What to do if there is a lack of natural light in the apartment. More light! Eight ways to make your home brighter How not to go wrong with the choice of lighting for a dark room

21.09.2023

Ecology of life. Interior design: The amount of daylight in a room is a very important component of comfort and well-being. Unfortunately, in the middle zone, the problem of lack of sun and natural light is relevant in many residential and office premises: a chronic lack of sun and daylight negatively affects our performance, health and mood.

The amount of daylight in a room is a very important component of comfort and well-being. Unfortunately, in the middle zone, the problem of lack of sun and natural light is relevant in many residential and office premises: a chronic lack of sun and daylight negatively affects our performance, health and mood. WeWe have prepared a number of tips on how to solve this problem.

How to increase the amount of daylight indoors?

There are practical techniques that don't just create the illusion of a brighter space, but actually increase the light. All of them are in one way or another connected with windows, more specifically, with the removal of all excess from the glazing surface. All opaque objects covering the window glass reduce the amount of light entering the room exactly as much as their area covers the area of the window. Transparent objects also shade the room, but to a lesser extent.

Curtains, drapes, and lambrequins can greatly reduce the flow of daylight entering a room if they cover even a small part of the window. Our expert advises: “Do not use dark, heavy textiles and massive curtains. It’s better to hang transparent light tulle in a pastel shade, which will make the interior more airy and bright.”

Think about whether you can hang the curtains in such a way that they cover as little window area as possible, or even replace them with lighter, lighter and more transparent ones?

Tulle and blinds, completely covering the window, block out a large amount of daylight. If you live in a very dark space, do you need these decorative items? You may be able to do without them, thus increasing the light level.

Mosquito net. If you have a green mosquito net on your window, replace it with a white one - it will let in more light. Do not forget to regularly change the nets, because dust and dirt quickly accumulate on them, which prevent not only light from entering the room, but also fresh air during ventilation.

Any other items that block the window: too large indoor plants or too many flowers on stands and hanging pots, storing large items on the windowsill and anything else that significantly covers the surface of the window and prevents daylight from entering the room. Think about whether you really need all these items and whether they could be placed somewhere else?

Balcony. Most often, the darkest room in the apartment is the one with the balcony. In addition to the objective reasons for shading, there are things that can be corrected. Sometimes objects are stored on balconies that block the window and block the access of daylight to the room. Some people decorate the balcony glazing with curtains, which also has an adverse effect on the illumination of the room. The same applies to drying clothes on the balcony. Try to exclude all these factors.

Washing windows. Everyone knows that dirt on the windows makes the room darker, so don't forget about this effective way to add some light to the room.

Mirrors, mirror and glossy surfaces. Visually expanding the space of the room, they reflect daylight and sunlight from the window, increasing the overall illumination of the room.

Ways to make a space visually brighter

Here are some useful tips on how to visually brighten a room using certain design tricks:

Do not place a lot of bulky furniture in a dark room. It is important to choose options that will include the necessary functionality, but will not eat up valuable space. Replace a large and tall cabinet with a hanging one, with mirrored or glossy facades; you can also illuminate it from below. Such hidden lighting will visually lift the cabinet and make the structure lighter.
Use light-colored furniture and only light-colored finishing materials. Choose plain wallpaper in a pleasant shade or smooth plaster. Large ornaments, bright photo printing and color contrasts are excluded here. Replace all textured and voluminous materials with smooth surfaces.

It is very important to consider lighting in a dark room. Replace the central chandelier with recessed lamps and place them evenly, for example, in a glossy light stretch ceiling. Thus, you will visually make the room not only brighter, but also more spacious.
In the work area and reading areas, hang a sconce or place a floor lamp - this will break the lighting into groups and make the interior more interesting and brighter.
A dark floor will also not work in your favor - in a dark room, make it light, while the doors can also be light, slightly different in shade.

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Window

Dark colors absorb light, light colors reflect. Therefore, the windows must be white. Choose white plastic windows or paint them with white paint.
If possible, then avoid curtains. Or limit yourself to tulle. If you need curtains, then let them be white, cream, sand or yellow.
Remove everything from the windowsills. Flower pots, framed photographs and other items. Let nothing prevent sunlight from penetrating into the room.

Mirrors

A mirror is one of the best ways to add light and increase the space of a room. Position it so that it reflects a window, chandelier, light wall or white furniture. The room will become at least twice as bright and spacious.
You can hang two large mirrors at once - on the same wall (like windows or paintings) or even opposite each other.

