Having all spent more time in our homes than is usual this year, as we head into winter and the prospect of staying indoors remains for longer, here at Lifton Home Lifts, we look at ways to lift your mood by adding more light to your home.
As the hours of daylight become fewer and with natural light a key protector against Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), it is worth considering whether you are doing all you can to bring light into your home and make the most of that natural light.
There may be straightforward changes you can make to help bring in more, or reflect it around your home more effectively. Also, for those who are working from home, greater exposure to daylight will reduce the chance of straining your eyesight and can even improve productivity.
Exposure to natural light is important for all our wellbeing, scientists have found it takes just 13 minutes of sun each day to offer ‘reasonable’ levels of vitamin D and significant antidepressant benefits.
Lighter, brighter wallcoverings
If you are décor is dark, or wood paneled, this will be absorbing some of the light in your home. Instead, seek to renovate this with light paint colours, or wallpapers with a bit of sheen or shimmer. All of this helps to bounce the light around the room and keep it lighter, and brighter. Now is the perfect time to consider the changes you might want to make to refresh the space.
Reflective surfaces and floors
Changing floor coverings in a room are often the single biggest change you can make to lift the amount of light in your home. Spaces can seem larger and more open with lighter floorboards or carpets, reflecting light upwards. Plus, with today’s easy to care for engineered surfaces, keeping them clean need not be the chore it may have been when you were catering for the needs of bringing up a family.
Windows and doors
Larger windows will result in more light in the home but rather than replacing all of these, consider whether changing the blinds will lift the light in a room. Maybe a different style will allow you to fully let all the daylight in. Doors block the light flowing from one room to the next so replacing wooden ones with those with glass panels in can really brighten up the darker areas of your home. Skylight also work brilliantly in a hallway or stairwell.
Clean and clear
Make sure the windows themselves are sparkling clean and clear, both inside and out. You may be surprised at the difference this makes. Also, there may be changes you could make to the exterior of your home that would let more light in. If there are shrubs or climbers encroaching towards the windows on your home’s exteriors, or even trees that could be pruned back, now is a great time to take care of these.
Features that allow light through
When planning additions to your home that you may want to introduce, consider their impact on the light in a room carefully. There are ways to make sure any improvements do not block the light you do have. For example, if you are future-proofing your home with a LiftonDUO Home Lift, it can add a touch of luxury to your home whilst keeping the space light and open. These domestic lifts are transparent and, positioned by a window, can let the light shine through making them look airy and welcoming.
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