Maximising The Natural Light In Your Home

If you look in any interior design magazine, you will see picture after picture of homes bathed in natural light. These open plan vistas are aspirational. Everyone wants to maximise the amount of natural light within their home.

However, this can be difficult if you live in a cottage, if your home isn’t south facing, or if you have many insular rooms without windows. To maximise the natural light within your home, you need to think outside the box. Light is the perfect way to brighten up your home, to limit your spending on electricity and to improve your physical and mental health.

Natural sunlight can be utilised to make your home appear more modern and fresher. By harnessing the power of those Vitamin D filled rays you can create rooms that appear more dynamic and happier. This is then reflected in your mood and your health. Take a look at these simple ways to help you let there be light throughout your home.

Mirrors

If you do struggle to locate natural light sources within your home, then you need to maximise every iota of light that you do have. By placing mirrors strategically throughout your home, you can use your physics knowledge to reflect the available light you do have across your humble abode. By pairing these mirrors with white walls and sheen finish paint, you are maximising the reflective surfaces on your walls and ceilings.

Mirrors come in all shapes and sizes, with statement pieces adding a touch of individuality and flair to your decor. Archway window type wood framed mirrors can look spectacular above fireplaces. Round porthole type mirrors can give a cosy feel in a hallway.

And those grand antique bevelled mirrors can appear boudoir like within a bedroom. Even if you have the bare minimum of natural light within your home, a few mirrors can help your house appear bigger, brighter and lighter.

Window Dressings

If you don’t have much natural light, there’s no point blocking out what you do have with dark, heavy drapes. Instead, patterned blinds add character to a bedroom without creating a block to the available natural light that you have at your disposal.

At the same time, blinds or shutters that are painted white can look sophisticated in a living room. These shutters can give you the ultimate control in maximising the natural light in your living space rather than merely opening and closing your curtains.

While net curtains are a little old hat, they are virtually transparent and let every ounce of light shine into your living spaces. Your decor can be as white and as bright as possible, but your windows also need to be free from clutter to allow as much light in as possible.

Lighting

You can create many illusions with the lighting sources you choose to install in your home. While the main light in the centre of the room is the traditional way of brightening a space when it’s dark, this creates a cascading orange hue that tends to fade and create a dullened atmosphere. Instead, consider strategically placed lamps that use whiter energy-saving bulbs. These pockets of light placed near mirrors will reflect more effectively across a room.

Alternatively, you could consider LED spotlights in your ceilings rather than one main light. This creates a more even light across the room. Coupled with a skylight, the light that you generate within your rooms appears more natural and pleasant to spend time in. If you install a dimmer switch to your lighting, you can also develop more control over the ambience of your room. Use a mixture of hues, put pendant lighting over your dining table and place lamps near your artwork.

Use Contrast

If you have dark grey gloss units in your kitchen, don’t install a black granite quartz worktop just because it’s on trend. Instead, consider utilising a white marble worktop.

This is just as hardy and luxurious, but it is so much brighter. When looking at your flooring, go for lighter lino or whitewashed floorboards or laminate. Even better still you could pair up a darker flooring, black slate-style, with white shaker style cabinetry. Using this monochrome contrasting can enhance the illusion of light within a living space, and draws your eye to the brighter elements within a room.

Harnessing the amount of light that you do have can create different ambiences within your home. You could have relaxed, subtle lighting in the evening, but during the day, you could have natural light bouncing across your interior. By marrying excellent lighting and bright, light decor, you can maximise the amount of natural light within your home.