apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

What are some good colors, other than white, for a dark room? My living room has 3 big windows on one side, but none get direct light, so it's dark. Also kind of long and narrow. I definitely want color, not white walls, but I want to lighten up the room. Any suggestions? It has to work with rust colored sofas and medium-dark wood furniture.

What I really mean is, are all light colors equal for this purpose?

Not man ATers would go for this, but the English strategy of yellow walls plus chintz also works.

A friend of mine actually painted his entire bedroom in Benjamin Moore Bridal Pink (yes, pink). It really helped infuse the room with light and added just enough warmth. You could try a light warm gray too.

In your case; Maximum light = white artificial lighting. Color "eats up" light, that's how our eyes are able to "see" color. White reflects it, hence making it brighter. If you tint white with color, you're proportionately making it "eat" more light, so try to compensate with more artificial light, just make sure the outcome's balanced. A fun trick if you can't live without color is to paint your walls dark (almost black) making them visually disappear. By doing that and making your floors and furniture light or white and adding a few plain mirrors, a room seems infinite. It definitely takes a LOT more work to do this than to paint EVERYTHING white, but with the right execution it's a very cool effect. What I read on this month's Metro Home though, was to simply get rid of clutter and it'll immediately make your place HUGE (visually anyway). In other words, yes, there are many more ways, color combos, and furni arrangements to make a small space look bigger, but the ideas listed in this post are pretty much fool-proof, unlike most of the ones I gave ya.

EDIT: In your case; Maximum light = white PLUS artificial lighting. For some reason the plus sign doesn't show.

In my case I went overboard with light in trying to keep my studio apartment from seeming too dark. Now it feels as though there are lights and table lamps cluttering up everywhere. There's only one window, carpet is beige, walls are white. I can't change any of that, since it's a rental. Any good general suggestions? I like the idea of sconces, but I haven't really seen any that are rental-friendly. FYI, color scheme is black wood, green with lots of neutrals and orange accents.

mjoe, you could try browsing through the Small Cool Contest Entries for color ideas. All of these spaces are under 650 square feet, and there are a lot of long, narrow shotgun spaces.

I don't know - I find very little as depressing as a white room that doesn't get much light. A sun-filled white room is one thing, but a white room in shadow, all dingy and bland, is awful.

Yellow, cream, and the sort of yellowish "bridal pink" mentioned above all make a room look sunnier than plain white does -- pyewacket is exactly on target about ill-lit white-white rooms looking dingy and bland. The issue is that you don't actually want LIGHT -- you want the illusion of SUNLIGHT.

Just look into very light colors. They bounce around just about as much light as white walls do but obviously allow for a little more expression on the walls. I just painted my walls a very light cool grey ("Sterling" by Behr). My last bedroom was painted in a light blue, "Blue Mesa" by Ralph Lauren.

mjoe, I second the very pale blue. I too painted my bedroom light blue and, even in grey Seattle, the room feels full of light. I think any pale cool color would give you the same effect.

I have a tiny basement apt in the back of the building so I get almost no naturally light. When it was all white it was very depressing. I went with a very pale lilac with black trim in the bedroom living room, and a butter yellow in the kitchen/dining. The wall that divides the space is painted black and works really well to bring out the contrast and give a little depth to the place. I think I can still add a bit more lights here and there to brighten up a bit but overall I like the colors. You can see them in my cure pics, feel free to add suggestions, us cave dwellers can use all the help we can get:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12721467@N02/sets/72157602167088268/

Oh and lurker, try to put your lamps in maybe odd spots or behind things where you don't really see them. I put a desk lamp between my wall and my bed and it casts a really pretty glow without being visually cluttery.

lurker2200, ignore the rules for rentals and invest in some paint. I've made a deal with my past four landlords... let me paint and I'll paint it back to navajo (nava-NO!!!) white when I leave. I've only had to honor this bargain once. Usually the next tenants love the colors and ask the landlord to keep it as is.

wende in phoenix has great suggestions for color (see above) asdo other ATers. Best of luck andlet us know how it turns out.

Best of all is to invest in some light bulbs that simulate sunlight. The cost about $5 a pop, but they really work.

Man, I LOVE wood floors painted white!

That said, I tend to agree with pyewacket that an all white room without any sunlight tends to be even darker and depressing than one with a bit of color. I find white really only works well when there is a lot of light and color coming in and bouncing off the walls (or floors!). Sometimes when you have a darker room it can be best to embrace it and make it a nice cozy space, which has helped a lot in my apartment. We have a wall of nice red bookcases and a few rich brown wooden pieces of furniture. Lots of sort of autumnal colors have made it a much nicer space, and a lot less oppressive than when it was all bland white walls with no sunlight. I can't say whether or not it feels "larger" but it most definitely feels more livable, and ultimately that is what matters in our living spaces.

I have to say, though, I think my number one requirement in my next apt (beyond walls, rooms, running water and the like) is going to be an abundance of natural light! I never, ever want to end up stuck in another north-facing, ground floor apartment. I never realized how much i could covet a sun-filled room until I lived in my current space, it makes such a difference in quality of apt life!

My loft has a big window but since it's north-facing everything looks dreary/dingy all day, so I can completely sympathize w/ trygve. I recently painted a bright orange-brown accent wall and it made such a HUGE difference in the warmth of the space that I don't even mind having the rest of the walls white anymore (which is good, because the ceilings are too high to paint anywhere else!). I also have a fetish for paper lanterns so I always recommend them to increase coziness as they can add lots of soft, colored light.

@ mjoe,

I second (or is it third?) the pale blue. I have painted the floor in my darkest room at light Tiffany Blue, and even on the darkest, greyest day (I live in Denmark), the room has a fresh, light feeling to it. It's lovely, and I daresay it's one of the new neutrals, since it goes with a lot of different elements.