Publication Date: Friday, March 18, 2005
Lighten up
Lighten up
(March 18, 2005) Maximize natural light entering the house
by Kit Davey
I s your home dark and dreary? Do you avoid certain rooms because they're gloomy and dimly lit? If you want to make your home brighter and more inviting, try a few of the following steps.
The key to increasing the light in your home's interior is to capture and reflect sunlight, and add electric light where the sun's rays cannot reach. To optimize the amount of natural light entering your house:
** Trim any bushes, branches or vines away from your windows.
** Arrange your furniture so that it does not block light.
** Clean your windows and window sills.
** Replace a solid front door with one that has glass at the top.
** Power wash your eaves. Dirt and cobwebs absorb light and cut down on light that reflects through your windows. Next time you paint your home consider painting the eaves white to maximize reflected light.
** Remove your window screens. If you feel you must keep them up, give them a thorough washing.
** Remove window coverings if privacy or sun blocking is not an issue. If you need to keep your curtains, use tiebacks to keep the fabric pulled away from the window opening. If your home fronts the street and you need privacy, consider using sheer tab curtains, bamboo roll up shades, accordion or honey-combed shades, or horizontal blinds, all of which block the view, but allow a significant amount of natural light to shine through them.
Multiplying the light
Once natural light enters your home, you can capture and increase it with careful and creative uses of reflective surfaces.
** Paint your walls a light color. Although plain white walls will reflect the most light, you can still generate a great deal of light with pastel or warm, neutral walls.
** Is your fireplace constructed of dark brick? Why not paint it white? Keep your fireplace clean and lay a few birch logs inside it.
** Paint the back of your front door and all interior doors white.
** Cover dark hardwood floors with light-colored area rugs.
** Paint your dark wood closet doors or replace with sliding mirrored doors.
** Paint dark paneling, beams and woodwork white.
** Layer a light-colored area rug on top of dark carpeting. If you have light-colored carpeting that shows wear and soil, having it cleaned will help your home feel less drab and dreary.
** Slipcover or replace dark, tired upholstered furnishings in light, airy fabrics.
** Replace a dark bedspread with white Battenburg lace, or a light-colored floral.
** Hang art with a light-colored background and with scenes that suggest sun and air. A sunny beach scene hanging over a table covered in blue-and-white gingham and graced with a vase of daisies is sure to help banish dreariness.
** Display your crystal and silver.
** Hang as many mirrors as possible -- in your front entry, over the mantel or couch, behind your bedroom door, at the end of your hallway, over your dresser, etc. Why not hang a collection of small mirrors in your hall, over your desk or on your dining room wall?
** A fish tank or indoor water fountain can reflect light and also add movement and sound to a gloomy space.
Supplement with electric light
Effectively using incandescent and fluorescent lighting can provide light where the sun cannot reach.
** Make sure you are using the maximum wattage allowable for all your lamps. Keep your light bulbs clean. Replace dark lamp shades with translucent ones.
** Fluorescent bulbs lose potency and darken over time. Replace old bulbs with warm spectrum light.
** Place torcheres (tall floor lamps that aim the light at the ceiling) in dark corners.
** Use up lights behind plants.
** Consider installing strategically placed recessed lighting or wall sconces.
If you have a little more money to spend on a permanent solution you can get tremendous results by increasing the size and/or quantity of your windows, adding skylights, a bay or garden window, sun tubes or French doors. But before you go to such expense, why not let the sun shine in first, and turn on a light or two?
Kit Davey, Allied Member, ASID, is a Redwood City-based interior designer who specializes in redecorating by rearranging what you already have. E-mail her at KitDavey@aol.com, call her at (650) 367-7370; visit her Web site at AFreshLook.net.
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