Decorating and Design - Brightening a dark-paneled room?

How can I brighten rooms that have dark (walnut colored) wood paneling, WITHOUT painting the wood? I'd really love to see some pictures of bedrooms (for guests), and small living rooms with dark paneling. I was thinking lighter furniture and curtains, in bright pastels, but am having trouble visualizing it. The living room will be a formal living room/sitting room, and rarely used. It has a brick fireplace on one wall, that we want to leave natural brick too. The bed room will be a guest room for now, and eventually a kid's room when we have one. It's a very large room under the sloping roof of a cape cod, that has closets and dressers built into the paneling. Every wall and the ceiling are all dark wood paneling, and we don't want to paint it because it's really good-quality, nicely done work.

how can you brighten a dark panelled room? you can't. :(

well.....not much anyway! ;)

instead of working against it, work with it. create a warm & cozy room. choose painted or lightly stained furniture & lighter fabrics (but not just all pastels) - they'll be better showcased against the darker walls. and of course keeping the flooring (or area rug) on the lighter side will help. but nothing will really "brighten" the room. just go for a nice contrast.

this is an extreme example, but take a movie theatre for example. the walls & ceiling are painted black, the carpet's black. how would you "brighten" that room? would upholstering all the seats in white fabric work? not really. but they'd stand out! good lighting will help, but it will be a well-lit dark room! and that would have to be good enough. painting just the ceiling would really help. but i wouldn't.

so work WITH the paneling. since you like it, show it off. use colors that compliment it & bring out it's beauty. colors that work best with woods are golds & warm greens & reds & creams. not so much blues or grays or white (although, for future reference, baby blue would work well! ;) ).

I actually had a pastel blue, periwinkle, or green in mind....I think I am going with the blue for the den, maybe with a rich cream-colored window treatment. I have a lot of blue & white asian inspired ceramics that I'd like to compliment. They always seemed to get lost in the white painted walls of my apartments.

For the bedroom, maybe a light, spring-time green? That way when we have kids, it could work for a boy or girl's room, and in the meantime be comfortable for guests of either sex?

I don't want to do golds or reds because that sounds too '70's, and I am trying to modernize this stuff! ;-)

We bought our house 19 years ago, and found the family room and adjoining living room to be terribly dark. I didn't mind "losing" the dark panelling however and we covered it with blank stock and then a light wallpaper, and kept the back of the bar and all the beams and doorways dark. This certainly helped the appearance,but it was still dark, just as the moderator stated. Three years ago, we need some kitchen remodeling , and you know, one thing leads to another.....While replacing kitchen windows, and adding a beautiful sunny sun-room, we broke through a solid wall in the family room, and added a window, and replaced an old sliding glass door covered with dark accordian splantation shutters with a french door and (I can't remember the name of it) a panel that has a narrow window to the left of it. These two windows added so much light, I not only couldn't believe it but I've been asking myself ever since, why I waited fourteen years to do it!
Although it doesn't seem like you want to paint over wood, it was interesting that our painter used a combination of light colors that matched our wallpaper for the beams and over the formica bartop and the remaining dark wood behind the bar was painted solid white. I just marvel at my bright family room now. I still have the old oak coffee table and end tables and oak picture frames and they look just fine.

I hope this helps if you can possibly find a place for a window...

Sue Royal

golds and reds are not 70's. but i get the feeling you want light, cool colors, so your blues, periwinkles & springtime greens will achieve that. it sounds to me like you know what you want! :)

keep your furnishings light and let as much light in as possible. with dark paneling that you don't want to paint, that's about all you can do.

Oh I know, reds and golds are not 70's per se, in fact our bedroom is red and gold. But coupling reds and golds with dark walnut-stained paneling seems very 70's to me.

I think in the den/sitting room I will go with a blue and white toile drapery, with cream colored shears. The toile would pick up the blue and white in the ceramics. There is a south-east facing bay window, so I don't think the room will actually BE dark in the daytime. Maybe someday a nice rich gold colored love seat can be added for color.

Still not entirely sure on the guest room though, but we are saving that for a later project anyway.

why CREAM sheers with blue and WHITE toile? won't the sheers seem dingy by comparison?

Have you considered covering the walls with fabric? Maybe just leave one dark wall for an accent wall if you really "like" the dark paneling. And then, hang a large brightly colored painting on that wall to brighten things even more.

I seem to recall reading somewhere long ago that fabric could be applied to walls with starch. Do some research. Or...maybe you could staple it to the wood along the top and bottom and then cover the staples with some kind of trim, even a light painted trim (1x2 painted white for example.) Another thing that helps a dark room is lots of light fixtures...overheads, task lighting, etc. and a large mirror to reflect that light.

why CREAM sheers with blue and WHITE toile? won't the sheers seem dingy by comparison?

I guess I meant blue and cream toile. I was thinking in general terms ;-)

oh, good! ;)

Covering a wall with fabric.....hmm.....you're giving me new ideas here! ;-)

just some quick thoughts - mirrors will also make rooms feel bigger, if you position them where they will reflect natural light from windows it will help...

Track lighting can direct light to particularly dark areas and creat mood...

If you got some bright and/or lively pictures and used spot lights to attract attention to the pictures, the walls will be less dark becuase they won't be noticed so much -

Also, have you thought about skylights - the walls will still seem dark, but the room will brighten with natural light - they are fairly inexpensive, and easy to install...

Rae
:)