Furniture

Avoid massive furniture with a dark matte surface. Tall and large pieces of furniture (for example, a massive sofa and a closet under the ceiling) should be light. You can put a light cover on a dark sofa or chair.
As mentioned above, choose cabinets with glass doors, mirrors, and varnish. It’s good if the chair, sofa, bedside table or bed has legs. Thanks to the presence of legs, the furniture opens up space and does not block light.

Mirror surfaces

In addition to mirrors, other interior items - with shiny, glossy and transparent surfaces - can reflect light and increase illumination. This technique works: glass, metal, plastic, varnish, crystal, rhinestones, crystals...
Very useful in dark rooms: chandeliers with crystal pendants, cabinets with glass doors, silk pillows.

Lighting

First of all, check the main lighting: buy brighter lamps, a chandelier with more shades or with lighter, transparent shades, wash the chandelier (many people forget about this little thing if the shades are opaque).
If everything is fine with the chandelier, but this is not enough, then you need at least one more light source: floor lamp, sconce, table lamp, cabinet lighting.
To make lighting on the ceiling, it is not necessary to order suspended ceilings. You can make small sides around the perimeter of the ceiling and hide the lighting in them.

Room decoration

Many people know about the magic of white - the more white in the interior, the brighter and more spacious it is. But too much white is uncomfortable. Instead of white or together with it, you can use various pastel shades: cream, blue, light green, soft yellow, sand.
Pay attention to the floor. To make the room bright, it is better to use the lightest shades of laminate, linoleum or carpet. If your floor is dark and you don’t want to change it, just lay light carpets.

Color accents

Yellow, orange, as well as all shades of these colors, are subconsciously perceived by us as the color of the sun, and the sun is warmth and light. To make the room not only bright, but also sunny, you can add bright yellow and orange objects.
You can place a yellow rug on the floor of a dark room. You can hang yellow curtains, put a yellow pillow on the sofa.
Blue or turquoise accents will also make the room visually brighter due to the association with the sky or body of water sparkling under the rays of the sun. You can use them together with yellow.

No barriers!

If you're ready for a major renovation, consider tearing down part of the curtain wall. Sometimes even 10 centimeters, increasing the passage, can improve the lighting in the apartment. Instead of curtain walls, you can use glass block partitions and open shelving.
If you can remove doors between rooms, do so. If you need doors, let them be light and with glass inserts.

Main photo: unlimited.wptitans.it Other photos: pixabay.com

The lighting design of a room is the element that will turn even the simplest room into something extraordinary. Correct placement of lamps, their emphasis, choice of brightness and color scheme, competent play with shadows - and, of course, selection of the right control scheme will create an extraordinary atmosphere in the room.

But at the same time, we must not forget about the purely unitary tasks of lighting, so that this whole extravaganza of colors and shadows does not ruin your vision and cause depression.

Therefore, before we start choosing a lighting system in our room, let's delve a little deeper into the theory. Let's start with the types of lighting. There are two of them - natural and artificial.

Daylight

We need light not only at night. You can’t do without it during the day either. Therefore, what the sun gives us needs to be taken care of first.

Now you say, what can I do? I won’t redo the windows and whatever is there is what it is. But it is not so!

Natural lighting can be top, side or combined. The name is due to the degree of incidence of light. It is clear that combined lighting is the best, top lighting is a little worse, and side lighting is the worst. But for the most part, it is this type of lighting that most apartments and houses are equipped with.

Instructions for natural light require achieving maximum illumination in the corner of the wall opposite the window. Depending on the climate zone, the illumination in this corner should be from 2 to 5% of natural light on the street.
Does this not seem enough to you? But natural light on a sunny day ranges from 30 thousand lux. That is, the lighting in the corner opposite the window should be 600 lux. For comparison: the minimum acceptable level in one of the brightest rooms - the children's room - is 200 lux.

	But norms are norms, and sometimes there is not enough natural light. In this case, there are several options for solving this problem. The first and most logical is the expansion of light openings. But not everyone can decide on it, and this is a change in the design of the house, and it requires appropriate approvals. Sometimes it is enough to simply change the design of the window to increase the light transmitting space.
	A simpler option, in some cases, may be to increase the distance from the floor to the window. Even slightly raising the window by a few centimeters can significantly increase the illumination of the opposite wall.
	Modern technologies allow the use of so-called light pipes or tunnels, through which you can add a level of natural light to any room. But the cost of installing such devices is still quite high.
	The simplest, but far from the most ineffective, is to increase the amount of reflected light. As you know, light has the ability to be reflected from surfaces. And the lighter the surface, the greater the spectrum of light will be reflected. Therefore, in rooms with insufficient natural light, a bright interior should be used.

