Natural light can create a spacious, bright, and welcoming aesthetic, which improves mood and reduces energy consumption in homes. One simple way to maximise natural light is by choosing the right laminate wooden flooring. Many people don’t realise that the colour, finish, and direction of your flooring can alter how the light travels around a room. Allowing laminate flooring to serve as a smart design element can increase light, reflecting additional sunlight or brightening a space more naturally.
Light Colours Reflect More Light
Lighter laminate flooring is the best option to reflect natural light in a space. Lighter shades, including light oak, white-washed wood, beige, and light grey, do not absorb light; they reflect sunlight, and light colour has a way of being amplified in a space to spread sunlit emptiness everywhere.
The opposite can happen if you have dark floors, such as walnut or mahogany. Dark colours absorb light but do look elegant and laudable when used properly; the challenge here is creating a harmonious pairing of colour throughout your space and more natural light. If you are not getting enough natural lighting, dark colours can make a space look smaller or compressed. Therefore, when considering flooring, dark colours are best when paired with natural light.
Light flooring colour allows you to be more flexible in decorating your space. They complement modern and traditional styles, and light colour makes it easier to showcase vibrant furniture pieces or paint on the wall without the fear of the space looking dark.
Choose the Right Finish
The type of finish you choose for your laminate flooring also matters regarding light reflection. A glossy or semi-gloss finish will reflect light more than satin or textured. Glossy laminate flooring has a high sheen and reflective surface that mirrors light sources and helps distribute light around. This can be particularly useful in hallways, kitchens, or in smaller dark nooks of your home.
That said, a high-gloss finish may show dust, scratches, and footprints more easily, and therefore, with kids or pets in your home, it might be better to opt for a semi-gloss or satin finish. This has a sheen that reflects some light but is more user-friendly in terms of maintenance. Also, smooth surfaces cannot be beaten for bouncing light around more than very textured options.
Matte and hand-scraped finishes have a rustic look but tend to absorb light instead of reflect it. These are good choices for a warmer, cosier look, but if your goal is to achieve the best light effect, they may not be your best options!
Finishes at a Glance
- Glossy finish: High sheen, mirrors light sources, distributes light widely
- Semi-gloss or satin finish: Reflects some light, easier maintenance with kids or pets
- Matte and hand-scraped finishes: Rustic and cosier but absorb light rather than reflect it
Think About the Width and Length of Planks
The dimensions of your laminate planks can have an impact on how light reflects and bounces off the floor. Wide and long planks create fewer lines and breaks in the floor pattern, creating a more continuous look. A smooth, even surface allows light to flow more uniformly across the area, creating a subtle playing field for the light in the room. Wider planks also create an appearance of a larger room, which will feel bigger, naturally creating a lighter and airier feel.
Although narrow planks have their beauty, they tend to have more lines and seams, which will be more pronounced when light is on the floor, and break up the flow of light across the floor, creating different shadow areas. If you have a room with little to no natural light, wider is often better.
Install Flooring in the Right Direction
The actual placement of your laminate flooring planks can also make a huge difference. If a room has large windows or a primary source of natural light, install the planks in the same direction as that light entering the room. This will allow the light to travel down the length of the boards, creating the illusion of a longer floor as well as a more seamless finish. It gives more of the effect of light flowing into the room rather than being broken up.
Diagonal installation is also another trick to help a space feel larger and brighter because diagonal installation reflects light at multiple angles and creates a stylish design statement at the same time. While diagonal installation may require a little more planning and be a little more expensive, the rewards are well worth the effort, both in design and light reflection.
Complement with Light Walls and Décor
Even with ideal laminate flooring, you will get better results when you combine it with other light-reflecting elements in the space:
- Light-coloured walls
- Light, sheer curtains
- Mirrors positioned opposite windows or near darker corners
- Glass tables and furniture with metal accents
Avoid having large pieces of dark furniture in front of windows that will block the natural light from penetrating the room. You may also want to consider having clean windows and eliminating heavier drapes. Light, airy curtains or blinds are optimal, as long as you can fully remove them from the natural light flow. Emphasis should be on allowing natural light to flow unobstructed into the room so that your light-reflecting flooring can be fully utilised.
Use Laminate Flooring throughout Open Spaces
Having an open floor plan or adjoining rooms with similar laminate flooring colours can help brighten up the light in the home. Having the same colour flooring gives you the advantage of light travelling without being blocked by colour or materials. This helps make a smoother vista and lets natural light travel across the rooms more easily. If you have one type of flooring throughout, you will also get the illusion of a bigger space, which increases the feeling of open light in the rooms.
If you don’t want to use dark rugs, mats, or other products in large quantities to cover dark areas and have them take away from any light reflection!
Easy Maintenance, Long-Term Results
Not only is laminate flooring beautiful and adds style, but it is also a practical option. It is easy to clean and easy to maintain a state that allows the laminate to look shiny and bright for years to come! Unless you are putting your laminate floor through its paces, all you need is regular sweeping and an occasional mop with a damp cloth. Instead of smothering the laminate, you want to keep it reflective and dust and dirt free so that the surface remains shining bright!
- Use entry mats to reduce dirt footprints being tracked inside.
- Don’t use aggressive cleaners because they can cause cosmetic damage to the surface of the laminate or reduce its ability to capture and reflect light.
If your laminate floor has been maintained properly, those brightness-enhancing features of the material will maintain those characteristics over extended periods.
Final Thoughts
Natural light is an excellent feature to have in your home, especially with the right laminate hardwood flooring that can accentuate that natural light even more. Choosing light colours, glossy finishes, and wide planks, and arranging them with different patterns, will also affect how much light your flooring can reflect to you. Paired with bright wall colours, mirrors, and clean window coverings, your home can feel open, happy, and full of light and life.
Smart laminate floor design is a simple yet effective way to help you get the most out of the natural light you have, even if it isn’t much, and to help make a dull, dark room come to life, taking advantage of any of the beautiful daylight that is flooding all homes.