Brighten Up!

Toronto realtor Julie Kinnear wrote an interesting article about interior lighting - here it is.

Resources are tight nowadays, so many people are looking at ways to cut their costs and becoming more energy efficient. Regardless of why you want to cut bills there are several straightforward ways to improve energy efficiency and at the same time save you money.

Occasionally, you may realize that your home is too dark in the evening. Even though you light up all the lamps and crank them up at full power, you plainly can’t see as well as you’d find a comfortable level. Poor lighting makes you feel sleepy, consequently you have no energy on an evening as well as bringing about eye strain.

When this issue arises, people often rush out to buy extra lamps, stronger bulbs or even lights with more bulbs in. The initial costs of doing this may not be too expensive, but people tend to forget the costs go up once you plug them in: they need power to run!

Looking at different ways of brightening up your condominium or house often leads to your existing lighting becoming more effective. Make adjustments to your rooms and reduce expenditure by making some tiny changes to the house itself.

1. Paint the rooms in your property - this is the most straightforward way to lighten a room; don't forget you need to purchase lighter and brighter colours. Paints are sold in many levels of brightness and two types of white can have completely different reflective properties.

2. If you have darker walls or wallpapers and don’t want to be repainting think about purchasing/renovating furniture so that it’s not too dark. Dark wood can look gloomy especially in a tiny room, whereas something with a metallic finish can make a room seem brighter as it has a reflective area.

3. Use mirrors around the property to give a feeling of space and light. Mirrors produce a nice warmth in a room, they reflect light well and they give the image of a bigger room.

4. Clean the area and remove clutter from the room/rooms that need more light, this is especially vital if you don't have the time or funds to redecorate or buy new furniture. Everything in a room closes the room in and takes away light, removing items that are not needed or used can open the room up and make it seem brighter.

5. Maybe your drapes share a bit of the blame; pale curtains will throw more light back into the room than darker ones.

6. But before you make any major adjustments, see whether you can rearrange your lamps first. Change the brightness of your room by making use of what you already on hand, move mirrors and existing light surfaces around and change the direction of where the bulbs point to.

Source: http://juliekinnear.com/toronto-condos/guide