Design Your Home For Light
Everyone wants more natural light in their home and Next Modular understands this. That’s why most of our modular home floor plans come standard with lots of windows. So how do you make the most of your modular home layouts available light? That is the subject of this post.
Modular home layouts vary a lot (even without customization) but it is typical among manufactured homes floor plans to have more windows and sliding glass doors on one side of the house. That being the case, you should try and consider this when planning where your house will sit on your property. Regardless of the prefab home plans layout, if you can get most of your windows facing either east, south or west, you will have more natural light. South of course being the most consistently sunny.
What If My Home Is Already Built…?
Now if you’re reading this and you’ve already moved into your home, it’s obviously too late for that but there’s still a few things you can do to bring in more natural light. We’ll start with the biggest bang for your buck (because it’s almost free) and that is washing your windows! That might not seem like it would make that big of a difference but trust us it does. Even a summer’s worth of dust can block a little bit of sun.
Another way to bring more natural light into your modular home is to lighten up your window coverings both in color and density. Heavy drapes and roman shades can still block part of your windows even when opened so you can easily get more natural light without sacrificing privacy by switching to a lighter airier window covering. Consider sheer draperies in a single panel. Keeping the color light will help as well because, as you probably already know, lighter colors reflect and amplify light while darker colors absorb light. This should be fairly easy to do and still match the manufactured homes floor plans look and feel.
Don’t Forget Paint & Landscaping
If you are still in the planning stages of your new modular home, this would be a great time to look at how you can customize your prefab home plans to include brighter wall and trim paint as well and lighter floor coverings to brighten things up.
On the subject of color reflecting light, you can also get lots more natural light in your modular home by adopting a brighter color palette for your home in general. In addition to lighter paint, you could add some decorative mirrors to your walls to reflect the sun. Or you could add a lighter colored area rug to bounce some light up from the floor. Decorate your couches, chairs and beds with lighter shades of pillows, blankets, and throws, every little bit helps.
Another thing worth looking at, if you’ve been in your home for a while, is your landscaping. Bushes, shrubs, and vining growth can quickly get out of hand and start blocking parts of your precious windows. Cutting things back can be another way to get a lot more light at a pretty affordable price. That goes for tree branches that hang close to your house as well. You might want to consider cutting those back anyway just to keep them from accidentally falling on your house.
Adding Windows
Last but not least are a few more expensive options. You probably already know this but modular home floor plans are built to the exact same standards and codes as any other custom home. So that means you don’t have to worry about whether or not adding a window in your bedroom will cause problems down the road with a sagging ceiling. Advances in window manufacturing allow for minimal framework so you have lots of options for adding exposed glass. Choose picture, bow or bay windows for the greatest impact. These can combine fixed with operable units to allow plenty of light and ventilation. Stack transom or radius windows above your existing windows for extra illumination with no loss of privacy. Replacing a solid exterior door with a patio or garden door can also transform any room into a “sunroom” while helping blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living space. Add decorative sidelites to flank your front door for another way of lighting your foyer without electricity.
Skylights & Solar Tubes
And of course there are skylights. There is an enormous variety of size, style, operability and cost in skylights, so you’ll have to do some research to decide what’s best for your budget, but you can pretty much count on a skylight adding a ton of natural light and beauty to your home. They are even available with smart functions to integrate into a home automation system. Some even have motorized blinds built into them if it gets a little too bright.
Don’t have a single-story roof that could accommodate a skylight? Consider a Solar Tube. These ingenious, twisty, reflective pipes can travel as far as 30 feet from the roof to the ceiling and bring outside light with them. They are available in sizes from 10-inches to 14-inches in diameter and don’t require a major remodel of drywall, paint or structure. The illumination for the smallest tube is equal to three 100-watt light bulbs. Solar tubes and skylights are great eco-friendly home improvements to brighten up places of your home where natural light is crucial.
Regardless of your budget, hopefully you have found a few relevant tips for adding some natural light to your modular home. Next Modular would love to hear from you! Please reach out here with questions you’d like to see answered in this blog.
Call (574) 334-9590 for more information.
