If you extend your curtain rod to the side, so that the entire glass is exposed when the curtain is open, it will be much brighter. I was surprised how much difference it made in my room.

Looks like your curtain is shirred onto the rod. Hanging it from clip rings will make it easier to open and close.

https://www.quiltcraft.com/blog/what-is-stack-back

That is a good and easy suggestion. thanks!

I'd pick a white with quite a bit of yellow -- your rusts and yellows would harmonize, and that can be like a sudden infusion of sunshine into a room. Navajo White from SW is quite popular, although that's quite a bit darker than a true white. I used to sometimes use a Valspar color called Nightlight, which was great. Anyway, a warm off-white is what you need.

Partim's idea will make a big difference. You can also look around outside to see if some judicious pruning at the right time of year would brighten up the room.

For new paint colors, consider butter yellow, golden yellow, or a warm yellow-peach off white. If you feel adventurous, a coral or salmon that leans more yellow than pink could be tried out on a foamcore board to see how well it goes with the wood flooring.

Here's a good article: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/paint-picks-how-to-choose-the-right-coral-stsetivw-vs~525695

coral living room · More Info

I followed this advice and painted my north-facing-no-direct-sunlight living room a very deep saturated color -- and you've got lots of options with your charming rug.

https://www.farrow-ball.com/en-us/the-chromologist/inspiration/top-tricks-for-tricky-light

If any of the colors mentioned in the article appeal to you but you haven't got access to Farrow-Ball paints or don't want to pay the price, you can find dupes of those colors by doing a Google search like "match farrow ball vardo paint color'' and you'll get hits for dupes in Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Behr and other brands.

yes, opening up the window drapery will help. a lighter area rug as well.

to lift the room. SW Alabaster is a beautiful warm white paint color.

I would try the sectional on the facing wall and keept the area and the window open.

nice to walk up to a window... I would also group the framed art rather than have it scattered around the room.

Hi again -- I just got around to reading some of the other comments.

I have NO window treatments on my windows at all so opening curtains wider isn't an option. The room faces due north and it simply does not get sunlight during the day. Nada zip bupkis. I don't know about your trees, but I would need to call in forest rangers to '''judiciously prune'''anything around my house -- and it still wouldn't make any difference.

I can't make my north-facing rooms any lighter with light paint. What I can and did do was paint my walls a fantastically beautiful deep color that makes me enjoy my surroundings when I'm in the room, and is a great foil for my furniture and art.

If you removed the corner seat, move the sofa more to the left, would it fit on the window wall? It would open up the stair railing and look so much better looking up the stairs.

The corner seat doesn't look comfortable at all.

I have the north facing room with trees too, but with a porch. This is hard, and really depends on your personal preferences and how you respond to color and light.

I would start by trying to assess the LRV of your current paint color. Pick up some swatches that are close to what you have, and look up the Light Reflective Values. I think mine was around 42.

For white paint, you can get a color in the 80s LRV, but it may look stark. Everyone advises warm colors. When I put warm whites in my walls, I got an ugly chartreuse reflection from the trees at certain times of day. I am now leaning toward an aqua-gray in satin sheen with LRV in the 70s-80s. I lean toward blues and this color doesn’t look putrid in the green light. But it is gray. It just looks like the wall is washed with a darker shade of white. BTW I just noticed you had aqua draperies so you might be interested in the color - it’s SW Fleur de Sel which is white with a green-blue-gray hint.

I have no recessed lights, and I dislike overhead lights, so I am considering using spotlights for a couple of art walls to lighten up the space. I found some rechargeable lights with a remote and different color temperature settings which are not convenient, but will give me an idea as to whether or not I want to have an electrician install recessed spotlights in the ceiling to light up certain walls.

I have a similar situation the Farrow & Ball consultant suggested Bone with Skimming Stone for the ceiling. I love it

Just wondering how your room would look a rich red brown

;)

By the way, I like your book-ish casual decor alot

yellow is just going to look sick without light.

I would suggest adding SW Creamy and SW Antique to your “white samples”. They’re both very warm. I have Creamy in my kitchen and Antique on my walls. My house faces south but with a deep classic Southern porch, I don’t get ANY sun in our great room. Having warm ivory walls definitely helps.

I love your furniture and rug!

