Adding more natural sunlight into your home delivers countless home decor and health benefits. For home decor, pure natural light entering your rooms can make a small space look larger, open and bright and lighten the mood. For your health, allowing streams of sunlight in your rooms works chemically with your body to flood it with Vitamin D, the mood, bone and teeth enhancer and even boosts the immune system.
Not every day is full of rainbows and sunshine, but there are ways you can add more natural light to your rooms to improve your decor and your health at the same time. No matter what you style, these ideas work on every type of home, particularly if you have an older home with smaller windows, or have gray walls that make your rooms feel flat.
Here are 5 ways to capture more natural sunlight in your rooms so your home looks well-lit every day.
1. Light Colored Window Treatments
Blinds, shutters and window treatments surrounding your windows can reduce the amount of light allowed into a room. For more natural sunlight avoid thick window treatments that absorb light and darken a room. Instead, use light colored and light weight fabrics to maximize the amount of sunlight entering. A sheer fabric will not keep out the cold, but it will give you privacy and more natural light.
Blinds, wood or faux wood blinds or shutters also help control sunlight without compromising your privacy. These options are slim line, sitting flush with the window and walls, often making the room feel larger by taking out the bulk of curtains and drapes.
2. Install a Garden Window
Traditional windows let in light according to their size and shape. To let in even more light consider installing a garden window. A variation on a bay window, these windows are often found in kitchens, the hub of the home, where more natural sunlight is needed for cooking and other tasks.
A garden window is similar to a bay window, jutting out, but designed to grow small plants and herbs with easy access for cooking. A garden window brings the outdoors closer, gives you more light and is a great kitchen feature.
3. Use Shiny Objects
Natural light is absorbed by dark heavy textures and reflected using shiny or transparent objects. The fewer dark heavy materials and textures and the more shiny or transparent materials and textures you use, the more light your room magnifies and keeps.
One of the best ways to reflect and move light within a room is by using mirrors. Large mirrors are great, or a series of smaller uniquely shaped mirrors like sunburst or beveled glass mirrors placed strategically around the room will help enormously.
Mirrors are the obvious and most often used ways to reflect more natural light around a room, but they aren't in the only option. You can paint your furniture in metallic tones or decorate with metallic shades.
Other shiny objects that reflect light include:
By placing smooth, polished objects around a room, you increase your chances of keeping more light in your room. This is a cost effective and simple way to liven up a space with limited or no window space like a bathroom, hallway or entry.
4. Swap the Doors
Since windows are expensive to install, and walls are expensive to remove, the next easy swap out option are doors. You can swap your traditional solid doors that stop the flow of natural light for doors with glass.
French doors are an elegant option but sliding or accordian doors are practical for a more modern contemporary look. You an use glass door styles for interior and exterior doors to help natural light move through out your home.
Frosted glass doors work well to filter light into parts of your home, internally, and externally while preserving your privacy. Use clear glass kitchen cabinet door uppers or frosted doors in your bedroom to the bathroom or your dressing room.
5. Check the Exterior
It might be time to see how much natural light is being blocked off by bushes, shrubs, or small trees outside your windows. Left unattended these can quickly become overgrown and cover windows, reducing the amount of light coming in. Trim bushes or trees blocking your windows on a regular basis.
Conclusion
With small changes to your decor you can add more light into any room in your home to improve the look and feel of each room and your health.
Not every day is full of rainbows and sunshine, but there are ways you can add more natural light to your rooms to improve your decor and your health at the same time. No matter what you style, these ideas work on every type of home, particularly if you have an older home with smaller windows, or have gray walls that make your rooms feel flat.
Here are 5 ways to capture more natural sunlight in your rooms so your home looks well-lit every day.
1. Light Colored Window Treatments
Blinds, shutters and window treatments surrounding your windows can reduce the amount of light allowed into a room. For more natural sunlight avoid thick window treatments that absorb light and darken a room. Instead, use light colored and light weight fabrics to maximize the amount of sunlight entering. A sheer fabric will not keep out the cold, but it will give you privacy and more natural light.
Blinds, wood or faux wood blinds or shutters also help control sunlight without compromising your privacy. These options are slim line, sitting flush with the window and walls, often making the room feel larger by taking out the bulk of curtains and drapes.
2. Install a Garden Window
Traditional windows let in light according to their size and shape. To let in even more light consider installing a garden window. A variation on a bay window, these windows are often found in kitchens, the hub of the home, where more natural sunlight is needed for cooking and other tasks.
A garden window is similar to a bay window, jutting out, but designed to grow small plants and herbs with easy access for cooking. A garden window brings the outdoors closer, gives you more light and is a great kitchen feature.
3. Use Shiny Objects
Natural light is absorbed by dark heavy textures and reflected using shiny or transparent objects. The fewer dark heavy materials and textures and the more shiny or transparent materials and textures you use, the more light your room magnifies and keeps.
One of the best ways to reflect and move light within a room is by using mirrors. Large mirrors are great, or a series of smaller uniquely shaped mirrors like sunburst or beveled glass mirrors placed strategically around the room will help enormously.
Mirrors are the obvious and most often used ways to reflect more natural light around a room, but they aren't in the only option. You can paint your furniture in metallic tones or decorate with metallic shades.
Other shiny objects that reflect light include:
- Brass lighting & accessories
- Acrylic clear accessories
- Paint your furniture metallic
- Chandeliers
- Shiny door knobs
- Wall sconces
By placing smooth, polished objects around a room, you increase your chances of keeping more light in your room. This is a cost effective and simple way to liven up a space with limited or no window space like a bathroom, hallway or entry.
4. Swap the Doors
Since windows are expensive to install, and walls are expensive to remove, the next easy swap out option are doors. You can swap your traditional solid doors that stop the flow of natural light for doors with glass.
French doors are an elegant option but sliding or accordian doors are practical for a more modern contemporary look. You an use glass door styles for interior and exterior doors to help natural light move through out your home.
Frosted glass doors work well to filter light into parts of your home, internally, and externally while preserving your privacy. Use clear glass kitchen cabinet door uppers or frosted doors in your bedroom to the bathroom or your dressing room.
5. Check the Exterior
It might be time to see how much natural light is being blocked off by bushes, shrubs, or small trees outside your windows. Left unattended these can quickly become overgrown and cover windows, reducing the amount of light coming in. Trim bushes or trees blocking your windows on a regular basis.
Conclusion
With small changes to your decor you can add more light into any room in your home to improve the look and feel of each room and your health.
