Fill Your Home With Sunshine*

Since moving house a few weeks ago, my mind has been firmly on home decor! I love our new home but if there was one thing I could change, it would be the lighting in our living room - there is one small window in the front and one small window in the back but as its a very long room we don't get much light in and so it can seem quite dull and dark. I've been thinking about various ways of making it appear lighter, and have come up with the following.... 1. Painting   Light colours, such as white and off-white, reflect more light and so automatically make a room appear much brighter.  If you have a dark existing paint and you want to paint a light color over it, you will have to prime the wall and paint it two or three times to cover the old color (We found this out when trying to paint Tyne's nursery baby blue- over the original HOT PINK paint that was in there - eeek!).  2. Mirrors  Using mirrors will make the room seem larger and they will reflect the light you already have with no additional electricity use! The larger the mirror, the better - and if you invest in a nice ornate one they can really become a gorgeous focal point in the room! 3. Glass panel stair infils   If you have stairs in the room, using these glass panels can really help in brightening the room as they have much the same effect as mirrors - making the space appear larger and opening the room out. 4. Glass doors   If you do have doors in the room, using glass ones can again make the room appear much larger and more open - and if the doors are outward-opening onto a patio or similar then using as much glass as possible in them obviously lets in the maximum amount of light - the bi-folding doors in this image are a perfect example of this! 5. Sheer Curtains   If you can get away with no curtains and a simple blind instead all the better, but if your room really needs curtains to feel comfortable, choosing sheer fabrics will help filter in the daylight, rather than blocking it Do you have your own tips for creating a light space? As always, I'd love to hear from you!