Home decoration has always been a hotly discussed topic. You can check this topic almost everywhere on social media such as Facebook communities or Instagram accounts with content about lifestyle and home decorating.
As you see the title we have put on, this article is all about lighting up your apartment. In the next parts, we will go further into how the dark environment affects us, and ways to brighten your apartment.
How does dark space affect us?
There is scientific proof that a dark environment affects us in numerous aspects, both positively and negatively. The three most evident factors that the dark space impacts are our sleep circles, moods, and productivity levels.
Sleep circles
Darkness helps us to fall asleep easier and faster. The dark environment is also advisable for bedrooms since it is the most ideal way to promote your sleep. For people with sleep loss, creating a dark bedroom is highly recommended, but for others, it is only advised to darken the bedroom at night.
Apart from creating a more compatible space for our sleep, it can be troublesome when your living space is unlighted. As the dark promotes sleep, it may make you feel low on energy and become sleepy at inappropriate times, especially for people who work from home. A greater problem which dark living space can create is that it interrupts or modifies your biological clock.
Moods
Many reports and surveys on how color tones impact human emotions have been proposed and some of them indicate certain results or apply to a great number of individuals. While bright tones can increase our moods and encourage us to participate in specific activities during our daily routine, dark tones or dark spaces reduce the production of serotonin.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter regulating our emotions. When we lack this substance, we tend to be in low energy levels. Individuals who spend too much time in dark spaces can suffer from anxiety or more serious mental health issues such as depression. The dark space can also influence your appetite, memory, as well as the sexual desire in a negative way.
Productivity levels
According to Dr. Steven Lockley from Harvard Medical School, people work more productively during daylight. More than 63% of the candidates he interviewed said that they could work faster and give out better performance at places with sufficient light.
Some studies point out that exposure to daylight helps us sleep better at night. Therefore, it gives us the energy to be more active during the day instead of the low energy levels. When in a dark space for all-day, your sleep circles and energy levels always remain unstable or insufficient.
Easy ways to enlighten your apartment!
In the last sections, we have explained the aspects that dark spaces can impact. In the following lines, we will go through several ways to light up your living space. The methods may be easier to conduct than you've thought of.
Adding light sources to your apartment
Lighting is the first thing you should consider. One of the most common reasons why an apartment looks gloomy is the lack of lighting. Some options you can pick in terms of light sources include fairy lights, candles, or other ambient light sources.
There are two main types of light, which are natural and artificial light. If you want to add natural light, the best suggestion is the windows. Bigger windows give us the sense of better natural lighting and enhance your apartment because they turn small spaces more open.
How you place your light sources should also be noticed. The best positions to put your lights are the ceiling and the ground. Placing lights on the wall is fine, but it is mainly applicable for fairy lights, and sometimes, this kind of light is not the most delicate for a few home decorating styles. Moreover, adding tall lamps for your reading area or corners is highly recommended.
The lighter color tones are advisable
Your apartment can't look lighter if it is surrounded by dark tones. Some people have a taste for dark tones as they think such colors are more suitable and make their apartments seem more modernized. In many cases, dark colors can make such a nice living space with a sense of elegance and luxury.
Nonetheless, other situations prove that dark tones, if applied neglected or inappropriately, can create a gloomy and heavy space. Hence, many decorators will go for brighter colors such as white, beige, and pastel tones. These colors are elegant but not parading, and they are favorable for numerous decorators whether they are home stylists or not. Matte colors instead of glossy ones should be added as well.
Mirror, mirror on the wall!
Mirrors are ideal items to add to your living space. They are easy to match with almost any style with thousands of options on the market. Mirrors are a great way to enhance the available light sources in your apartment. They are best to be placed near the light supplies to add up a better filter.
You can find plenty of mirror styles and shapes on the internet, furniture stores, and malls. A hanging or standing mirror is fine, the shape should be determined based on the space you have. Everything when arranged suitably will grow to its fullest potential and functions.
Embrace the empty walls and floor
For walls, we have mirrors and artwork. Since the last lines have already mentioned mirrors, this headline will focus on the artwork. Types of artwork that are recommendable for brightening apartments include pictures and special-shaped ornaments. These will be the perfect last touch for your living space.
When purchasing artwork, the first "should not" is extra pictures or ornaments, because they can destroy the elegant look of your apartment as too many decorations and too little empty room can lead to the "cheap" look. Each wall should have 1 or 2 large pictures or ornaments in maximum. Many small pictures and ornaments are not advisable since they can be confusing.
Now for the floor, rugs are edible. As aforementioned, purchase those with bright tones such as beige, light grey, or pastel colors. White is not the best option for rugs because it easily gets dirty, and the color white will not be original after a while of usage.
Home styles you may be interested
Last but not least, we are going to list some styles that are suitable for people favoring a light apartment. Our suggestions are:
- Beach house or coastal: when decorating your apartment based on the beach house styles, you will get a vibe of light and airy. It is relaxing and perfect for summer days. The main color tones are light blue, pastel yellow, white, and beige. You can place some darker items such as a wooden table, or vivid paintings on the wall as highlights.
- Chippendale: this is a home decorating style first appearing in 1754. It was impacted by the Gothic and Rococo styles. It is the abstract among white and other vivid colors. This will be ideal for young people.
- Danish style: Danish style is a combination of contemporary and modern decoration. It embraces the contrary among light colors such as white, beige, light grey, and bold colors. The light tones are used in major parts throughout the space, while the vivid ones are for accessories for highlights.
- English country: English country style focuses on warmth, coziness, and elegance with pastel color tones. Beige and green are the two most used tones in English country style.
- Minimalism: minimalism is a popular trend in recent years for home styling, lifestyle, and fashion. Minimalism influences other styles such as the Finnish and Japanese. Minimalism does not require certain details but focuses on the basic items for living.
Conclusion
This will be the end of behomemate article. There are numerous ways to brighten your apartment, including adding light sources, mirrors, and artwork. Another way to keep your apartment bright is to clean the windows often. Some styles are also listed so that you can take them as references.
