All creatures, plants and humans on Earth rely on sunlight to grow and keep us healthy. With the increase in apartment living abundant natural lighting can be difficult to achieve.
Relying on sunlight also means we can rely less on artificial lights, saving on energy bills. In our homes particularly, the addition of natural light not only helps to brighten rooms, it can make the space appear larger.
Jan Golembiewski from Psychological Design lists his architecture firm on Oneflare, an online marketplace that connects Australians to professional trades and services.
“Light is really predictable, but the way humans use and respond to light is frustratingly complex,” he said.
Below, Jan Golembiewski shares five suggestions on how to increase natural light in your home, whether you’re living in an apartment or a large house:
1. Look for opportunities for northern windows as northern light has a glorious quality to it and southern windows don’t provide a great deal of light unless there’s something to reflect sunlight off.
2. Skylights can bring daylight to the middle of a room, but that light can be harsh because it comes from high above. Skylights need to be used carefully or they can become uncontrollable light and heat sources.
3. One common way to make a place ‘brighter’ is to use paint. White walls can make a room lighter.
4. Artificial lighting is the most controllable way to light an interior. People like pools of light, so an example of effective lighting is when low hanging, low glare, warm light fittings are in the middle of a seating arrangement.
5. You can avoid loss of light in the evening with blinds or curtains to re-colour dark windows.
Home renovations for the home can range from large scale plans of rebuilding to smaller projects such as repainting walls.
OneFlare found that complete home renovations was the most requested renovation job customers asked for through the platform, making up 24% of requests within the year.
This was followed by home or apartment extensions which made up 15% of renovation requests.
(OneFlare is a joint venture of Fairfax Media).