Easy Ways To Increase Natural Light at Home

Natural light will always be a good choice than the artificial one. Not to mention it has a lot of advantages when used at home. It gives your room a rich, full spectrum hue that light bulbs can't duplicate. Moreover, natural light increases your serotonin levels, which would give you a pleasant or good feeling. Sad to say, not all homeowners can realize how important natural light is at home. Whether you are living in Nuvali, Alviera, any Ayala Land estate or any real estates in the Philippines, it is advisable for you to use natural light.

Fret not if your home is not designed with natural light in mind since there are simple ways on how you can achieve such light at home. To give you an idea, we list down some easy ways to increase natural light.

Paint your eaves white

The overhangs created by your roof outside your windows are the eaves. They are either left open or covered up with a horizontal soffit. Regardless, you can make increase natural light in every room of your home by painting it white. When you do, the painted eaves will reflect the light into your room. Moreover, since most eaves are angled toward the house, the curb-side appearance will bot be affected.

Use lighter, brighter interior wall and ceiling paints

If you think that light colors are boring, then you better think again. If you want to reflect natural light at home, then it is best for you to use bright colors. One of the best ways to increase a natural light at home is to paint your walls since Light Reflectance Value (LRV) can range from 100% for pure white down to 0% for black. And most importantly, try to avoid dark colors, it would only give a darker ambiance in your room.

Turn your walls into mirrors with higher gloss paint

Choosing the right color is crucial when it comes to increasing natural light at home. That means, you have to make sure to choose colors that would help reflect the light into your room, For many homeowners, they prefer to use glossy paint for their walls, since it gives them a mirror-like effect. And as we all know, mirrors reflect light.

Use glass or highly reflective tiles in your kitchen or bathroom backsplashes

Glass tiles are also one way you can do since it reflects natural light back into your home. Perhaps, you can install highly glossy ceramic tiles for a nearly equal reflective effect. However, never install these glasses if you do not know what and what not to do with it. If you are planning to go for glass tiles, make sure to seek help from home services or any professionals to install the tiles to make sure that it would be fitted properly.

Replace wall space with glass

This project may not be that easy to fix, but this is one of the most efficient ways to increase natural light at home. Through replacing sections of your exterior wall with glass block, it would bring in a fair amount of natural light than not having it replaced. Since glass block is not a structural replacement for a wall stud system, the headers must be installed over the block sections to ensure it would work out.

Install skylights in your ceiling

Skylights are an ideal and practical way of increasing natural light. In fact, skylights or "windows for roof" are not only they give us the light that we needed, but it also adds beauty to the interior design of your home.

See? Homeowners who do not have enough natural light at home can already achieve a desirable outcome through following these tips mentioned above.

Understanding the Garden Home Concept

Do you know what a garden home is? Have you seen some garden homes in Laguna? Perhaps, you have seen one, but you have no idea that it is actually called as such. The concept of garden homes is quickly creeping into the local real estate industry. And why not? A tropical country, the Philippines is a suitable place to develop garden homes.

Origin of the garden home concept

‘Garden home’ is another term for patio home, an American classification of a housing type. The term has a suburban setting with shared landscaped features (in exchange of a monthly association fee for maintenance). The typical target market is those people who want to slash garden maintenance cost in their monthly household expenses.

Originally, patio homes are small in terms of lot area, replacing the backyard as patio. These homes can be constructed in rows with or without shared walls.

Garden home concept in the Philippines

The garden homes, as we know, has almost the same concept as patio homes. However, instead of the backyard, homeowners are sharing their front yards and the rest of the gated community, for instance. They also share common facilities including in-village parks, pocket gardens, sidewalks, etc. The homeowners are also paying a monthly maintenance fee for such.  

Also, garden home homeowners can still have their backyard that they can style and maintain by themselves. That’s because ownership is not limited to specific lot area. House structures are usually detached. There is also an ample provision of area for backyard gardening.

Benefits of living in a garden home community

Everyone wants to own a home. However, not every one of us realizes the benefit of owning a garden home. To live in a place close to nature is very different from living in a place that makes full use of the available spaces and convert them into nature-like facilities.

Essentially, it is ecologically healthy. Living in a community that allows its owners to commune with nature provides instant access to clean and fresh air and water. In fact, garden home communities promote healthy outdoor living.

There will be relaxing views everywhere when you go outside. Walking around the neighborhood will never a worrisome activity especially when you have your kids with you. This means you get to enjoy the indoors as well as the outdoors, that is, to immerse oneself with the natural wonders around him.

Most probably, this is the very reason property developers choose to construct garden homes that are within the natural setting. Homeowners can thereby maximize their natural surroundings at their disposal. Such a new living concept that does not degrade the homeowners of the conveniences while savoring the serenity of living closer to nature.

In the Philippines, there are wide options for gated communities. These communities offer the would-be homeowners the opportunity of enjoying the indoors and outdoors whether it’d be looking out the window, taking a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood or even jogging at night. Good thing, these developments are either in-city or near-city.  

Further, there are communities within a community wherein the goal is to cultivate community integration and build people-friendly structures that endow dwellers with a neighborhood that is full of interactions regardless of the lifestyles of the community members. The sub-communities are specifically built with providing a heightened sense of well-being in mind through the green spaces.

With all these, the concept of garden homes is one concept that is not very difficult to embrace. Nowadays, everyone’s into eco-living. This is one reason the concept is well-accepted in the Philippines. Again, why not? If it encourages vibrancy, diversity and a healthier living option for the Filipinos, then let’s embrace the concept tighter.