Artificial lighting

But, of course, the main emphasis when choosing lighting systems falls on artificial lighting. It would seem that everything is simple here, but this is far from the case. After all, in order to create the right artificial lighting, every detail should be thought through.

So:

One of the first tips on how to choose lighting for a room is that the lighting system should be thought through at the renovation stage. By this point, you should already know exactly the interior of the room, its color scheme and the main accents in the interior. Without following this rule, all your efforts will go to waste.
Only after this can you start planning the lighting. In any room, the main thing is general lighting. It should provide the required illumination throughout the room or in a separate area.

Typically, general lighting is done from above. This can be a multi-lamp chandelier and spotlights. Side lighting is used extremely rarely for these purposes, and only in exceptional cases. This is due to the fact that side lighting creates too many shadows, and to create a complete lighting system you will need a lot of lamps on all the walls of the room.

Note! Spotlights come in diffused and concentrated light. For general lighting, diffused light lamps should be used.

The second most important is area lighting. It is used in rooms that have several multidirectional zones, and when each of them requires its own type of lighting. It is desirable that these zones have not only light, but also interior restrictions.
Any lamps can be used for zone lighting. But, as a rule, each zone should have its own general lighting - and sometimes lighting that delineates the boundaries of the zones. And in some cases, local lighting.

Almost all room lighting options should involve the presence of the third most important thing - local lighting. It is best implemented through adjustable directional lamps.

The last option is decorative lighting. It does not bear any functional responsibilities other than creating comfort and focusing attention on interior details. Lamps of any type can be used for it. It all depends on your preferences.

Examples of lighting in different rooms

But theory is theory, and the best question is: how to properly make lighting in a room, consider specific examples. To do this, let's look at the lighting system and its regulation for each specific room.

Bedroom

Let's start with the most intimate room in the apartment - the bedroom. You don't need too much lighting here. According to the standards, 150 lux is generally sufficient here.

In this case, it is desirable that the light be warm. Light in the range of about 2700 K is considered warm. You can find the light range of the lamp in the product data sheet.

So:

It is better to achieve the overall effect using several diffused light spotlights. You can use a not very bright chandelier with a small number of lamps. The light reflected from the ceiling will also look good in a multi-tiered suspended ceiling.
Lamps on the bedside table have become an almost obligatory attribute of any bedroom. They should provide soft diffused light and completely eliminate glare.

If you like to read in bed, then you will need a local lighting lamp. For these purposes, it is better to choose products with adjustable light direction. The lamp itself must produce a directional luminous flux. By the way, for these purposes it is better to choose lamps with a neutral white color in the range of about 4000 K.
The last element is decorative lighting. There are several options here. If there are 1 - 2 elements that you want to highlight, then it is best to do this through a directed flow of light from the ceiling. If there are no such elements, then you can use lamps installed at floor level. They will illuminate the wall and create an intimate atmosphere in the room.

The lighting in the room can be adjusted using dimmers. Now there are devices on a remote control that allow you to control the dimmer from a distance. But here it should be remembered that diode lamps, as well as some other types of lamps, cannot adjust the brightness of the light flux.

Living room

Next in importance is the living room. There is no single style of lighting system for this room. After all, the purpose of this room may differ significantly, depending on your preferences.

If you need a living room to relax in a chair with a book or just curl up in front of the TV, then this is one thing. If you need a room for meetings with friends and noisy holidays, then the lighting system requires a completely different one.

However, any living room should have overhead general lighting. As in a small room, side-type lighting will not work here. Depending on the style of the room, you can install a huge beautiful chandelier here, or you can get by with diffused light spotlights. Sometimes general lighting is made on two levels. One level for quiet gatherings with family, and brighter lighting for noisy company.

If part of the room is reserved for a study or has another purpose, then it is highlighted with zone lighting. The style and type of this lighting depends entirely on the interior of the room.

Local use is extremely rare. However, if necessary, you can install a directional lamp. If the place that requires additional lighting does not change, then you can use a directional spotlight that will be directed to the required point.

Decorative lighting in the living room can be represented by directional lamps - to highlight certain interior details. Lamps installed at floor level with wall lighting can be used.

