Good lighting does more than just illuminate your home. It can help brighten your living space and can have a significant impact on your mood and budget. A dark and dull room lacking natural light is always uninteresting and uninviting.
However, when you incorporate an eco-friendly lifestyle to brighten your home, you are saving money and energy and contributing to the environment. Using sustainable ways in your home also creates a healthy environment for yourself and all those around you.
But it is pretty challenging to find a perfect level of lighting for your home. More so if you are looking for energy-efficient ways. Fortunately, several eco-friendly ways can brighten your home and conserve energy.
1. Eco-Friendly Light Options
The easiest and simplest change you can make is to immediately replace your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or other lighting technologies. CFLs are four times as energy-efficient as incandescent bulbs, have good lumen performance, and last longer.
Over its lifespan, one CFL bulb can reduce half a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere.
LED street lights are enough to brighten up your entire neighborhood; imagine putting one up in your alley or backyard. They last longer, are more energy-efficient and emit spectrum with minimum glare.
2. Choose Eco-Friendly Flooring
Another way to brighten and improve the sustainability of your home is to invest in sustainable flooring. Find options that are both environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
Eco-friendly flooring is in trend these days, especially the one made from bamboo, cork, and hardwood. These are fantastic options that are better for you and the environment. Always consider the manufacturing process, the flooring material, and the company’s practices before going forward with flooring products.
3. Buy Sustainably-Sourced Home Decor Items
Americans spend almost 90 percent of their time indoors, and styling your home interior with reused, recycled, or sustainably sourced items can substantially save on resources. Much so, it can bring down your carbon footprint.
Whatever you bring to your house, including wallpaper and furniture, should be made of non-toxic, recycled, or natural materials. Investing in timeless designs will make sure your decor never goes out of style. Consider this home decor website.
4. Indoor Plants
Introducing indoor plants is another simple way to bring nature to your home. They are a great way to improve your home’s air quality.
By adding indoor plants to your living space, you’ll not only enhance your indoor appearance but also will be able to transform your surroundings into a happier and healthier place.
5. Eco-Friendly Paint
Eco-friendly paint is an appealing and viable green option to highlight your home and add a refreshing look. Unlike traditional paint products that are oil-based mixtures, eco-friendly paint is water-based, making them non-toxic.
As eco-friendly paints contain only natural ingredients, they are a great option to add a naturally earth-friendly feel to your home. They help you to protect the environment along with adding a stunning and bright finish.
6. Get Window Treatments
Only a few people know about window treatment being a fantastic eco-friendly lifestyle option. Made from renewable resources, they block the outside heat and cold naturally. This helps to reduce your energy bills and make your home energy efficient.
Window treatments, such as shutters and wood blinds guarantee a long-lasting natural appeal and enhance the elegance of your home.
7. Consider Passive Solar Heating
Sun is the best answer for anyone looking for renewable energy sources. Heating your home with solar energy is a great way to reduce bills and reduce carbon emissions.
Using passive solar heating, you can warm your home with sunlight and reduce your primary heating source load. It is a simple yet efficient way to use solar energy in its purest form.
8. Get Eco-Friendly French Doors
Swapping out your traditional rooms with French doors will deliver natural lighting inside the house. These doors are eco-friendly and add a visual appeal to your home.
You can design these doors per your space and can even use them as partitions. French doors are energy efficient, allowing light to penetrate through them and aesthetic look to your house.
9. Place Mirrors Strategically
Glass is now a go-to natural material for eco-friendly homes. Made from naturally-occurring glass, mirrors are often considered a green material.
Investing in lead-free mirrors will bring down the use of artificial lighting. Well-placed mirrors will double the ambient light by allowing sunlight to bounce from its surface to your room. It will help you cut down on your energy bills.
10. Eco-Friendly Rugs to Brighten the Decor
Synthetic rugs draw a lot of light from the room and expose you to dust ingestion. As per research, 33 percent of the indoor airborne particles include microplastics from your synthetic fibers. Eco-friendly rugs are a perfect alternative to synthetic rugs as they are completely safe and biodegradable.
With eco-friendly rugs, you’ll be able to break the dullness of your room and help bring brightness to your room.
Conclusion
Eco-friendly products help create a warm, well-lit ambience while conserving energy. They are also easily recycled and last longer than their counterparts. Going green doesn’t have to be a long overhaul. Even simple changes can help eliminate dullness from your house and have a big impact on the environment.
With some thoughtful investments and quick changes, you can easily create a sustainable environment in your home that’ll brighten not only your living space but also be an energy-efficient one.
This post was written by Emma Wilson, a content specialist with a focus on health and wellness.