Apartment Lighting Ideas to Brighten Your Space

Lighting is a key element of your rental environment. For some renters, it’s a top priority, whereas for others it might be something they notice after the fact. Even if natural light in your apartment isn’t something you’re concerned with, a lack of it can make your space feel dark and small and even impact your overall health. Luckily there are ways lighten your space up with minimal time and effort.

Why Do You Need Natural Light?

If you’ve ever felt a little glum as summer and fall give way to the shorter days of winter, then you know the impact that sunlight has on your mood. Natural light in your apartment or house isn’t just beneficial for your vitamin D intake, but it can also change the way you perceive your space.

Opaque window treatments, obtrusive furniture, and dark color pallets can make your space feel smaller, and if you already live in a small apartment or studio, you want to maximize your space. Natural light can also impact your daily routine. You might find it easier to get up in the morning and sleep soundly through the night in a space that lets in more light throughout the day.

Living Room Lighting Ideas

1. Paint your walls a lighter color. Your walls encompass the most surface area in any room, so if your landlord will let you paint, try throwing on a crisp shade of white or any lighter shade of a saturated color.
2. Lighten up your furniture. If you have any dark textiles or dark wood furniture in your space, consider painting it or reupholstering it. If you have some prized wood pieces that you don’t want to paint, you can also lighten the wood’s appearance with stain lighteners or oxalic acid – also known as wood bleach.
3. Add floor lamps to amp up the lighting. It’s no secret that overhead lighting isn’t the most flattering. To add some more visually pleasing lumens to your room, consider some standing floor lamps that point at the ceiling to visually add height to the room.
4. Put down a light-colored rug. Distract your eye from dark wood floors by adding a rug with bright colors or a more neutral color pallet.

Dining Room Lighting Ideas

1. Hang a chandelier for eye-catching lighting. By adding a hanging light fixture you’ll add both an appealing design element and additional lighting.
2. Place candles strategically (and safely). Candles can elevate any space, especially your dining area. Consider placing candles of different heights and sizes to increase the light output and make an attractive centerpiece on your dining room table.
3. Avoid heavy, large furniture. If your room feels especially dark, take a look at your furniture. Are your table and chairs one continuous piece from the floor up? Look for more structural pieces with thinner legs that let light through the base and lessen the visual impact.
4. Use shiny or glass surfaces. Look for a glass tabletop or any reflective piece of furniture. You might not want a mirrored chair, but anything that isn’t matte and reflects light will help open up the space.

How to Bring More Natural Light Into Your Apartment

1. Angle your furniture towards natural light sources. This especially goes for your bedroom and living room. Try placing your bed under a window or near a natural light source. Place your sofa in front of a window to expand your view.
2. Use mirrors to your advantage. The right size and proper placement of a mirror can make a space feel much larger. Make a mirror the focal point of the room to bounce light around and open up the space.
3. Use white lamp shades (and brighter bulbs). Increase the impact of your lighting fixtures by swapping out any dark or patterned shades with white ones. You can also up the power of your bulbs or change the color temperature to amp up the light output.
4. Ditch the dark curtains. You obviously want privacy in your home, but reevaluate the opacity and color of your curtains and drapery to let in more light while still preserving your privacy.

Other Ways to Add Light to Your Space

You can follow a similar routine in nearly every space in your rental, such as adding floor lamps and ditching dark color pallets. But there are a few other tricks you can use to make your space seem brighter.

Try using open shelving in your kitchen or other areas where you instead have closed cabinets. Open shelves lessen the visual impact on your walls and allow light to spread more evenly across the surface.

Use matte paint. Seems counterintuitive right? You would think that semi-gloss paint with its more reflective appearance would help lighten up a space, but in fact it’s just the opposite. Semi-gloss paint absorbs sunlight (which is why you can see those reflections more easily). Matte paint spreads light more evenly and can help your space feel more open.

Make sure to clean your windows, lampshades, and light fixtures. It sounds obvious, but crystal-clear windows and light fixture housings can let more light through. Even if you think your fixtures are clean, give them a good dusting and cleaning with the appropriate products. You might notice a huge difference.

Natural light might seem like a small factor to consider when you first move into a rental, but the amount of natural light in your space can affect almost everything in your home. If you want to lighten things up as it were, change your color pallet to something light and/or more vibrant. Paint your ceiling white, look for less obstructive furniture, strategically place mirrors, and make sure your fixtures are clean! Good luck, renters.