How to Lighten Up English Tudor Decor

Eliminate Dark Woods

• The fastest way to lighten up your Tudor home is to eliminate all of the dark wood finishes. Paint the dark beams in your living room the same color as the ceiling and all the trim and baseboards white or cream. Pickle or whitewash your wood cabinets in the kitchen to make them look like modern cabinetry. Spread a lavender or pale yellow area rug across the dark floors in the main rooms of your home for a quick brightening effect.

Accessorize With Reflective Pieces

• Tudor-style light fixtures are typically heavy, dark pieces. Refinish your current Tudor light fixtures by painting them with a high-quality silver paint, or invest in new fixtures made of stainless steel. Moravian star light fixtures maintain the Tudor-style metal-and-glass aesthetic while bringing light into a space. Use mirrors to your advantage; they visually expand the space while causing the light to bounce throughout the room. Other reflective pieces that you add to the space include new crystals on your chandelier, mirrored furniture pieces -- such as a console table or side tables -- Mercury glass candlesticks and acrylic lamp bases.

Add a Touch of Whimsy

• Tudor-style homes can feel stuffy both because of their traditional color schemes and their formality. Lighten up your Tudor home in the metaphorical sense by adding a touch of whimsy. Add a couple of tufted chairs upholstered in apple green velvet to your living room, or place a country-rustic China hutch in your formal dining room. Mix the old and the new and look beyond the traditional fabric prints when selecting throws, pillows and smaller pieces like ottomans. Try a polka -dot ottoman if your family room needs a pick-me-up, or toss pillows crafted from old coffee-bean bags on your sofa for a casual bit of whimsy.

Update the Old

• Rid yourself of all the brass fixtures in your home, such as light fixtures, door handles and sink faucets and replace them with brushed nickel or bronze finish fixtures. Install stainless steel appliances in your kitchen. That sofa that’s been in the living room for 10 years: Replace or recover it. Choose fabric in lighter colors when shopping. A pastel plaid, for example, updates a traditional Queen Anne wing chair.