With home renovations on a steady and constant increase, the question always surfaces about how best to spend your renovation dollars. While it’s true that kitchen and bathroom renovations, as well as “curb appeal” will yield a good return on your investments; you should not discount the importance of natural light in your home. Maximizing light not only enhances the esthetics of a space, it increases the home’s resale value and quite simply – it also makes us feel better to see the great morning sunshine. We love the look and feel of an entire wall of windows that lets in beautiful rays of light and a fresh breeze, however, windows are not the only means of natural light for our homes. This is one of the reasons you should consider adding a skylight to your home renovation.
We all have those areas of our home, the space over our staircase, or a bathroom perhaps, where light struggles to reach. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about turning your attic into a third floor living space. Whatever your particular situation is, consider adding a skylight or sun tunnel to these darker areas of your home, and let the sunshine in.
In tight quarters, the added benefit of a skylight over a sun tunnel is that it allows you to introduce not only more natural light into a room, but it also helps ventilate the space so you can “breathe” better. Windows are without a doubt, designed to let in the natural light and circulate air throughout a room; however, hot air rises, and so will any toxins or pollutants in your home. Incorporating skylights will improve the air quality of your home – and the vast amount of added natural light is a wonderful feature.
To maximize the benefits of skylights, you need to consider a few important details; the first is the placement in your home. A skylight is not a window, though some often think the two are interchangeable. Windows are designed to limit the glare of high-angled sun in the summer and to catch the low-angled rays of sun in the winter. Skylights tend to do the opposite, so it is rather important to consider the placement of the skylights on your roof, as well as the orientation of the sun around your house. Though we desire maximum natural light, you may also want to consider the option of Velux blinds to preserve your furniture and flooring. Also, consider the selection of appropriate skylights for your space so that you can ensure this design feature is maximizing its full potential on the interior of your home; be it the size, style or operation method, (yes, skylights open) understanding the options will help ensure wise design choices.
Whatever you decide, skylights add an architectural element to a room while bringing the outdoors in and adding a burst of natural light.
For more information, go to velux.ca