You can also experiment with the color emitted by the lamps and use diode strip to highlight individual elements - for example, a multi-level floor. Or, as when lighting attics, try to create a pattern with light on glass or a wall.

Children's

The children's room should be filled with light. The minimum permissible level of illumination for it is 200 lux, and is one of the highest values for an apartment.

For general lighting, it is better to use lamps that produce white light in the range of about 4000 K. But in the work area, you should use lamps that produce cold light in the range of about 6000 K.

So:

For the general purpose, its uniformity is extremely important. Therefore, the best option here would be to install diffuse spotlights. Various systems of dim or reflected light will not work here.

For children of primary preschool age, it is important to have a night light. This could be a decorative lamp on the bedside table, or it could be a dim lamp on the wall. For such lighting, you should choose warm light in the range of about 2700 K. Care should be taken to ensure that it produces a minimum of shadows.
A separate issue is the work area for school-age children. There should be enough lighting here for fruitful work. It can be implemented using directional spotlights. They will not only provide the proper level of illumination, but also visually highlight the work area.

Wall lighting of the room and directional lamps can play a decorative role. But it is better to abandon a variety of floor and low-mounted lamps in favor of safety.

To create a fabulous atmosphere, you can use fiber optic lighting or other similar devices.

Hallway

The very first room your guests see is the hallway. It should be cozy and bright here. At the same time, too bright light can cause irritation. Based on this, it is better to use warm colors in the hallway around 2700 K.

General lighting in this room can be done with diffuse spotlights, like lighting in a dressing room. If the room is spacious enough, then you can use the type of lighting reflected from the ceiling.

Local lighting is not used in this room. But decorative lighting can be used. This can be done using lamps installed at floor level; lamps on the wall look interesting, like in the video.

If you have decorative elements that you want to highlight, you can use additional lighting from niches, or use spotlights. Through the skillful use of shadows, you can visually enlarge the room.

Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in any home. This room often becomes not only a family gathering place, but also a place for discussing news, gatherings over a cup of tea and, of course, is a purely unitary room for cooking. Therefore, in the kitchen it is necessary to combine functionality, convenience and beauty.

In order to fulfill all these requirements, this small room is usually divided into two zones - the kitchen and the dining area. Lighting for these zones should also be made separate.

The photo shows general lighting for a small kitchen divided into zones

General lighting for the kitchen should be bright, but in the dining area it is better to dim it. This can be done by unevenly installing diffused lighting spotlights. In addition, you can use lamps of different color ranges. For the kitchen area these are white lamps, about 4000 K, and for the dining area - lamps about 2700 K.

For the dining area, it is now fashionable to create general lighting using low-mounted lamps. This has its reason, because in this way the light falls only on the table.

At the same time, such lamps do not require special brightness. Here you can focus on their appearance.

One of the main ones for the kitchen area is workplace lighting. Even the standards require it to be provided at a level not lower than 300 lux. You can do this yourself. To do this, you can use lamps mounted in a wall cabinet. An interesting solution is aprons that emit light, as well as fluorescent lamps or other luminous strips installed in the upper part of the apron.

Note! When installing lamps in a wall cabinet, make sure that they are slightly recessed into the furniture. If the lamp protrudes, it will give a blinding effect. The same applies to the luminous stripes on the apron. But you won’t be able to drown them, so you should use lamps that dim the direct light.

Decorative lighting for the kitchen can be very diverse. But here a lot depends on the size of the room. After all, decorative lighting in a small room is extremely difficult to implement, and often useless. Therefore, only owners of large premises should think about decorative delights.

The entire reserve can be used for this purpose. These include directional lamps installed in different places; this is contour lighting; This is the illumination of niches and the use of lamps of different colors.

Conclusion

Any advice on lighting a room, without a detailed floor plan, furniture arrangement and color design, is doomed to failure. Therefore, in our article we only outlined the basic requirements and focused your attention on important aspects.

At the same time, if you draw up a floor plan, right down to arranging books on shelves, then the most correct and convenient lighting system will be clearly visible. The main thing is not to overdo it with decorative elements. After all, everything in lighting should be in moderation.

Scientists have proven that in a well-lit room a person works more efficiently and rests more fully. The emotional component is not left aside: when there is light in the room, it is light in the soul.

However, not everyone can boast of housing where the abundance of light pleases the eye. For owners of standard buildings, it will be necessary to increase the amount of light not through design, but through small design tricks.

