Rooms Dark Like a Dungeon - Suggestions?

9 years ago

We are buying a house that has a front porch and screened-in back porch across the back of the house. The living room, kitchen, and nook are like a dungeon....dark. What are some things we could do to make it so we would not need to have the lights on in the daytime? I know removing the back porch would be one thing, but we would like to keep the porch. Oak flooring. Brown walls in living room, yellow in kitchen. I know we could change the paint color. Looking for some other ideas.

Featured Answer

mdln

9 years ago

Solar light tubes or larger windows -

Was planing on solar light tube (reviews I read were generally excellent); however, once larger windows were installed on 2 sides of the room - it was enough to dramatically increase the amount of light.

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Comments (9)

azmom
9 years ago
You may add solar tubes and skylights to your living room, kitchen, nook and porch.

Our friend has a very large yet dark screened porch across the back of their house, adding 3 skylights made a huge difference to their porch.
User
9 years ago
Get a lighting designer to create a lighting plan for your home and an electrician to implement it.
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lavender_lass
9 years ago
Already said by others...skylights, light tubes and inside lighting. My only suggestion is painting walls with lighter colors, using a satin finish (bounce a little light) and mirrors. Hope this helps :)
renovator8
9 years ago
Flat white ceilings, light floors, and skylights in the porch roofs.
snoonyb
9 years ago
Is the porch screened or otherwise shaded?
divadeva
9 years ago
I took a page from Norway and used an extremely pale grey in my Northern facing house...Benjamin Moore's Greytint. I had someone ask me today in a puzzled tone how a North Face house could have so much light I also broke all of the design rules (light walls plus darker floor) and made the ceilings "Pure White, and the walls and floors light. Then I grounded it by staining all of my wood furniture black or painting it silver. I kept all of the tones in the rooms white, grey, silver, or black, with just a touch of brown. The result is gorgeous.
worthy
9 years ago
Now that you know, take one step at a time. First, the paint, then the rest as necessary. Otherwise you may find it too bright.

I happen to like dark interiors--say the Red Wedding dining hall in Games of Thrones--but build with large windows and "California" shutters. So when showing the home for the inevitable sale, we fold them back and the cursed light floods in.
lam702
9 years ago
First paint the ceilings white, then the walls something very light, you can use color, but make sure its just a hint of color, such as an icy gray, or blue, whatever shade as long as its very pale. This alone will help tremendously. Skylights are great, if your house is such that they will work (if there is a 2nd story above, not sure how you could do a skylight on the first floor, but maybe someone can offer suggestions on this) Brown walls are too dark, deep shades can be beautiful in some larger homes with a lot of natural light, but in small, dark homes it feel too claustrophobic to me.