How to get more Natural Light in your Custom or Remodeled Home

Natural light has a variety of benefits – health, mood, financial, visual, and more!

Health & Mood Benefits

There’s a reason spending time outdoors feels so good; exposure to sunlight increases our body’s production of crucial vitamins B and D, as well as increases endorphins and serotonin. Exposure to sunlight makes us feel happier and healthier than exposure to artificial light. It’s also easier on our eyes, meaning it’s less likely to trigger migraines or headaches, and also makes tasks like reading easier. Another surprising benefit? Exposure to natural light helps us sleep better because it keeps us more in line with the ebb and flow of the day, so our body will know when it’s time to wake and time to rest.

Financial Benefits

There’s a two-fold financial benefit involved with a house with an abundance of natural light. The first benefit comes in the form of lower heating costs in the winter and a reduced need for electric lighting during the daytime. To achieve the greatest savings in your electric bills, you’ll want to choose energy-efficient windows with strong seals if you’re installing new windows. If your home already has windows that you intend to keep, make sure they’re properly fitted and sealed to prevent air leaks. In the summer, you can use drapes during the warmest hours of the day to keep your home cooler.

The second part of the financial benefit from a home with lots of natural light is that it actually increases the value of your home because natural light is such a wishlist item for home buyers.

Visual Benefits

White light, like that from the sun, actually makes space look bigger. Ever notice how rooms without windows or with low lighting feel smaller and more cramped? Natural light tricks our minds into thinking a space is bigger than it is. An otherwise dreary home office can be greatly improved with a glass door replacing a wood one, or with a skylight addition. Another added benefit? Your plants will finally have enough light to survive the winter!

Building a custom home with natural light or remodeling a home to add more natural light can be achieved in a number of ways. The first is with the installation of windows. This could mean adding windows where one did not previously exist, adding larger windows, replacing solid doors with ones with a center window or changing the side paneling of the front door to include windows, adding a skylight, or even building a sunroom.

You can also achieve more natural light with an open floor plan, or by knocking down walls that block the flow of natural light from one area to another. If your kitchen has wonderful light but your dining room is too dark, removing a wall between the two areas will create a more desirable level of light in the dining room.

For smaller solutions to increasing natural lighting, you can use paint and mirrors. Choose light paint colors for your window frames so the light can bounce off the frame and into your home. To take this a step farther, choose lighter wall and flooring colors. You can strategically place mirrors to redirect light from brighter areas to darker areas in your home, or to lighten up a dark corner. An added bonus is that both of these solutions will also make your home look and feel larger.