Lighting up a room is often a very straightforward process, but this isn’t always the case when your room is small and limited.
Low hanging lights, large standing floor lights, and chunky wall light fittings can take up a lot of space in your compact room. So, you might need to find other ways of illuminating your small space that doesn’t detract too much from the overall desired ‘look’.
Here, then, are five of our favourite lighting solutions for small spaces:
Swap Out Curtains For Shutter Blinds
Your curtains might have a tendency to absorb too much light, which may lead you to consider replacing them with some blackout shutters or blinds as an alternative.
Blackout shutter blinds are designed to allow more natural light to enter your room when they are open, at the same time as giving you greater control over the light – including the option to completely shut out the light if needed or desired.
This provides you with more natural light that can be controlled and allows you to save on energy bills from electrical lighting.
This lighting solution can be perfect for small spaces, as the amount of natural light that shutters and blinds allow to enter your space will be enough to brighten up your entire room. Meanwhile, the blackout feature can ensure your space is free of any sunlight if you decide you want your small room to be darker.
Lighting for shadowy corners
When it comes to lighting solutions for your small living space, you will want to ensure the entire room receives an adequate amount of light when this is needed or desired.
It is easy for corners to become shadow traps in small spaces that receive less-than-ideal amounts of sunlight – which in turn, could make the space appear even smaller at night than it is.
By placing light sources in these corners, you can help eliminate this issue. This could involve placing lamps, nightlights, and electronic appliances like your television in the corners of your small living space.
Make use of mirrors
After you have increased the quantity of light in your space from either natural or artificial light sources, you might use mirrors to further enhance the amount of light bouncing about your room.
You can fit and hang as many mirrors as you desire, but having one mirror facing the window will enable light to bounce around the space.
Even if you have shutters or blackout shutter blinds, you could use the louvres to open them slightly and have light still enter the space and reflect off the mirrors.
Install dimmer switches
Dimmer switches can provide you with a degree of versatility that you wouldn’t have otherwise, regardless of the size of your space. They are particularly useful in small spaces with fewer light fixtures – since dimmers can be used to brighten and darken the room, rather than you having to turn lights on and off. Dimmers can even be used to change the mood, as you can dim lighting to create a more relaxing mood when you feel like it.
Wall and overhead fixtures
With any space, the most obvious artificial lighting solution is to install light fixtures on the walls or ceilings, or even on the floor in the form of lamps and standing lights.
However, in a smaller room with less space, light fixtures and fittings could take up a considerable amount of much-needed space, which could make your room look even smaller. Therefore, you should avoid low-hanging lights, large standing lamps, and huge chandeliers.
Low-profile wall and ceiling light fittings, such as downlights, LED panels, LED light strips, and recessed lamps, can be perfect solutions for those who want less space-consuming and low-hanging lighting since they can provide a lot of light without causing a ‘crowded’ look in the room.
Alternatively, if you have a small space where the sun is blinding on those hot summer days, you can install bespoke shutters which give you the freedom to adjust the lighting of the room for your comfort!
To learn more about the options of shutters and blinds we install contact our team!