How to Brighten a Room

I’m a light lover. One criteria I have when searching for a home to purchase was that it had to face south and allow tons of natural light inside. Most of the blinds in my home stay open even. At night, we light up whatever room we’re in with all the lamps. I even find myself turning lights on at friend’s homes! Ok, I haven’t done that in awhile. I’m learning self restraint, but trust me, know that I’m thinking about it.

Light is a great mood booster and who doesn’t want to be in a good mood? What has been dampening my mood has been how dark my north facing family room and kitchen are. This area is the gathering zone for our family, where we spend most of our time and yet it’s a bit gloomy. I even painted the rooms a golden Blonde hoping to brighten it up. It didn’t solve the issue. Thankfully, we recently discovered one of the easiest ways how to brighten a room. Paint the ceilings!

The builder of our home had the entire house painted in an antique white. That ceiling looks antique! It looks dingy and dirty. Just look at the difference in contrast between the two shades of white! We bought ceiling paint from Sherwin Williams when they were having a 40% off sale. Their ceiling paint is very bright white. Did you know that you can have your ceiling paint tinted? We were getting ready to repaint all the trim in SW Extra White and our ceiling paint matches it perfectly.

Hubs rolled it on and then I cut in around the trim and edges with a 2.5” beveled edged brush. Before we started we covered anything that would be under where we were painting with drop cloths. That includes covering the furniture. Which leads me to a question I have for you. Of these two rollers you see below, which one do you think is the best choice for painting ceilings?

If you chose “B”, the thinner napped roller then you are correct! The ultra thick roller has a 1” nap and the thinner one has a 1/2” nap. My ceilings are very textured with a swirl pattern. So if you have a popcorn or textured ceiling, the 1/2 inch will work just fine.

You want to use a thinner napped roller for two reasons: 1) the fluffy roller will suck up an insane amount of paint (this gets heavy!) and 2) when you roll on the paint, the fluffy roller will spray a micro fine splattering of paint that will coat every surface under you, including you.  But if you enjoy scrubbing teeny-tiny pin point dots of paint off your counters, skin and hair, then by all means use the fluffy roller. Don’t ask me how I know this….(ahem)…. just trust me on this one.

We were so shocked at how much brighter the room was that we then decided to paint the kitchen ceiling, and that room leads to the computer room ceiling, and then there was hallway ceiling, and the powder room ceiling. Once you start, you can’t stop! We still have to do the dining room and the music room. The freshly painted ceilings reflect so much light from the windows now that I find myself not having to turn on extra lights!

And how’s my mood now you ask? Well, it’s much BRIGHTER!

Kim

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