I had another look at your window, and it's not only the blue drapes that are blocking the light. Your Roman blind, even raised, is covering a fair percentage of the glass. I removed the decorative Roman blind in my kitchen and it's a lot brighter. I didn't realize what a large percentage of glass it was covering, about a fifth.

If you need the blind for light control, you could hang it at the ceiling height so that when it is pulled up, it covers the window trim but not the glass. We have a big hallway window whose Roman blind is hung that way. We like the full glass visible when it is open.

Even your sofa position covers the bottom part of the window. If you had the sofa along the wall where the cabinet is, you'd uncover the whole window and flood the floor with light. Instead of "lighting" the back of the sofa. Maybe a lighter coloured rug too?

A "trick" my decorator used in our house is to hang mirrors where the sun hits the wall. I see a very bright wall in the adjacent eating area. If you hung a mirror there instead of the blue wall art, is the sun at the right angle to bounce light into the living room? Worth a test run with a mirror.

There's another benefit of moving the long part of the sofa on the longest wall. Because then the short part of the sofa wouldn't blocking the natural light coming in from the entrance way. Could you hang a mirror on the bright part of the entry wall (the wall opposite to the railing) and reflect even more light into the living room through the (now open) railing?

I don't think you will find that a different paint colour will brighten your room materially, since the gray you have is pretty pale.

There is really no option to move the sofa because the wall opposite has a cut in due to a pantry on the other side and my bar cabinet (which I am unwilling to part with) won’t fit anywhere else in the house. I’m not necessarily trying to fake an airy and bright room it is more about the feeling that the grey has….it sucks all warmth out of the space. im not sure if that makes sense. I am moving the curtains and can remove the shade (they came with the house and I never us the front one). My main goal is cozier, not necessarily brighter.

@partim my kid was just complaining that he thinks the shade is ugly. I have moved the curtains but need another pack of rings...although now I wonder if i need a cornice board or something because of the huge expanse of rod showing.

I would suggest adding light fixtures before painting - specifically adding recessed downlights around the perimeter of your room. My suggested spacing would be to place them 3'-0" off the walls around the perimeter. Then would suggest adding a ceiling mounted fixture in the middle aligning it on centerline with your window. I can see a single fixture in your ceiling. So, am not surprised that your room is dark.

I have a vintage semi-flushmount chandelier that i plan to install but i tend to dislike using overhead lighting except for tasks because it feels harsh. Also, I really, really hate the grey paint…I didnt pick it and never would have.

Plug-in wall sconces are an easy way to wash a wall with light, without the fuss of electrical installation. I like the light better than overhead lights.

My main goal is cozier, not necessarily brighter.

So at some point you will settle on a color you think puts you on a path to that, and after that you might look at some of your other decor choices to what you can add, substract or substitute to get cozy rather than cool.

I actually like many of your decor choices now. They are carefree and nice touches, eclectic and a tiny bit boho, but a lot of them are more cool than cozy (like your blue-green glass jug, your black picture frames, etc). I would be slow to get rid of your mustard gold ottoman. At least hang onto it until after the painting is done because it is a warm rich item. The black shiny square chair might be freezing the room, where eventually something cuddly might be better. Your tiny blue green table and child's chair could use some additional charming accessories (and maybe paint the table if it's not precious?) Grouping a lot of framed pieces together on one wall can be cozier than spacing them out around the room, even if you end up with some blank walls. If you are keeping the frosted glass hutch, maybe warm colored ceramics visible behind the frost would be good. And of course, the gray pillows on the sofa can be swapped out for furry things or what is warm and works with the walls.

Anyway, I hope you find a color that gives you the feeling you are looking for. Most of your furnitture is so neutral, and your rug has plenty of ways to work with the whole spectrum, you should be able to find a way.

I had shades of yellow in a sunny south facing living room for years, at the recommendation of an interior designer, because it was ”sunny”. Each time I painted, I picked a lighter shade of yellow. The last shade was Ben Moore Collector’s Item. It was like a cream, but to me it was a pale yellow. I even had a taupe wall next to it and it blended beautifully. In some light, they looked like the same color.

It was a really good color to use as a backdrop for just about anything: gray furniture, ivory frames, blue window coverings, honey oak floors, dark wood furniture. It was a clean, bright color - not very muted.