Let’s face facts – a home with more natural light is a much nicer place to live. That’s why homeowners and homebuyers list it as one of their main features. With more light, your home will not only look and feel bigger, it will also help promote a healthier sense of wellbeing.
At XUL Architecture, we don’t want you or your home to be left in the dark. Instead, we aim to bring your house into the light. Let this post be your shining beacon, giving you 8 simple ways to let light in.
Natural light is essential for your home, whether it’s a bedroom or a basement extension under the garden. Use these clever tried-and-tested tricks to make any room feel bigger, brighter, and instantly more uplifting and liveable.
Cutting a hole and replacing it with a pane of glass is one of the best ways to bathe a room in light. The options are endless – they come in various shapes and sizes, and you can install them almost anywhere in the home. As well as in an extension or loft conversion, a skylight is perfect for staircases, first-floor hallways, and light shafts. The latter is particularly effective as it lets the light cascade down all floors of your home while connecting different spaces. Take your skylight to the next level with a walk-on version.
Although this sounds complicated, nothing could be further from the truth. If you don’t have the luxury of an external wall, the key here is to use the brighter spaces of your home to illuminate the darker ones. Hence the term “one-step removed.” There are plenty of options, but the two techniques that we love are stained glass and perforated walls. Both allow you to swathe hard-to-reach areas in diffused lighting. Stained glass is an excellent addition to a bathroom, while perforated walls work well in open areas, such as open plan kitchen living rooms.
A well-placed mirror can make the world of difference to a space. You want to be quite strategic with where you place them. The key is to position a mirror next to a window or opposite beautiful views that you want to reflect and look at. It’s a good idea to use mirrors in small spaces to bounce light around, for example with reflective surfaces in hallways or a recessed mirror in a bathroom.
It’s not only about reflecting light – it’s also the art of creating shapes and patterns. Letting beams of light in is the first step, but ensuring it creates stunning visual effects is the next hurdle. To do it, we recommend exploiting your fittings and accessories. Create beautiful focal points and pull light into a space with large, stylish light fixtures and eye-catching designs.
Expanding on a similar theme, pendant lighting is a fantastic option when natural light isn’t readily available. Using synthetic, recessed lighting fixtures can be troublesome as they often feel harsh and clinical. Because pendant fittings drop vertically from the ceiling, they are often soft and minimal. Whether it’s a paper pendant or a mouth-blown glass chandelier, choosing the right pendant for your home can add depth to a space and create a unique talking point.
Understanding the volume of your roof and ceilings could be the trick to opening up hidden spaces and letting in more natural light. You already know about skylights, so let’s move on to flat ceilings. Rather than keeping it horizontal, you can add depth by opening up the pitch and incorporating high windows. Another option is to replace solid material with something more transparent or translucent.
The roof isn’t the only section of your home that is hiding potential. Walls do the same as they section parts of the house, taking up space as a result. While they are seen as integral, the truth is that they are removable as long as they aren’t load-bearing. Knocking down walls opens up space and instantly makes a large surface area lighter. For added effect, or if you like a partition, you can replace it with a glass screen. Due to its transparency, and the fact that glass is reflective, you can compartmentalise spaces while letting in light. Partition walls can also be made of wood slats too.
Colour can be a help and a hindrance in equal measure, so you should never take it lightly. To ensure you get the scheme right, you merely need to remember high school physics – dark colours absorb UV, and light ones reflect it. Once you keep this in mind, you’ll know what shades to pick. Don’t worry if you’re not a bold person when it comes to colour because neutral hues are as useful. Alternatively, opt for glossy paints as they are shinier and better at reflecting light.