Rarely any apartment has it all. While yours may have a good location, a backyard, some extra space, and a good price tag, it can also suffer from bad lighting. Luckily, this is not a flaw you cannot mend. With an educated and informed approach, you will find it easy to transform your dark place into an illuminated and bright home. It will be my pleasure to shed some light on the matter and share with you the tips that will assist you with lighting ground floor apartments. Let us begin.

A great way to start is by choosing the right light bulbs

Consider this the basis of good lighting in every room of your home. Apart from being the simplest and the easiest, this is also the cheapest way you can enhance the brightness of your whole home. I suggest that you go for bulbs in the 50-watt range that have frosted glass. The latter will allow the light to disperse evenly through all of the room, while not being too bright and irking.

When it comes to your bedrooms and living room, I believe that Soft White works best (2,700 to 3,000 Kelvins, which is a measure of color temperature). Kitchens, bathrooms, and other brighter spaces correspond best with Warm White (4,000 to 5,000 Kelvins). Feel free to ignore anything higher as there really is no need for it. If you are looking for a brighter light, acquire bulbs that have more lumens.

Know what lamps work best with your home

Overhead lighting can either make or break the whole atmosphere of a room. A light that is close to the ceiling, shining bright and strong will make any space feel rather unpleasant. And while you do want to lighten up your ground floor apartment, you still want to maintain its comfort and coziness. With this in mind, I suggest that you go for a hanging fixture with milky glass, that will diffuse light. This is an especially great choice for your leisure rooms, like the living room, dining room, and bedroom.

Consider using mirrors to brighten up your place

The next best thing you can do is embellish your walls with some mirrors. It would be best that you place these neat light reflectors against the windows. This way, they will be able to brighten up your place to the fullest. What’s more, not only will this step ensure your ground floor apartment has enough light, but it will also make the place look more spacious. You can go for one great mirror on a wall, or better yet go for a number of smaller, clustered ones. They will provide the same effect, but have a certain artistic touch to them, serving as wall art as well.

Do not underestimate the importance of color

Most apartments in New York come with walls that are painted in a “warm white” shade with a tinge of yellow. And, if you have come by an affordable place that you can spruce up, but consider the previous steps not to be working, you should most definitely consider painting the walls. That default white color has a tendency of absorbing light, rather than reflecting it. Thus, the whole place gets much darker and duller than it ought to be.

If you want to stick with white, I suggest you go right to the source and get the whitest color, or the one closest to it. The only thing you want to be extra careful about is that you go for a muted tone. Even if you decide not to go for white, but rather opt for pastels, make sure that they are muted. They lift the brightness of a room, and rather successfully circumvent that nursery look and atmosphere.

Living room and kitchen

Considering the usage of these rooms, people often go for warmer tones when choosing wall colors for them. As they are places of gathering and lively action, you want the colors to follow the emotion. Lighting ground floor apartments is easy with certain pink, yellow, and orange tones. You don’t have to go overboard with their hue or intensity, just make sure that the color is fairly bright.

Paint your bedroom 

Cooler tones tend to be the safe pick for these rooms, as they have a calming effect. As mentioned, the lighter the color, the brighter the room will be. However, do not think that for the sake of lighting up your ground floor apartment you have to give up your vision of bolder, darker colors. After all, a bedroom is most often used at night. That is when you will turn the lights on anyway. So, if you want to have dark, deep green walls in your bedroom, by all means, do so. While the rest of your apartment is most certainly brighter with all of the previous advice used, you can spare one room where you will be able to have a more intimate atmosphere.

Light up your bathroom

When it comes to your bathroom, the light that comes in is vastly restricted by the size of the window, which is certainly not that big. However, if you have tiles on the walls, it will be easy to reflect whatever little rays come in, as long as they are light in color. Still, remember that you don’t have to replace your tiling just because it is dark. You could rather replace your current mirror for a bigger one, or add a couple of smaller ones. Feel free to install some light fixtures on the walls, or even place a lamp or two, depending on the space you are working with.

As you can see, there are plenty of easy and cheap ways that will make lighting ground floor apartments into a simple process. Still, I would advise you to venture into this process only after you’ve accepted the flaws of your place. You don’t have to fight every single instance. Rather use these tips to make the place exactly to your liking.

Author bio:

Deborah Levy is an interior design student. She currently works with dynamicmoversnyc.com to pay for her college tuition and loves using her free time to write articles on the subject of lighting, room decor, and furniture design.