One of the commenters on my last post noted how bright with natural light my family room is, and how she wished she had known more about natural light when she bought her first home. I agree with her. Having plenty of natural light really does make a difference, and we often only realise this when we are forced to live in a dark house.
Our last house was very, very dark. There were few windows and the rooms were painted in dark colours. Of particular note was the windowless, blood-red dining room. While by candlelight that room could be atmospheric and dramatic, the rest of the time it was off-putting.
Frustratingly, there was nothing I could do about the paint colours because we were renting. However, one of the things I was looking for when we bought a home of our own again was natural light.
Looking to buy in an old, established area with many 19th and early 20th century homes, good natural light was not a given. Many of the old houses we inspected were very dark - a combination of a Victorian unwillingness to bring the outside in and a natural reaction to Adelaide's hot climate which led to wide eaves and wide, shady verandahs.
I am so happy that the house we eventually bought has plenty of windows, and many of those windows are large. As you can see, our family room has huge windows which provide wonderful natural light. Those windows extend right across the back of the house and mean that we don't need lights on in the daytime even in midwinter. The pergola outside will hopefully provide some shade in summer whilst still letting light in. The room faces south east, so gets morning sun (we're in the Southern Hemisphere so the north-western side is the hottest part of the house.)
Every time I enter this room I feel like smiling. I'm sure it's the light brightening my mood.
3 comments:
Our first home (after renting a unit for 12 months) was quite dark in the kitchen. So much so that we had a skylight installed. That made a huge difference.
Our current house is filled with natural light, with floor to ceiling windows down both sides of the living areas. Unfortunately most of them are west-facing and are diabolical in summer. But the warmth of sunlight in the winter is a treasure.
I really enjoyed in reading your Blog.If you are growing plants indoors for space reasons or just because you want to,grow lights can be a great help in giving your plants the support they need to be happy and healthy.
It's interesting you should talk about natural light. Here in Dunedin, much of the planning was done from the northern hemisphere (the UK) and they designed the plots for many of the "best" homes to be facing due SOUTH, to catch the best light.
Trouble is, as you know, in the southern hemisphere, the sun arcs across the sky in the north!
So what we ended up with was a lot of very, very cold grand houses being built with virtually no natural light at all, due to the folds of the hills.
But many of the poorer areas were built on the opposite hills, facing due north. They get great sun :-)
So these days, a lot of those massive cold houses have been split up into very cheap, run down student housing. And the poorer housing is still there, well maintained in most cases, and enjoying the year-round sunshine :-)
A real interesting story on how even the "best" architects can stuff things up - if they don't know where the sun is coming from!
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