How to brighten up your interior
Brighten your home with top tips from Sophie Robinson
Creating an ambient interior is an important factor in transforming your home into a welcoming and functional space. The right light helps to illuminate and lift a room, assisting with a variety of day-to-day requirements, from creating the right mood for entertaining, to brightening task spaces such as kitchens and studies. Anglian Home Improvements has teamed up with renowned interior designer Sophie Robinson, who has shared her tricks of the trade on how to embrace the use of light in our homes.
Interior designer Sophie suggests that the big question on all our lips is how to brighten up our home.
“One of the things most people ask me about a lot is how they can make their homes feel lighter and brighter,” she says. “Inspired by the fashionable Scandinavian look that celebrates all things pale and interesting, this burning question isn’t about to go away.”
To help inspire homeowners, Sophie has set out five easy-to-follow tips on how to inject a bolt of light into even the darkest rooms…
Choose your colour carefully
Rule number one is never go for pure white walls in a darker room, as it will just appear lifeless and dull. Instead, opt for gentle recessive colours, and pale tints with a cool hue like blue, grey, lilac or green, which work to make your room feel larger and lighter than it really is. Then, pop the colour in accessories and furniture for more depth and interest.
Embrace natural light
Make the most of natural daylight by opting for neat blinds at the windows, which can be fully drawn away from the opening. A roller blind that tucks into the recess will work a treat, or for something more luxurious, go for an interlined Roman blind, but mount it above the lintel so that it can be drawn clear of the window and let that lovely daylight flood in.
Highlight with lighting
Good lighting is key to any interior. The aim shouldn’t be to awash the entire room with light; instead, think about highlighting various key areas. For example, position a ceiling spotlight or low pendant light over an area of interest, like the dining or coffee table. Next, have plenty of lamps and floor lamps, ideally on a five-amp circuit, so that you can control them from the wall switch. This combination will create a layered look, which is always preferable to one lonely pendant light, or a ceiling full of indiscriminate down lighters.
Reflect the light
Use reflective surfaces to bounce the light around the room. This could be a gloss-painted floor, or even the ceiling! Alternatively, introduce glass, polished marble or mirror furniture into the scheme. Painting your windows and sills in a high-gloss paint also helps to bounce the daylight that comes in through the window.
Mirror image
Finally, a well-positioned mirror has to be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it doesn’t make it any less effective. Go large and position opposite the window to maximise its light-giving potential.
