Many homes were not built with natural light in mind.
Either they are left as open eaves or they are covered up with a horizontal soffit.
In any case, this section reflects natural light and sends it into your home.
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Painting your eaves white is one little-known way to boost natural light in every room of your home.
Even if yourhouse exterioris a different color, you could still paint your eaves white-only.
Because of how eaves angle toward the house, the curbside appearance will not be affected.
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You will primarily see them only from within the house.
Interior wall color is the number one way to reflect natural light back into your room.
All colors in-between will have greater or lesser LRV.
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White is the brightest.
Nothing is brighter than white.
White comes in a huge range of subtly different shades.
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Byusing glossier paint for your walls, you give them a mirror-like effect.
And as everyone knows, mirrors reflect light.
At the other end of the reflective scale is flat or matte paint.
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This does not mean that you must use high-gloss paint, though you could if you wish.
It means going one notch up in a glossier direction.
So, if you love matte, try eggshell.
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If you love eggshell sheen, try semi-gloss.
Just be aware that more gloss means more glare from strong light, especially artificial light.
In the right light,glass tiles reflectclose to 100-percent of the light that hits them.
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Second to glass, install highly glossy ceramic tiles for a nearly equal reflective effect.
Compare low-reflection (and trendy)backsplash materials like concrete or pallet woodagainst even an ordinarywhite subway tilebacksplash.
In terms of light reflection, the subway tile is superior to many other materials.
Genevieve Garruppo
And at just a few dollars per square foot, it is far cheaper, too.
For maximum reflection, turn up the light even more and install metallic backsplash tiles.
Install Skylights in Your Ceiling
Skylightsare an amazingly effective way of pulling in natural light.
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In fact, skylights are often called windows for the roof.
When sunlight reflects on a chandelier, it sends more light into the room.
And the chandelier doesn’t even need to be turned on for this to happen.
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But you don’t need to install a chandelier in your home to achieve this effect.
Think in terms of any shiny, glossy, and reflective room elements.
Add mirrors, sconces, and shiny cabinet pulls to increase natural light, even incrementally.
The chief difference between sun tubes and conventional skylights is that sun tubes don’t need a light shaft.
With conventional skylights, an opening is cut into the roofline and another opening is cut into the ceiling.
Connecting the two is a light shaft, usually built with two-by-fours, drywall, and insulation.
A light shaft drives up the price of the skylight.
Sun tubes bring in less natural light than skylights.
