How to Brighten Up Dark Basement Rooms

The plus side of the home I live in is that it is large, roomy, and comfortable. The down side is that my bedroom resides in the basement. The basement is finished, and it came out looking fabulous.

However, it is still a basement, and the windows that surround the basement are only half the size of normal bedroom windows, so naturally the rooms were originally dark, scary, and uninviting.

A few quick fixes made the rooms appear as if the windows were full sized windows, and a lot of it had to do with colors, fabric choices in curtains, and of course lighting. Basically you are creating the illusion that the rooms are just as regular as the rooms upstairs. If you are able to do that, most won't even realize they are entering a basement.

First you will want to choose colors that are bright for carpets, and curtains. Choose light colored grays or blues for carpeting, and choose airy light colors for window curtains.

My room in particular has a very light colored gray carpet. The walls are paneled, but not in the standard deep colored panel that most have. I went with very light gray and white paneling. It not only brightened up the room, but it also allowed it to appear larger than it really was.

For the window curtains, I chose a sheer light blue.

Lighting was what really brought the room into full bloom though. I purchased fixture that allowed me to add 4, 3 foot long light tubes. The tubes really added to the brightness of the room, which was usually very dull and dark. The large tube lights however made it very bright, but not to the point where things were blinding. (See example of light tube here)

You will want to add tube lights to every room in the basement to really add to the effect that the room is a room, and not a 'room in a basement'.

Adding wall light fixtures will also add some brightening flair to any room in the basement. However in order to really brighten the room, you are going to need tube lights. You can use other fixtures as well, but tube lights in my opinion are a must.

Light colored walls are also necessary. If you color walls a dark color, expect the room to not only look darker, but it will also make the look seem tighter and smaller than what it really is. To give the illusion of more room, paint walls white, or paint them in very, very light colors.

Some rooms that are finished in our basement do not have windows at all, so we really had to take extra care when adding colors and lighting to the room. The room initially was small, so we painted the walls white, and added white paneling. On the ceiling we placed a 4 bulb light tube fixture which really, really lit the room up. It keeps us from seeking out a window for when we go into the room, and makes it look larger than what it is.

The largest bedroom in the basement has the same 4 tube light fixture attached to the ceiling for a lot of light, but due to the rooms very large size the light is not too bright, and gives the room a very relaxing feel due to the light. What really makes this room fantastic though is the way we designed it.

When adding walls to the basement, we cut a large 4ftX3ft hole right in the middle of the wall where we later on added a gigantic fish tank. My turtle now resides there and the flat look always catches the eyes of guests. A very small nook for the filter, and storage of food was also installed in the wall. It keeps the messy stuff hidden, only displaying the beautiful tank which is seen through both sides of the wall. An example can be seen here. The wall however has to have a little bit of depth to it in order to pull it off. However the look is extremely beautiful, and can be done yourself. You don't have to be a millionaire; but you can look like one!

The soft blue lighting the tank gives off will also light up the room. So it's a win-win.
 
All in all, the best advice I could give for darker rooms in the basement is to light it up with light colors and strong lighting.