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Bringing the Great Outdoors, Indoors
Natural light is the most flattering, and bringing elements of nature into the home is a timeless design option for any homeowner starting work on home improvement construction. Whether you are looking to upgrade or completely change a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, or hallway, skylights are one of the best ways to bring the great outdoors indoors. They allow you to gaze at the sky through every season of the year, and every hour of the day, a never ending overhead portrait of blues, whites, grays, purples, and even oranges and reds.When deciding on what type of skylight to include in your home design, one of the most important things to remember is that bigger is better when you are hoping to bring natural light inside of your home through the roofline. Skylights are typically high overhead, and the angles of light and dark in a skylight that is too small for the space can make a room with a small skylight look as though someone has bored a tunnel overhead, rather than achieving a wash of natural light over the largest area possible. A tip that Home Depot gives to homeowners installing skylights is that you should estimate one square foot of skylight for every 20 feet of floor space.
While it is very important to take into consideration the type of roof that you have, skylights have been around long enough that there is quite a bit of versatility in what you can choose from. When your end design goal is to bring in as much light as you can there are a variety of ways that you can overcome hurdles in order to do this. If your roofline, or house type, or budget limits your options, you can also use multiple skylights set close together to create the effect that one larger (typically custom skylight) would have. Traditional, flat glass skylights will give you the most options in shapes and sizes, allowing you flexibility in how you want to achieve a specific look while bringing more natural light into your home.
Once you have decided to bring light into your new home space, you also need to think about how best to control the amount of light that you want to let in and how you are going to do that. Skylights are a terrific way to cut down on energy costs. Like windows, they are rated for thermal efficiency by the National Fenestration Rating Council, so when you are considering the skylight you will purchase, you can find out about the heat and light transmission rates of various skylights. While you may want to bring lots of sunlight into your home through a skylight, you do want to be able to manage that light flow.
There may be times that you do not want a room to be bright, or you want to ease the heat in the room, or protect furniture or flooring from fading in the direct light of the sun. The easiest way to do this is to utilize motorized skylight shades. A new skylight should not mean additional efforts for you to manage. Fitting a new skylight with a motorized shade will let you enjoy the new bright light you have introduced to your very special space without any of the stress that can come with manual skylight shades.
