Light and Bright

Bringing light into basement apartments (or even the basement of your home) can be tricky, but as we live in a small basement apartment, it can start to feel dark and cramped from time to time. This is what we have discovered about adding or enhancing light in a basement:

Step One: Let as much light as possible into the small windows. We only have 3 windows, and they are all on the west side of the house, so we only get direct sunlight in the evenings (well.. as direct as you can get around the apartment complex next to us). Therefore, you must remove as much of the blockage as you can. We made sure the weeds outside our windows got pulled out, and the bike that had found an odd home blocking our window got removed. 

Step Two: Add unnatural light tactically. We put a head lamp in our bedroom, and are trying to get a multi-head lamp stand for the kitchen. Be careful not too add too many light bulbs or it will just weird your eyes and head out! Oh, and be careful also to do a variety of lighting, otherwise the weird shadows (or lack of them) will mess with your eyes and head as well. 

Step Three: Tactfully add mirrors to reflect the light you have. This one was done wonderfully by my husband in our bedroom (see this post). We bought these square bevelled mirrors at Target for under $20 (for 6). Some of the pictures were gifts, and others we bought for our receptions.

Before

After! :)

Step Four: Uh....this is where we are at now. We'll keep you updated as we figure things out.