Bexley/Beverly Hills Blog

Allowing more light into your home goes far beyond simply making your home look brighter. Natural light has been scientifically proven to improve a person’s physical and mental health. Where possible, we should aim to improve the amount of natural light coming into the home, but where this is not practical, artificial light can still make a positive impact.

Lack of daylight can cause weight gain, affect your mood and have negative effects on your sleep, which can cause further damage to your health and wellbeing.

Modern home architects design for lots of natural light, but older homes often have smaller rooms and smaller windows that limit the light that enters a room. In St George, we have many older homes like the Federation cottages or California bungalows that were designed to keep out the light. 

If you’re unable to open up your home to gain more light, there are alternatives. ‘Human-centric’ lighting is a new technology that replicates sunlight, with different spectrums delivered at different times of the day. It presents the light in a dispersed way to create a more pleasant living environment overall.

Improving your interior lighting

Begin by considering options like larger windows or, better still, French doors that can extend your window area from floor to ceiling and allow an extended area for light to pour in.

Remember that even things like a lighter wall paint or a change of flooring to a lighter shade can lift the look and feel of the rooms in your home. 

While overhead lighting is great if you’ve lost something in a large room, it can be harsh, so consider adding wall sconces, table lamps or standard lamps for indirect lighting. However, don’t ignore task lighting for:

- Study nooks
- Kitchen preparation and cooking areas
- Small cupboards
- Reading corners
- Bathroom mirror

Skylights or light tubes are great for adding light without undergoing extreme construction. Although it will take a professional to install one, you could save on your electricity bills.

Exterior lighting for your St George home

When we start to consider outdoor lighting, the goal is to create a feeling of ambience and welcoming for visitors when they are arriving at our home. 

An effective way of lighting up the outside of our home is to set lights amongst the foliage in the garden. The leaves diffuse the strength of the globe and allow the light to escape unpredictably, creating a welcoming glow as visitors wander up the footpath. We’ve also seen strings of lights lining the pathway to the front door. Just remember to keep the string higher than eye level or lower to the ground so guests aren’t blinded.

In outside entertaining areas, uplighting can highlight garden or architectural features, or bathe a beautiful wall with a warm glow.

Remember to make sure your porch or entry is well-lit, especially if you’re expecting guests or your home is for sale.

Benefits of improving your St George home’s lighting

Good lighting goes a long way to creating the ambience you’re after. Once you make the change to brighten up your home, you will start to feel the benefits immediately. When you wake up in the morning, you will feel fresher and more alive. In the evening, when you return in the dark, you’ll feel safer with a well-lit exterior. A brighter home will lift your mood from morning until night. 

Better lighting will also help in avoiding eye strain that leads to headaches and fatigue.

Remember to keep the lights on in the house if your house is on the market and you have an open for inspection day. People feel happier when they walk around a bright home. So add the light, and keep it bright.

Can we help with your St George home?

If you’d like no-obligation expert advice about your St George home or elsewhere in Sydney, please get in touch with our team. We’re here to help.