How to Maximise Natural Light in Your Home

Is there a corner of your home that could do with lightening up? Does your newly acquired space in the kitchen serve as a good office, but needs a high-powered light to help you see what you’re doing? Adding natural light to a home is an effective option that people sometimes overlook and can take place in a variety of ways that includes adding:
​

• Windows
• sky/roof lanterns
• mirrors
• pastel paints
• reflective materials
• light coloured furniture
• light coloured flooring

​

Create natural light through the use of windows
One of the best ways to add natural light to your home is to install windows.  Adding windows to a side wall can let in a tremendous amount of natural light and of course the bigger the window, the more the outside light will be let in.

Installing a roof or sky lantern into the ceiling, can also bring natural light into an interior room that has no windows. This light will give the area a greater sense of space and seeing the sky above your head will make you feel more connected to nature. Allowing natural light into your home in this way will also let you see wallpaper patterns and artwork much better.

Use mirrors to bring the outside in
Using mirrors as a way of bringing in natural light, is a method that can be traced back to before electricity was widely available. It works by placing a mirror in a position that will pick up the natural light source already available from a window. The larger the mirror, the greater the amount of light that will be reflected. As with adding windows and roof lanterns, using large mirrors in your home will give it a sense of expansion, making it seem larger.

Lighten up dull rooms with pastel paints
Most of us learned in primary school that dark colours absorb light and light colours reflect them. In a darkly painted or wallpapered room, you need only paint the room a lighter colour to help reflect the natural light coming in.

However, not all light coloured paints are the same and the effect that a colour may have on one room may not be the same in another. The solution? Be sure to paint an area of a wall as a test before painting the whole room that colour. When the natural light shines on the colour you have chosen, you can then see if it's appropriate for the room or not and be in a better position to decide if you want to paint the entire room in that colour.

Add shiny objects to a room
A silver vase or an antique silver tray on a table are just two ways to use shiny objects to reflect light. Bear in mind that adding too many shiny objects to a room could make it look like a science fiction movie from the early 1970s so be selective with their use. It’s better to use larger objects than small in reflecting natural light. Why not consider having a wall display of shiny objects to reflect natural light? Just use your imagination and go with what you think looks good and serves as a good reflective material.

Aid reflection by using light coloured furniture
Adding light coloured furniture to a room follows the same concept as the previous suggestion about using light coloured paint. Chair, sofas, tables and floorings in whites or creams aids the reflection of natural light streaming through your windows.

Redbridge builders can bring natural light into your home
Get in touch for great builders near you for help bringing the outside light into your property, We can help by adding windows or roof lanterns into your property. Get in touch by calling 020 8088 2935.