Welcome to Return on Design, the podcast where beauty meets strategy and interiors become assets that perform. I’m your host, Rachel Niederhofer, designer, investor and builder of high impact spaces that deliver real results. Alongside my husband, I run both a design firm and a real estate investment company, where I live at the intersection of creativity and ROI every day. Each week, I’ll be unpacking what most people overlook: how strategic design decisions can grow your investment, elevate your lifestyle and unlock the full potential of your property.
Most people blame a dark, uncomfortable room on the wrong things: bad insulation, the wrong paint color, not enough lamps. Natural light increases home value in a way almost nobody accounts for, and when it’s missing, the room gets blamed for problems that actually trace back to the windows.
Light is not just an aesthetic preference. It shapes how a room feels, how true a paint color reads, and how much value a buyer or renter assigns to a space without ever consciously thinking about why.
A well lit room generally feels bigger than it is. A dark room feels small and dated the moment someone walks in, even if the square footage is identical. That difference in perceived value is real, and it’s one of the most overlooked levers in a renovation or a flip.
Natural light is money in disguise.
Return on Design, Episode 14
Paint color is usually the first casualty. A color that looks perfect under a hardware store’s lighting, which is designed to mimic natural daylight, often looks completely different once it’s home on a wall that never sees direct light. The paint didn’t change. The light did. That gap between the paint chip and the wall is the clearest proof that natural light increases home value in ways people rarely connect to the actual light itself.
A client once asked about adding foam insulation to their attic because the house felt uncomfortable and the climate control seemed off. The real issue had nothing to do with insulation. The windows were 25 years old, heavily obstructed, and mostly kept covered, which meant the house felt cold and dark for reasons that had nothing to do with the HVAC system.
It becomes a cycle. The room feels off, so the air conditioning gets adjusted. The room still feels dark, so a wall gets repainted or another lamp gets added. One fix leads to another, and before long an entire space is being redesigned when the actual fix was opening up the light that was already available, or repairing or replacing the window causing the problem.
In new construction or a major renovation, windows deserve to be planned deliberately, ideally at least one in every room. Skylights can work as a last resort when a floor plan can’t accommodate a window, but they’re a workaround, not a first choice.
In an existing space where moving a window isn’t an option, the next best move is evaluating what’s already there: is the window dated, is the glass obstructed, is it even energy efficient? An outdated or poorly placed window is often a bigger problem than anything happening in the rest of the room.
Color matters more than finish when it comes to reflecting light. A lighter wall color helps a space feel brighter in a way a glossy sheen on a darker color never will. Furniture placement matters just as much: a bed with a tall headboard pushed up against a window can block most of the light the room has, and the room reads as dark and small as a result.
Even a sheer, light colored curtain lets ambient light through on a cloudy day in a way heavy drapery never does, which matters as much as direct sunlight for how a room actually feels.
On a recent flip, the walls and floors were lightened to maximize the natural light already available in the house. Every piece of feedback from people touring the property mentioned the same thing: the space felt fresh and light. Nobody has ever walked through a dark room and called it warm and inviting.
That reaction is real market feedback, and it matters because buyers and renters pay for how a space makes them feel, whether or not they can explain why. A well lit room also reduces how much a space has to lean on supplemental fixtures, which frees up both budget and attention for the details that natural light already accentuates on its own. The same discipline sits behind Return on Design: the light was already there, it just needed to be used.
When a room has been a persistent pain point and nothing seems to fix it, the better move is stripping it back to a clean slate and evaluating the space on its own structural terms, starting with how much light it actually has and where it’s getting blocked. That’s usually where the real answer is.
If you don’t have the ability to change the location of your window, you could evaluate the quality of your window. Are your windows dated? Do they have a lot of obstruction in the pain? Are they even energy efficient? We’ve had clients come to us and say, I want to put foam insulation in my attic because the climate’s so bad in here. We’re like, well, your windows are 25 years old. And your house feels dark because you’re covering your windows.
You’ve got every window closed. You’re covered up.
