Building Your Dream Apartment

Let There Be Light: 3 Tips For Maximising Natural Light Levels In Your New Custom Home

5 January 2018

Julian Caldwell

Sunlight is as vital to life on earth as food, water and oxygen, and it stands to reason that most homeowners want their houses and bungalows to be filled with as much natural light as possible during daylight hours. Filling your home with natural light doesn't just give it a more airy and spacious feel; it can also dramatically affect home much energy your home expends fuelling artificial light sources, and can even provide a positive boon to your mental and physical health.

Consequently, individuals and families who are designing and constructing their own home using custom building services should take care to make the most of the light that shines upon their new homes. Doing this effectively means taking natural light levels into consideration during the very earliest stages of designing your home. Keep the following tips in mind if you want your new, bespoke home to be filled with warming, soothing natural light:

Opt for open floor plans

Interior walls present impassible barriers for natural light flooding in through your windows and skylight, and a crowded home filled with many small rooms divided by walls will not receive nearly as much natural light as one with a more open floor plan. As such, light lovers should try to minimise the use of interior walls within their new homes as much as possible.

Obviously there are limits to open floor planning, and your bedrooms and bathrooms should be completely walled in for the sake of privacy. However, living areas such as kitchens, living rooms and hallways should be left open as much as possible. If you need load-bearing interior structures to support your roof or upper storeys, consider replacing load-bearing walls with less obtrusive options, such as structural columns

Build high, not wide

The upper levels of your home will naturally receive more natural light than ground-level rooms, as they can rise above obstructions surrounding your home such as trees, dividing walls and other buildings. If you need more space than a standard, single-storey floor plan can provide, consider adding a second story to your plans instead of ground-level extensions.

If your home is surrounded by light-blocking obstructions, you may wish to build a home with living areas located on the upper storey(s). Rooms on the darker ground floor can therefore be designated as bedrooms, bathrooms and utility rooms. Building your bedroom(s) on a darker ground floor can often help you sleep better.

Supplement with skylights

Massive picture windows are excellent for maximising natural light levels in your home, but they are often cripplingly expensive and may create security vulnerabilites that intruders can exploit. If you cannot afford this decadent windows, or wish to allow natural light into yuor home without compromising on security, try supplementing your windows with roof mounted skylights. 

Skylights aren't just available in conventional designs that sit flush with the contours of your roof. Raised skylight designs, such as roof lanterns and light tubes, are just as effective at increasing natural light levels, and can create distinctive visual accents that make the exteror of your home more distinctive and attractive.

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