The Best Tips for How to Brighten Your Home’s Interior

One of the best things about owning your own home is being able to entertain guests. There’s something supremely satisfying about looking around a room of smiling, chattering, partying people and knowing that you’re responsible for bringing them together for such a joyous evening. Unfortunately, however, the wrong home décor can put a damper on your plans, immediately setting a dour tone and getting the evening off to a sour start.

Whether you’re a real bon vivant or simply want to spruce up your home, here are a few tips and tricks for adding some much-needed brightness to your interior.

Natural Light and Light Colors Are Your Friends

First and foremost, when seeking up to brighten up both a room’s color scheme and overall mood, you’ll want to make sure that there is plenty of light. Even when they aren’t owned by the likes of Count Dracula or Mr. Rochester, there’s a reason why we immediately associate Gothic manors with gloomy settings dominated by dark colors in low-lit rooms. If you’re trying to create an open, vivacious living room or a bright and friendly den or dining nook, you’ll want to let some light in and choose colors that work well with light.

That means hewing closer to blues, greens, coffees, creams, and similar colors that do a great job of reflecting natural light. What’s more, while as we’ll see there’s a place for darker colors in a bright interior decorating scheme, you’ll want to choose lighter hues for the main body of your walls, ceilings, cabinetry, and other accoutrements.

Contrast Works

Of course, light colors alone can be quite limiting, which is why you might choose to accent some of those lighter colors with bold, darker accents for contrast. For example, if you are using an eggshell, beige, cream, or similar hue for your main color, employing coffee and darker browns can be a great way to complement these colors with a natural accent. This can help your brightest colors look even brighter by contrast, helping them “pop.”

Painting Brick

A popular trend in interior decorating today is to use red brick, especially in kitchen and den areas. This can be a great way to give a space a more bohemian touch and the red can be a good way to introduce some color into a space. For maximum effect, you’ll want to wash and paint your bricks. Black and white paint splatters can be a great way of adding some complexity, texture, and a dash of extra brightness to your bohemian red brick interior.

A Word on White

Finally, let’s touch briefly on white. On the one hand, it obviously pairs quite well with light to add a ton of brightness to a space. On the other hand, without any extra color, that brightness can feel more cold and clinical rather than warm and welcoming, especially if you’re using artificial lighting. As such, you’ll want to consider pairing white with another color so as to bring some warmth and personality into your newly brightened-up space.

With these simple tips and tricks, you can add a dash of brightness and humanity to your new space in no time.