- Painting your cabinets a lighter color is the quickest and easiest way to brighten up your kitchen.
- Changing your backsplash to a light grey or white tile is a relatively easy way to add some extra brightness to your kitchen without too much effort. Try to avoid using patterned tiles as they can become too busy and can give a darker feeling rather than adding some light.
- Choosing reflective appliances such as stainless steel can bounce natural light across a room reducing the need to change much else.
- If you have darker countertops in your kitchen and not a whole lot of light a great way to make the room feel brighter is to change the countertops or paint and epoxy them. Using paint and epoxy is a little more effort but much cheaper in the long run. It also allows you to put your own personal touch to your counter tops.
- Installing recessed lighting or spot lights in your kitchen is an excellent way of making your kitchen feel brighter.
- Installing strip lights under your cabinets is a very simple and easy way of making your kitchen feel brighter with little to no effort. Strip lighting is very easy to come by in most hardware stores or online.
- Don't have your windows surrounded by deep cabinets. If your window is surrounded by deep cabinets the amount of natural light coming into the room is lessened. To make a kitchen feel brighter remove any cabinets that are directly beside the window and replace them with shorter open shelving. This will allow the natural light to spill into the room better.
- Changing the color of your walls to a beautiful bright color can really change how dark the kitchen feels. Most people think about the colors of their cabinets and the type of tile they will use but that is just one part of your kitchen. The rest of the kitchen can cause the whole kitchen to feel darker than it is. Try just painting the walls and see the difference for yourself.
- Using lighter flooring in your kitchen is a very good way of adding some brightness to your kitchen. If you want to have a richer color on your cabinets, but you're afraid the room will look too dark, try changing your flooring to a lighter color. Light reflects off of lighter colors and surfaces.
- Remove any thick blinds from your windows and use light mesh curtains or nothing at all. Having something covering your windows reduces the amount of natural light coming in. Light net curtains (Not the lace doily looking ones your grandma had !!) can be a great way of keeping your privacy without giving up the beautiful natural light you get throughout the day. Or if you don't mind people seeing into your home use nothing at all. Let that light shine straight through all day everyday !!