors now. I've just read that choosing light/white colors does not always help (not that I would do white anyway), and that deeper colors can make a brighter impact. I would love to do blues or greens, but I'm afraid of making it look darker. Any advice is appreciated! :)

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Comments (8)

pps7
10 years ago
Go for cozy and use a dark rich color. Make sure you do have alot of layers of artificial light. Overhead+lamps.

Our library is not as bright as our family room{{gwi:807}}. We opted for darker richer colors in the library vs. white walls in the family room. I also added lamps even though we have recessed lighting.

I would go for a dark teal or navy ( hale navy), but do these colors go with the rest of your decor or are you starting from scratch? A dark brown or charcoal (kendall charcoal or fairview taupe)can also look very nice, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a "color".

This is BM kingsport gray. It's a bright room, but even with the drapes closed the color looks great.

This is the library that isn't very bright:

Compare this to the family room which is very bright so can handle white walls:

This post was edited by pps7 on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 20:52
cvazqu
10 years ago
Deleted- googled

This post was edited by chilibeans on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 16:35
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LuAnn_in_PA
10 years ago
Our north facing living room is stunning with BM Spoonful of Sugar walls, BM Wilmington Tan Ceiling and BM Mountain Moss crown molding.
niteshadepromises
10 years ago
Look into solar tube skylights (couple of different brands about). I hear they go in easy, even on existing construction.
auroraborelis
10 years ago
Solatubes! :) They offer the most light out of any of the tube skylight options.
pps7
10 years ago
Chillibeans, i know you found your answer on google but i wanted to share this link:

Has anyone used solatubes in a living room? Seems like it might look odd. I really want to put on in our staircase that gets no natural light.

Here is a link that might be useful: Light color dark room

This post was edited by pps7 on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 9:36
mdasay
10 years ago
We have a total of six Solatubes in our house! Two in our family room two in our kitchen one in our laundry room and one in our half bath. Let me see if the picture can paint 1000 words! You can see how bright our kitchen and family room is the little room to the left is our laundry room.
cvazqu
10 years ago
Pps7- that is actually one of the articles I arrived at from google! Ha! Thanks so much