How Can I Brighten Up My Basement Family Room?

Due to being underground or partially underground, your basement area could appear just a bit gloomy. And so, you find yourself asking: How do I make my new family room brighter? Don’t worry, because we have put together the easiest ways to make your basement brighter and livelier.

To brighten up your basement family room, you should:

• Allow natural light to enter your basement.
• Add mirrors and reflective surfaces.
• Choose bright colors for the walls and furniture.
• Install enough lights for your basement.

The steps above can quickly make your basement brighter, but how will you accomplish them properly? What should you do to increase natural light? Can you fake natural light? Continue reading to learn the answers to these questions and more about making your basement brighter.

How Best To Brighten Your Basement Family Room

Turning your basement into a family room gives you an entirely private, secluded area specifically made for fun and entertainment. To make the room as cozy as possible, you might as well start following these steps:

1. Allow Natural Light To Enter Your Basement

The quickest and easiest way to make your basement family room brighter is to allow more light to enter. This task, however, can prove to be difficult since the room is underground.

In order to get natural light to enter the underground, you can make your basement windows bigger. Windows like the egress window can allow external light to seep into the family room. Alternatively, you can get the same effect by adding more windows to your basement.

2. Add Mirrors And Reflective Surfaces

Strategic placement of reflective surfaces such as mirrors can help brighten any room, especially the basement. Mirrors help light up the room because once they get hit by external and internal light sources, they reflect the light all throughout the room.

With that in mind, you should place mirrors on the wall directly opposite the windows. That way, all rays of light that enter from the outside immediately get bounced around the room.

It would also help if you add reflective decors in your basement. Something as simple as a glossy coffee table in the middle of the room can help light your basement up.

3. Choose Bright Colors For The Walls And Furniture

The idea of choosing bright colors operates under the same idea as adding reflective surfaces. Bright colors such as whites, yellows, and light grays reflect light better. In contrast, dark colors absorb light, making the room darker.

It would be best then to paint your basement family room with bright hues. It would also help to add bright-colored carpets, table cloths, and decor to add more personality and brightness to the basement.

4. Install Enough Lights For Your Basement

If you follow all of these steps and the lighting still feels inadequate, then you might need to install more light in your basement. You can add light sources by simply adding recessed light bulbs or placing lamps around the room. 

How Do I Get More Natural Light In My Basement?

Adding more windows or making them bigger will easily allow more light into your basement. However, you can maximize light entry by changing the type of window used.

One of the best types of windows to get more natural light into your basement is the egress window. An egress window is a large window that is large enough to be used as a secondary exit point. Due to the size of the window, it can easily allow more light to enter the basement.

You can also have sun tunnels installed into your basement. Sun tunnels or skylights are tubes lined with highly reflective material, with one end outside (usually on the roof) and the other in the area you want to light. 

Sun tunnels reflect sunlight and other external light into the room. Not only will these tunnels make your basement brighter, but they will also help you save electricity and give your room a warmer feel. 

In addition to sun tunnels, you can also construct light wells. For a basement underground, light wells can look highly similar to skylight windows and are perfect for basements with areas directly under the sky.

What Colors Brighten Up A Basement?

The colors that can lighten up your basement are the ones that reflect the most light. As such, a neutral white-colored wall may be the best to make your basement look bright and well-lit.

If you are looking to add more personality to your basement, then you can go for other light shades. Powder blue, ocher, pale yellow, and light greens and pinks would reflect the light well all around the basement.

How Can I Make My Basement Family Room Look Good?

Your basement family room can look as good as you want, depending on what you see as beautiful or pleasing. You can add decor and furniture that fit your interests. 

Although the idea of beauty is subjective, there are more general ways to make your basement look good. One of these ways of increasing beauty is placing indoor plants.

In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, indoor plants can bring numerous benefits. They can help improve the quality of indoor air and reduce your overall stress levels, which can help you unwind better in the family room after a long day.

You can hang bright-colored paintings on the walls to combat monotony. You can also hang wall decor and family photos alongside the paintings.

You can also decorate the basement family room to fit a certain motif. You can choose pieces of furniture and decor that follow a color, theme, or have it take after your favorite TV show.

How Many LED Lights Do I Need In My Basement?

LED lights are great options for lighting basements as they emit bright light while being energy efficient. However, the number of lights you need for your basement depends on how big your basement is. 

One recessed LED light in the basement is enough to cover 70 square feet. The number of light bulbs you use also depends on how bright you want your basement to be.

How Do You Fake Natural Light In A Dark Family Room?

The quickest way to fake natural light in a dark family room is to install light bulbs that emulate natural light. Light bulbs with a color temperature of 5000K are very close to natural daylight; however, they are incredibly bright.

You can also install smart light bulbs and lamps so that you can set the light’s brightness and hue to your liking. In addition, smart light bulbs and modern lamps can often be scheduled to turn on automatically during sunrise or dim during sunset, mimicking natural light sources.

In Summary

Brightening up your basement family room is a relatively easy task. Firstly, you should allow more natural light in by installing numerous large windows and sun tunnels. It would be best to add elements to your basement that will help spread all the entering light throughout the entire basement.

You can spread the light by simply painting the walls with bright colors and placing bright and glossy furniture all over the family room. Once everything is done, all that is left is to place artificial light sources and enjoy your new, well-lit family room.