Yeah, thinking that it’s just a climate control issue with your insulation. And in reality, your windows are a major problem for you. So that would be worth investing in upgrading your windows. Welcome to Return on Design, the podcast where beauty meets strategy and interiors become assets that perform. I’m your host, Rachel Niederhofer, designer, investor and builder of high-impact spaces that deliver real results. Alongside my husband, I run both a design firm and a real estate investment company where I live at the intersection of creativity and ROI every day. Each week, I’ll be unpacking what most people overlook, how strategic design decisions can grow your investment, elevate your lifestyle and unlock the full potential of your property. You’ll get real tools, proven strategies and unfiltered conversations with industry experts who are doing it right. So if you’re ready to invest with purpose and leverage design as a powerful tool, this podcast is for you. Natural light is money in disguise. You can never underestimate the power of good light. But natural light is more than just good light. It is like a game changer. It can dramatically affect everything about the room.
Yeah, a well-lit room, especially with natural light, generally feels bigger. It looks better when people walk into a dark room. It feels small. It feels dated, but having that warm natural light automatically makes things look just a whole lot nicer and feels a whole lot nicer.
Agree. Well, let’s just talk about light in general and how color is influenced by light. You could go into local hardware store to look at paint as an example and fall in love with the paint color. And then you get a sample and you bring it home and it doesn’t look the same. And you’re like, why doesn’t it look the same? Or now I have 10 samples on my wall and nothing looks like it did in the store. It doesn’t look like it does on Instagram. Like I’m so frustrated. What’s my problem? Well, odds are it’s probably your lighting. And natural light is one of the most valuable things that can influence your design. It can influence your mood. It can influence how you feel in the space, how you experience the space. And often people overlook this. They want privacy, so they cover up their windows with like really heavy, you know, shutters or they want to black out all their windows. And then they don’t understand why they’re not fully enjoying their room. And yeah, I mean, what do you what’s your,
You know, with the color and the light, you know, when you look at those those colors in the store, they’re under a light that’s more designed to produce like a natural light sunshine. Yeah. So when you get it home and you’ve got it in your in that dark corner, of course, it doesn’t look the same. Yeah, you’ve got it. Oh, all my windows are closed. All of, you know, everything’s covered up like you were just saying, of course, it looks different because you’re not letting the light into it.
Yeah. I mean, if you’re building something or doing a major renovation where you have the ability to, you know, strategically plan out where your windows are going to be, that’s fantastic. And I always recommend at least a window in every single room. That’s always the goal of mine. I don’t prefer skylights. Some people will put skylights in and that was big, probably bigger back in like 70s, the 80s, where it became this big architectural feature where you could, you know, create a floor plan that really was more of a box and just open up the ceiling enough to admit a little bit of light, which I guess if that’s what you have to do,
That’s what you have to do. I mean, some people like them, though. Yeah, this is just one of those designs not for everybody, but I don’t recommend it.
However, if you have that ability to plan it out, you’re building a new house or even a commercial space, it really doesn’t matter. Plan for windows. Plan for windows as much natural light as you can get. Your architectural features should be built around capitalizing on, you know, the environment around you, like the natural light, all the things that that bring value from that. But if you don’t, if you don’t have the ability to, you know, change the location of your window, you could evaluate the quality of your window, like are your windows dated? Do they have a lot of obstruction in the pain? You know, are they even energy efficient? I mean, we’ve had clients come to us and say, I want to put foam insulation in my attic because the climate’s so bad in here. And we’re like, well, your windows are 25 years old and your house feels dark because you’re covering your windows.
You’ve got every window closed or like covered up.
Yeah, thinking that it’s just a climate control issue, you know, with your insulation and in reality, your windows are a major problem for you. So that would be worth investing in upgrading your windows.
Again, you know, that having the natural light and especially when you can, when you’re able to do it, like it makes the room feel bigger. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And as an investor, or if you’re trying to flip or even, you know, you’re going to rent a home out or even your own. People value the space. And so somebody that can walk into a room and be like, this room feels huge and it may not even be that big, but it feels big because of the light that’s emitted into it. They equate more value to it. Yeah, without even thinking about it.
