In this guest post, learn how to brighten up your home with interior designer Joelle Eyeson.

In Ghana, I tend to notice buildings lack natural light. The way buildings are built in Ghana in my opinion show there’s too much cement and not enough windows. To make matters worse, we tend to crowd our windows with burglar proof and then heavy window treatment, such as curtains and blinds.

Here are my tips to bring as much light into a space as possible.

1.   Getting the correct wattage for lights

When there is a light bulb in place, it’s very important to take into consideration the wattage of your bulbs. It can make all the difference to your space. If your space is lacking natural light, I highly recommend getting an LED bulb with a minimum wattage of 10 watts.

Dutch & Co is a LED light specialist company based at Airport residential. They have some of the best selection of LED lights available and their staff are very helpful in getting you the right light for your space.

2.   Add mirrors

Strategically adding mirrors to your space can help a lot with bringing in more light. The light reflected from a mirror is magnified to increase the amount of light streaming into your room.

The best place to put a mirror in a room is next to a light source so that the lighting can reflect off the mirror, so either opposite a window or near to a light.

3.   Best window treatment is blinds

In my opinion, the best kind of window treatment are blinds. When roll them up, you can get maximum exposure of natural light. Go for light fabric blinds, so when the blinds are down the room doesn’t look too heavy and dark.

4.   White ceilings and limited accent colors

White is the best color to maximize light in a room. In my home, all the rooms are painted white and we are constantly complimented about how much light there is. If white isn’t your color, keep the ceilings white and try to limit bold accent colors.

5.   Bright blinds

In some of the older homes here in Ghana, you can get rooms with no windows. Try bright blinds to create the illusions of a window and to bring some artificial light into the space. All you do is to hang these on the wall and switch on the integrated light that is built into the blind to create the illusion of natural light. I have seen these available at Orca Déco on the Spintex Road.

About the author

Joelle Eyeson is an interior designer based in Accra and London. She will be providing a weekly dose of home décor tips for your home or office. She will also be sharing some amazing finds in and around Accra.  For more on home and interior decoration visit her website, www.joelleeyeson.com