One of them is spotlights. They can be placed either near the chandelier or along the entire wall, providing sources of additional light.

The easiest way to the light

When you go to a chandeliers and lighting store, you can easily find an option to suit your taste. After all, the abundance of all kinds of options, from ordinary lamps to extravagant chandeliers, is simply off the charts.

You can also make a purchase without leaving your home. An online store of chandeliers and lamps will help you make a purchase in a few clicks. And after some time, your home will have as much light as you want.

Try increasing daylight

It is equally important for health and well-being to increase the flow of daylight into the room. In this case, it is recommended to do a few simple manipulations with the windows:

Place mirrors and reflective surfaces opposite the double-glazed windows.
Hang light translucent curtains on the windows, preferably in a light color or shade.
Free up space near windows. Ideally, they should be visible from anywhere in the room.

And one last piece of advice. To increase the amount of daylight in a room using windows, they should be cleaned at least once a month.

Street dust, settling on the glass, significantly interferes with good lighting in the room. This is especially true if you live near the roadway.

Each of us has wondered why we associate the autumn-winter period with worsening mood, drowsiness, decreased immunity and decreased performance. Basically, the body's defenses are reduced due to an insufficient amount of sunlight, the need for which is important for the functioning of the central nervous system, metabolism and the formation of the balance of vitamins.

Everyone knows that our houses use artificial and natural things. But natural lighting varies with the seasons, as well as certain weather conditions and time of day. Also, great importance is attached to the area in which we live.

Our country has special standards for natural and artificial lighting of all kinds of premises, depending on their purpose. But in practice, relatively dark areas of the apartment due to not particularly successful design solutions are very common. But not only planning flaws, but also external factors have a special impact on the level of natural light. For example, a built office center or residential building opposite your house, as well as the presence of dense vegetation of bushes and trees under the windows, can significantly prevent the penetration of sunlight directly into your apartment.

What to do in this situation? Try to increase the number and power of home artificial lighting? This method will not be a clear solution, because neither lamps nor chandeliers will take on all the functions of natural lighting. When a room suffers from a lack of sunlight, you can follow the following ways to replenish it.

Using all the possibilities for room planning

To visually make the space wider, as well as fill it, you can try to get rid of some partitions in the room that are not part of the supporting structure. You can also create double rooms such as kitchen-living room, kitchen-dining room or kitchen-corridor. For example, a studio apartment generally includes one single room, which is specially divided into various functional areas.

If you can’t do without clearly defining individual rooms, you can create partitions in the interior that do not reach the ceiling, or use translucent plastic or glass partitions that will not become an obstacle to sunlight. Also, sometimes you can find a design solution in the form of through holes or openings, which can be left open, beautifully decorating their borders, or covered with glass. Glass can be inserted: transparent or frosted; embossed or smooth; plain or with a pattern. It all depends only on imagination.

Large aquariums have recently begun to be used as a glass partition. This option will be a wonderful addition to the interior of hotels, restaurants and bars. After all, not everyone will dare to install an aquarium partition in their apartment, and the price of such an installation will also influence the choice of another option.

Window openings and their importance

It is a widely known fact that the sun's rays enter a room through windows and balconies. To do this, do not use tinted glass for glazing if your apartment needs additional natural lighting. The presence of vases, flower pots and other decorative elements on window sills also affects light absorption. It’s better to try using light, light and airy curtains (for example, organza).

Various household surfaces and their reflective ability

It is worth following one rule: how light the interior decoration of the premises is, the better it will reflect the sun's rays. Many apartments have white ceilings, which, in turn, is very rarely used in the design of floors and walls. If you are thinking about increasing natural light, you should try to use warm colors to decorate the room as much as possible.

This statement also works with the color of furniture in the interior. The presence of excess light colors is easily compensated by the use of various elements of darker colors. For example, you can order furniture made of dark wood, but with light upholstery. In addition, you can create some parts of the furniture from polished or glass surfaces so that they reflect the sun's rays.

An excellent option would also be a floor covering made of ceramic tiles or. But we should forget that textiles, which are used to decorate interior features, are also of great importance. The presence of decorative pillows, bedspreads, curtains and a carpet on the floor in light colors will fill the room with solar energy and help maintain a good mood on cloudy days.

We should also not forget about mirrors, which also play an important role in the interior, because they are capable of not only reflecting, but also directing sunlight to the right place.