And the emotional connection, you know, of I should say more of an experience. There’s there’s a genuine emotional response to fresh air, things that feel open and lighter and airy. You know, that’s why people like to be outside, especially when the weather is nice. But let’s say the other end of the spectrum from lighting is if you want to actually create a mood or create a tone strategically, how do you approach, you know, natural light and lend it to creating maybe a softer, more intimate space? It all boils back down to color, though. Definitely, geography affects light exposure, and it’s also going to be different at different times of the year. So in the summer, you might get more direct light from the north most of the day, let’s say. I would not plan a design around that specifically, unless that the design was going to be affected by that light to the point that it was affecting the function or the usability of that space. So like outdoor stuff, absolutely. Or if you’re building a house from the ground up, you would consider all of those things. But there’s also a lot of obstructions that could be, you know, you could go down a rabbit hole about that, because if you had a neighbor’s house that was going to take your your sunlight for the day or whatever. Or if you lived in the mountains, there is a lot of variety to those types of stipulations, in my opinion. It kind of gets me a little off track
When I think like that. Let me help shift you here, then. OK, so my windows are good, but I’m just not getting all the natural light in that I want. Are there ways that I can play with improving that light? Like, you know, you’ve talked about paint, but, you know, when you get into paint like the sheen, you know, there’s the flat, there’s the semi gloss, there’s gloss. Are there ways to help affect some of that, maybe? But like lighter colors always tend to help reflect light better.
Yes, it’s more about a color than a sheen. A sheen is just going to pop the light across. It’s not always going to make it feel bigger. Furniture placement can be a huge factor with optimizing light. If you’re putting furniture in the wrong place or you’re covering or you’re creating some level of obstruction that’s prohibiting the light from coming in, that’s going to be problematic. You’re going to feel like you’re not capitalizing on this big, gorgeous window that you have. So definitely be mindful. And to be honest, design should be framed around focal points of the room and windows are focal points. So windows serve a purpose in the space that has to be considered when you’re designing a space. I mean, if you’re building and you can focus on, OK, I want to apply natural light or I want to apply a window here. That’s one thing. But if you already have an existing space that has a window or windows, then those need to be considered. And how you use the space, what’s the focal point? You never want to put furniture backed up to a window unless it has some level of purpose and you’re still allowing light to come through. What I mean by that is like, you know, you could put like a console as an example, maybe in front of like an airy console that’s open on the bottom. It’s not a solid structure. And maybe you put, you know, plants on that or something. So you’re accenting the window as part of the design, but you’re not totally blocking the window. Yeah, blocking out the function of what the window is supposed to be doing.
Now, I mean, you know, we’ve walked in, we’ve seen houses where it’s like, oh, they put the bed with the massive headboard right in front of the window. Now three quarters of the windows blocked. And of course, the room now feels really dark, small.
Yeah, you can also, of course, use mirrors and high reflective finishes on furniture that can help balance and reflect light throughout. And then if you are in a situation where you have a lot of windows, but maybe you have different obstructions that are prohibiting the light from getting into your room as much as you would like, like maybe you have a mountain or some type of geographical structure that is, you know, casting shade. You can dress the window with light, airy material and preferably a light color as well. Well, in having that soft curtain that is, you know, still going to have the light airy feel to it will allow you to keep the window more exposed, more open even though you’re not getting a ton of light. So it can help with insulation, as an example, like if it’s a really cold or, you know, dreary day, it may feel cold to have all your windows open. But if you have a light drapery application where you can still have the ambience of maximizing on that natural because even on a cloudy day, you’re still going to have natural, different light reflecting in than then you would if you just had it completely draped off. So point being, you know, you can play to the architecture and try to enhance the light as much as you can versus just opting out to cover the window. It’s cold outside or cover the window. I’m not getting any direct sunlight right now. It’ll still influence the room even if you’re not having direct sun beaming in through the window. It’s still a really valuable design feature.
I mean, yeah, I like I like having the big open windows. And, you know, I used to like the over the shutter style.
Yeah, like the wood shutters, like those are kind of popular out here in the West. Yeah. I mean, some people think we’re like in the south. They think this is the south. But really, it’s like more
Western western, but, you know, they’re nice for some privacy sometimes, but they block so much light and that light just really does influence the way the room feels, the way you feel and give you that emotional return on designs. Like having having light, having things bright and not dark and dungeon. I mean, that light affects so many things, not just the look of a room, but how how something feels.
