Wouldn’t it be thrilling to install your own skylight yourself? You have been looking at that dark portion of hall or bathroom and fantasizing about how it would look with the sun streaming in. Well, it is time to turn the fantasy into reality!
There is nothing as beautiful as the natural light flooding a room. It opens it up and makes a hitherto ignored space vibrant. A skylight is the way to go if you want to brighten up a space with natural light.
A skylight is actually a window in the ceiling. If the room you want to light up does not have an exterior wall for a window to be put in, look up. Also, look up skylight installation for a tutorial or step by step direction on how to do it yourself.
What You Need to Do
- Plan
Careful planning is imperative. You should have an image of what the final picture will look like and how the skylight will play in that space. This is not a game of chance. Find out how lighting from a window compares to lighting from a skylight, then see if you like the difference.
- Where is the sunlight coming from?
This is pertinent. You do not want to install a skylight, and then all you can do is open it up for ventilation. The sun never finds it.
Also, consider the effect of direct sunlight not only on people, but on furniture too. The sun has the ability to bleach your cabinets. Weird, seeing as it tends to darken humans. Anyway, consider this:
- A skylight built into a slanting roof that faces south is likely to overheat the room.
- One that faces north gives the room a soft glow all day, but the iridescent effect of the sun will not be felt.
- Get tinted glass to minimize glaring effect of the sun and to protect your furniture and your family from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
- You could also have built in blinds to control the light coming in.
- Size
Go big. Okay, you are not knocking off the whole roof, but it should not be so tiny that light coming in is concentrated on one spot. It will not bring that fantasy to life.
Do not be led into believing that the bigger the skylight is, the more it will cost. It does not work like that. The cost of a skylight lies in the installation, so the size doesn’t matter.
- A tubular skylight is a good choice.
It works well with a small space. It consists of a cellar acrylic dome to capture the light, polished steel for carrying the light via the attic, and a flush for spreading the light all over the room.
- Aesthetics
Make your skylight look good. Coordinate the skylight with a door or a window so it does not look misplaced or ill thought out. You can add an additional decorative piece to it to spruce it up.
A skylight can add life to a previously dreary room depending on how you position it, the size and the embellishments you use to make it more appealing. However, if you do not get information and follow it, then skylight installation may turn out to be an unpleasant adventure.
