The value of windows in your home

Windows can add value to your home, increase your home's energy efficiency and have positive health benefits for your family

Maximise Natural Light through Your Windows

While it’s one thing to have a number of windows dotted around your home, ensuring enough natural light is able to pour through them is entirely another. Everything from their maintenance, shape, design and surroundings can all affect how much natural light actually reaches your room.

1. Install more windows

Before considering how to maximise the natural light streaming in through your windows, it’s important to consider the windows themselves. To start, are there enough? Are they the right shape and design? And are they letting in as much natural light as possible?

If a room is lacking natural light, you’ll want to think about adding another window, and whether or not this is possible. If it is, doing so will be an obvious method of adding more natural light to your home or a particularly dark room.

When it comes time to choose a window style, remember that windows without any decorative glass or cottage bars will maximise the light entering your home, as will bay windows due to their arc shape.

2. Adding more light.

It’s recommended that we each get at least half an hour a day out in natural sunlight, as it can not only positively impact our moods, but provide us with a dose of Vitamin D. Plus, natural light tends to inject energy into a space, which can be helpful as you attempt to increase the value of your home.

3. Ensure your windows are clean

It likely won’t come as a shock that maintaining your windows is incredibly important when ensuring your windows have added access to light. Windows that are functional, free of cracks and that are simple to clean will help this.

For those with mobility issues or that live in colder climates, tilt-and-turn windows are often the obvious option, as they’re particularly easy to clean. They can be opened slightly from the top, or fully from side hinges, opening inward for stress-free maintenance.

Another aspect of maximising clean windows is making sure they aren’t obstructed by furniture within the room, either. You’ll want to avoid bulky curtains or large pieces of furniture directly in front of windows, as they’ll inevitably block out the light.

4. Add mirrors to a window-filled room

Once your windows are sufficiently clean, the use of mirrors can be particularly helpful for catching the light and aiding it in reflecting around the room.

Mirrors are especially useful within narrow corridors, where light is low. On top of this, if they catch the reflection of a window and the outdoors, they’ll create the illusion that you have more windows than you do.

5. Trim trees surrounding windows

Clearing obstructions from your windows is important not just within the interior of your home, but the exterior as well.

Large, overhanging trees or tall bushes that cast your windows in shade or block out views will inevitably shield light from within your home, so you’ll want to clear extraneous branches or bulky leaves. You’ll want to regularly maintain the foliage that sits directly outside your window all year round but especially in winter, when your rooms will likely need all the light available.

See more of our tips and ideas here on how you can make your home more energy efficient.

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