Having more natural light in your home does you a world of good as it lifts your mood and aids your energy levels. Plus, natural light makes a massive difference to how your environment looks and feels by brightening the space up. It is a huge benefit to have natural light flooding into your home, but it can sometimes be tricky to achieve this.
Thankfully, there are simple ways to flood your home with natural light without costing you a fortune or making huge changes. Small changes make the biggest difference. Explore easy tips to include more natural light in your home, allowing you to have a lovely, calming and fresh environment wherever you go.
Choose light colours for décor
Choosing light-coloured décor helps any room feel much brighter. Paint your walls in a light shade and match your ceilings so that sunlight can be reflected around the room, rather than it being absorbed by dark and dingy colours. Opt for soft whites, light greys and pastel shades as these are the best at bouncing natural light around the space. Make sure to steer away from dark colours as these absorb light which makes a room feel compact and dingy.
This is a simple and highly effective way to bring in more light, creating an airy, open atmosphere even in the tiniest of rooms. It can make the room bland and lacking personality though while taking away the cosiness as well. To keep the cosiness and add personality, try to add natural textures, such as wooden pieces, to help balance the brightness and add a splash of colour through ornaments and cushions.
Install large windows
Another really easy way to introduce more natural light into your home is by changing your windows to larger ones. Expanding the size of your windows throughout your home allows more sunlight to seep in for most of the day. It may be worth replacing traditional double windows with floor-to-ceiling glass panels or sliding glass doors to open the room up. Doing this also can make each space in your home feel much bigger while bringing the outdoors in, allowing you to have aspects of nature spilling into your home.
Have sheer window coverings
Typically, it is common to use heavy curtains or blackout blinds to effectively block out light during the evening and early morning. However, even when you draw your curtains open, or pull your blinds up, these can block natural light from properly getting into your home. Instead, using sheer window coverings, such as curtains, let natural light flood your space while still giving you some privacy. These light fabrics gently bring in sunlight to give you a soft, warm glow without overwhelming your home with bright light. Sheer coverings work very well in living rooms or bedrooms where you would want the most natural light but still would like a cosy atmosphere with shading.
Add skylights
Adding skylights to the roof of your home is a wonderful way to let natural light into rooms that may not have easy access to windows, like a hallway. These windows allow sunlight to flood your home from above, giving you a soft and even spread of light. Many modern skylights let you choose options for solar-powered shades or tinting. This gives you the chance to control the amount of light that enters the space while improving the overall aesthetic of your home. It adds a stylish and functional feature to your home that can reduce the requirement for artificial lighting throughout the daytime.
Use reflective surfaces
A simple and cost-effective way to include more natural light in your home is to make use of the reflective surfaces you have. Items such as mirrors, glass and shiny materials can bounce light across your home. This instantly amplifies the natural light in every room, making your home feel airy and bright. Have a mirror across from a window, if possible, in areas like your living room. This will reflect the light into the darker parts of your room. Adding reflective furniture around the house, like glass tables, also distributes natural light evenly.
Install a conservatory
A conservatory is a very effective way to extend your home, bring the outdoors in and flood your home with natural light. The large glass panels that create the majority of a conservatory flood the extension and the rest of the home with light, thanks to the double glass doors that partitions it from the rest of the house. Whether you’re looking for an extension or want to bring the outdoors in, conservatories in the West Midlands allow you to create the perfect home for you while introducing sunlight into the connecting rooms.
Have glass doors
Getting rid of solid doors throughout your home and installing glass doors instead instantly allows light to travel between each room. Glass doors don’t even have to be fully transparent, as frosted or tinted glass can still let light travel while allowing you to keep some privacy. This tiny change in your home can make it feel much more open and illuminated, boosting your mood, motivation and wellbeing.
Choose light-coloured flooring & furniture
Similar to light walls and ceilings reflecting sunlight, having a light-coloured floor can achieve the same results. Picking hardwood, tile or carpet in a shade like white, beige or light oak, can brighten up your home instantaneously. This type of flooring won’t absorb as much light so it can bounce off of it and spread throughout the home. A lighter shade of floor can also make small rooms feel big and open.
As well as this, having light furniture or neutral tones in your home can achieve the same result. Choose soft pastel shades, greys, beige or whites to reflect the natural light in the room. Even light-coloured wooden furniture or metal can brighten spaces up as they don’t absorb light like dark and large furniture. You need to balance the furniture you use so sunlight doesn’t disappear into heavy and dark pieces.
Use these tips to include more natural light in your home to have a fresh, bright and airy space that is flooded with sunlight to improve your mood and have a homely, enjoyable atmosphere. Remember that the small changes make the most difference and allow you to quickly and effectively include sunlight across your home.
