Natural light in a home is always better than artificial light. It bathes your room in a rich full spectrum hue that light bulbs can only hope to duplicate and it increases your body’s feel-good serotonin levels. Best of all, natural light will not come due at the end of the month with the power bill. It’s free.
Many homes were not built with natural light in mind. Short of picking up your house and turning it in the direction of the sun—or altogether relocating it to a sunnier location—there are a few remodel projects you can do that significantly increase interior natural light.
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01 of 07
Paint Your Eaves White
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John Lund/Sam Diephuis / Getty Images The overhangs created by your roof are eaves or soffits. Either they are left as open eaves or they are covered up with a horizontal soffit.
In any case, this section reflects natural light and sends it into your home. Painting your eaves white is one little-known way to boost natural light in every room of your home.
Even if your house exterior is a different color, you can still paint your eaves white-only. Because of how eaves angle toward the house, the curbside appearance will not be affected. You will primarily see them only from within the house.
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02 of 07
Use Lighter, Brighter Interior Wall and Ceiling Paints
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Westend61 / Getty Images Painting walls and ceilings white or another light color may seem like an easy way to add more light, and it is. But if you’re not quite convinced, consider these tips:
- Your best bet: Interior wall color is the number one way to reflect natural light back into your room. Light Reflectance Value, or LRV, can range from near to 100-percent for pure white down to close to 0-percent for black. All colors in-between will have greater or lesser LRV.
- White is the brightest: Nothing is brighter than white. If you really don’t like white but really want more light, look into whites with some other color tones; white comes in a huge range of subtly different shades.
- Ceilings are important: Most ceilings are white for a reason: White reflects light. And since ceilings often go unnoticed when surveying a room’s decor, there’s no design penalty for going with white. Flat white is preferred over glossier sheens because a matte finish reduces glare, and ceilings don’t need the washability of glossier paint because they don’t get touched regularly, like walls and trim do.
