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how do you brighten up a ground floor apartment

2 years ago

We moving into a ground floor apartment, however there isn’t a lot of natural light due to the balcony above. How do I make it feel lighter and more airy? I will probably have to keep lights on all day and night because it’s that dark. The current lights are fluorescent and although it definitely makes it lighter it feels very clinical.

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Comments (5)

Juliet Docherty
2 years ago
Can you post some photos?
Stef
Original Author
2 years ago
These are the pictures from the website, as we haven’t moved in yet.. all of the lights are on in the pictures when they are off it is so dark inside. The floors are a polished concrete with very white walls makes it feel very clinical
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Such good ideas from the both of you, hopefully we can move that wall as it makes so much sense now you say it. The roof light locations in the kitchen need thought as we plan to put the sink on the island but would like some pendant lights above so the roof light needs to be located somewhere else I think. I’m definitely thinking of making the utility room ‘3 units’ wide just because we have so much rubbish as well as a cat etc so we may make it a utility / boot room style area. For coats etc too. And then put a big chest (or tall freezer) next to the WM and TD, do you think that would work? (In addition to a 3/4 fridge 1/4 freezer in the kitchen). And put the hob and extractor fan to the left hand side of the kitchen and fridge on the return section along the utility wall. Do you think make the WC any bigger or is it ok the width it currently is? As it stands it’s probably only about 0.75 wide.. would you suggest pinching some room from the upper WC space? Not quite sure what to do with the under stairs area , they are slightly weird in that the stairs pitch up towards the front door rather than the other way round (lead up and away from the front door). Thank you in advance!! :)
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Hi Sophie I think your room is a lovely size with great windows - they need some curtains to soften that end of the room I would suggest. I particularly like your floor which is a warm colour. My choice would be to pick up the tones in the floor and use a buttermilk colour on the walls - something like Travertine mid from Little Green on the walls, travertine light on the ceiling and Travertine on the woodwork. If you banish the greyish rug and look for something either with deep pink or burnt orange colours in a pattern and pick that up in a pattern on curtains and some of the cushions together with a lime green and an aqua blue to add some freshness. I agree bigger plants and find a stand for a big plant. Lighting - if you can access the ceiling more downlighters would be great. You could change them all to dimmable and ensure they are warm light. I also use up free standing lighters. The one in the photo has three brightness settings and is great. If you repeat you bookcase on the other side of you door you could use LED light strips above those. We have some under and above kitchen wall cupboards which are on all day in winter in our east facing kitchen. They give a lovely warm glow. Carefully chosen paintings/prints to pick up colour from the sofa and rug and cushions. Have fun.
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Fiona Millar
2 years ago
What colour are the light bulbs? We changed some to warm white and that makes it bright but not clinical. Otherwise, I don’t know about clever tricks. The orientation of our house makes it dark so I just stick the lights on!
Juliet Docherty
2 years ago
Are you planning to make any changes to the current scheme? Flooring etc?

The most obvious thing to invest in is better lighting. Warmer lights and as high as possible CRI too. The colour temperture is one thing but low CRI are awful and depressing. CRI means colour rendering index and high CRI will give a much better friendly atmosphere.
Stef
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks for the information I had no idea! Would you suggest we also add in floor lamps with the same lighting tones? Or warmer ones for the evening time? We do want to change the flooring too thinking maybe wooden flooring?

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