A welcoming home is created by daylight, colors, and furnishings. When designing interiors, have in mind that natural light can completely transform rooms and make them cozier. Miriam Medri, interior architect and interior designer, explains how to bring as much daylight as possible into your home. Find out more.
Daylight in Interior Design
The designer sees daylight as the key factor in interior design. It has a significant influence on the effect of rooms and, as a dynamic element, daylight illuminates rooms naturally, sets accents, and creates a welcoming atmosphere. Invite this freely available natural resource into your home, and create a cozy and bright dynamic space.
Room Structure Through Daylight and Island Planning
Natural materials, colors, and textiles bring nature into the house and ensure a harmonious ambiance. With its Nature Collection, the roof window manufacturer Velux offers a window covering line inspired by nature, which consists largely of recycled material and is delivered without expensive plastic packaging.
The way we design our homes has changed in a few ways. For example, by including the home office. Also, bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens are increasingly fulfilling several functions at the same time. In order for the rooms to appear harmonious, it is important to ensure structure and calm.
Expert Medri recommends “island” planning that includes natural light: “In addition to room proportions and shape, when creating islands, I pay particular attention to where the natural light falls inwards from. If, for example, a reading or working area is to be integrated into the living area, then this island should be positioned in such a way that it is supplied with sufficient daylight. It’s best if you can let your gaze wander outside – that’s relaxing.”
With a bed under the spacious panoramic skylight, you can let your eyes wander to the starry sky before falling asleep. And if you want, you can be gently woken up in the morning by the sun’s rays. (Photo: Velux, Photographer: Klaus Knuffmann)
Skylights, in particular, which let up to three times as much daylight into a room as compared to facade windows, are a great choice for this in the attic. Equipped with window coverings of your choice, they can be used depending on the needs of the residents. With the roller blinds down, an outward-facing reading corner becomes an inward-facing retreat.
Invite Nature In
Daylight blurs the boundaries between inside and outside and makes it possible to green rooms and bring nature inside. A design trend can be seen – especially in the urban environment in which interiors are made green with numerous indoor plants, thus creating the so-called Urban Jungle.
Invite nature in. Plants with a high need for daylight feel comfortable in the bright attic and ensure a relaxing atmosphere. (Photo: Velux)
Medri recommends combining plants at different levels in the room and including larger plants to make the layout of the interior greenery look more dynamic. In order for potted plants to thrive, their location requirements should be taken into account. Plants with a high need for daylight, therefore, feel particularly at home in the bright attic.
Play of light and shadow: the natural light entering through the skylight brings refreshing variety and dynamism to the interior. (Photo: Velux)
In addition to plants, materials, colors, and textiles can also imitate nature. Soothing earthy color nuances make rooms look very harmonious. To create a playful interior space, additional accents should be set, courageously and less pragmatically. Rooms filled with light have the advantage that strong color pigments can develop their optimal effect.
The Cozy Reading Area under the Panoramic Skylights (in the Cover Photo)
The room structure with the help of daylight and ‘islands’. Under the panoramic skylight, you can read your new favorite book comfortably. For even more relaxation, you can let your gaze wander outside. The matching roller blinds on the windows can turn the outward-facing reading corner into an inward-facing retreat. (Photo: Velux, Photographer: Klaus Knuffmann)
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