Having a south facing home that lets in plenty of light is something that lots of people search for when they’re looking for a new home, and for good reason. Even the most beautiful houses can look dingy and a bit depressing inside when there’s not much light, but there are ways that you can get around this whatever direction your home looks out on.
Lighting
The most obvious place to start if you’re struggling with a dark home is to improve the lighting inside. Using the right bulbs will give you a calm daylight feel rather than heavy yellow or blue toned artificial lights. Go with daylight bulbs or better still, smart bulbs where you can customise the brightness and colour tone to exactly the way you want it. Add lamps and light sources at different levels in the rooms, you could go with wall sconces, a reading/ task light, cosy lamps and more to get the perfect light level no matter what you’re doing.
Decor
The colour of your rooms can make such a difference to how light and bright they feel without even touching the lights or windows. Lighter colours help to bounce the light around rather than absorb it, so a quick refresh with a pot of paint might be all you need to completely improve the way your house looks. White looks clean and fresh but if you find it a bit stark then go with ivory or grey shades, you can always bring in colour, texture and cosiness with your home furnishings. Other ways decor can help is by adding mirrors to the walls, and also keeping large items away from the windows. Just a small amount of light being blocked out by a big vase or piece of furniture can make a difference so have a play around with your space and accessories and see how it looks.
Window Treatments
Another thing that can block out light in your home is the window treatments you’re using- curtains, blinds, even net curtains. While you’ll want to dress your windows to make everything look asthetic and also for privacy reasons, make sure you’re choosing the right type. If you know you struggle with the light in certain rooms then blinds that can be fully retraced like roller blinds can be better than net curtains or vertical blinds that will always block out a bit of light. Heavy curtains can also make the room look dingy, you don’t have to go with heavy fabrics to be practical. Even light and lightweight curtains these days can have really efficient blackout blocking technology in them so you get the best of both worlds.
Renovations
If the light is an ongoing issue in your home and you want to do something drastic about it then look into which renovations might help. Adding a skylight into a kitchen extension is one example, or swapping out windows for big glass bifold doors. You could change your internal and external doors to types that have glass windows or panelling in to let more light move around. You could even add a juliet balcony upstairs to a bedroom or attic room, or have the window itself made bigger.