Yeah, I come back to the I say this a lot, like function and purpose for the use of this space is where you should always start with design. And that includes optimizing the natural light playing on the existing architecture and making sure you are not just, I don’t know, falling to trend pitfalls of like trying to just replicate something. But OK, let’s let’s talk about a flip we’ve done where we have a great natural light. We’ve lightened the walls, we’ve lightened the floors. And when we get feedback from people who go and view the house, we always hear like we love the natural light. It feels so fresh. It feels so light.
No one feels warm and inviting. Nobody’s ever come back and said, oh, it’s it feels like a dungeon in here.
Yeah, so that’s like real market feedback. I mean, it matters to buyers. It matters how they perceive a space, how they feel in the space. It matters.
Well, and, you know, when you have the natural light, too, you also don’t have to go crazy with chandeliers and other lighting fixtures to try and be able to even see in the space. Yeah, you’ve got free light. Yeah. And then you can go back to looking at other other details and that natural light accentuates details. Right.
It’s a game changer. Most people desire more light or even if a design client comes to me and they’re like, it just feels dark. It just feels dated. Most of it is a light problem. It’s either they don’t have the light in the architecture. They have the wrong windows. They have the wrong window applications, furniture placement, paint color. I mean, it all snowballs from there. But you can always start with light, how to maximize it, how to marginalize it. So you’re getting your experiential return. You’re enjoying your space, but you’re also there’s a perceived value. Yeah. And more than just perceived, really, I mean, there.
It’s just one of those values that translates. Yeah, agree. This doesn’t mean that everything like you have to have floor to ceiling windows in every room that’s not always feasible and not always truly even necessary. I mean, I do personally like the bigger windows, but when you use the natural light that’s available to you and especially in a remodel and a flip or something like that, you can really use that to your advantage to, you know, bring in the rest of your design that you’re putting in and get it to that higher value.
Most of the time you can work with what you already have in terms of your existing windows and design around that to optimize your light. You know, especially if you are living in the space or you’re staging the space to be lived in, if you are renovating a property and the light is lacking, that might be a time to really consider, like, do I need to put money towards this in my budget to capitalize on the potential of this space? And, you know, it may be it maybe the floors are great, but the lighting is horrible. You may not need to change the floors, but you need to upgrade the lighting and it’ll change everything. That’s just one example.
And sometimes remember when you’re looking at a space, it’s like, why is the light off? Is it the natural light is just not enough or am I blocking it for another reason? Right. You know, and sometimes it compounds like we talked about, you know, I keep all the windows closed because I feel like the installation’s off. So I’m trying to just keep everything in. Well, maybe it’s the 30 year old window you’ve got there. Or, you know, even in one of the houses we just did just that 50 year old window that was in there that just it’s not ceiling anymore. You know, and now I can put a brand new window in economically and completely change the space.
Yeah. You know, it’s actually comical that people can get in that like cycle. It’s like a cycle of, oh, it feels hot in here. Well, close the windows and turn up the air. Yeah. Then why is it so dark in here? Oh, I should maybe paint the wall or maybe I need to add more lamps. And maybe I just need to one thing becomes another thing. And before you know it, yeah, you’re redesigning the whole space. When in reality, you just need to open the window. Zoom your picture out.
Your windows are very important to it for a lot of reasons. I mean, yeah, the efficiency of your home, the light in your home, the view, the feel, they affect a lot. Yeah. And they’re very much overlooked.
I think so, like, especially when people are renovating or designing, you know, they don’t put enough weight on the consideration of that. I always like to say to, you know, start with a clean slate if possible. Like if the room is such a pain point and you just can’t figure out why, just like take everything out, get a clean slate and evaluate it from its structural composition and like, what is it by itself? And then you can kind of start to ease in and piece back together and that can help you define the space, focus on what’s important, maximize that lighting. So hope that gives you something to walk away with today. I know we kind of went around the spectrum of all the different lighting possibilities, but hopefully it gives you something to think about a different perspective on where your pain point can really be. And maybe you’re overlooking it and where maybe you need to focus your the focal point of your room and don’t neglect that natural light.
Yeah. So if you like what you heard, hit that like button, follow us, subscribe and we look forward to seeing you guys next time. Thanks for listening.
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