I must be crazy!

I did my Craft Room, our Kitchen, our Dining Room and now it is time for the darkest and smallest room of our home:

The Laundry Room Makeover.

I love a good design challenge and I feel this room is just the perfect one!

Here is my inspiration board!

The fact that there are no windows in our laundry room and 

the fact that therefore there is no source of natural light makes this the ultimate color challenge.

How to bring light using color?

Three Easy Ways!

 

 1

Metallics, Glass and Mirrors

Use colors and materials that reflect light.

Metallic accents, glass and mirrors are perfect choices.

 

The picture above shows silver tones for a reason.

Golden and bronze tones will make a space warmer.

For a dark space, silver tones are perhaps a better choice.

I chose two bathrooms without windows to show you how silver metallics will make

a room lighter verses gold tones.

 

Silver Bathroom

Pinned Image

 

Gold Bathroom

Pinned Image

 

Do you see what I am talking about?

 

2

Cool Colors

Darker the room more I would advice to stay also in the cooler side of the color wheel,

especially when it comes down to the wall and furniture colors.

White, blue, gray, cool greens { with more blue than yellow in the formula } are perfect choices.

Pinned Image

From design-seeds.com

 

Warm colors such as orange, red, tan and yellow as the main color choice

 will make the room look darker.

They are fun colors but they work better in a natural lighted room.

Check this out!

Pinned Image

 

If you are like me and  you love warm colors as much as cooler ones

I have good news for you!

Use the cool tones on your walls and main big pieces such as doors and furniture.

To balance the cool tones you may want to use  warm tones with your  accessories.

 Light yellows, pistachios, salmons and red tones are delicious!

 Deep brown tones in baskets and hardwood floors will look great also.

 

This image below has pretty much the color palette of my Laundry room.

Notice how the big background is a light gray, the main and larger feather is blue { aqua }…

Pinned Image

{ picture source }

 

 

Here is another combination using cool tones as the main color or background

and a warm tone { yellow } as the accent.

So fun!

Pinned Image

From design-seeds.com

 

I want to point out something here…

What makes this image above so bright is not the yellow umbrella but the background.

If instead of the ocean the picture had a warm sunset the yellow would have not just disappeared

but actually it would have toned down the entire picture.

 

No way?

Let me show you..!

When warm tones are in the background and cool tones are the accents this is what happens:

Gorgeous and darker!

rio hues

picture source

 

One more… warm as the main color {background} and cool as an accent.

setting hues

picture source

 

Told ya!

Pretty cool… Ha!

Watch for those background main colors!

Think of your walls as the sky of a landscaping…

as the gorgeous background at the end of the horizon.

Choose wisely the color of your walls!

 

 

Light-bulbs

 

Pinned Image

picture source

 

What?

Well… the opposite of darkness is light.

White is your friend!

Make sure in a dark room you use white or ultra white soft  light bulbs.

Pleeeease stay away from yellowish warm lighting.

Not good!

Bad!

Really bad!

Let me show you the same bedroom with three different types of light-bulbs:

warm, neutral and daylight.

Ready?

 

Warm Light Bulbs

 

Neutral Light-bulbs

 

Daylight Light-bulbs

pictures source

 

That is the power of a light-bulb for you!

You can see more room and light combinations here.

 

So there you have it three simple tips for dark spaces.

1. Silver, Glass and Mirror Accents.

2. Cool backgrounds with a little bit of warm light accents if you like.

3. White Light-bulbs.

 

Pretty Easy!

Now I better go and finish my laundry room.

…By the way the walls are done!

{ to see more about these items click here }

 

 

Happy Friday My Friends!

Desirée

 

If you are new to my blog I want to welcome you!

I hope you stay in touch with me and  Subscribe to The 36th Avenue via Readers.

 

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