I must note (read: complain), for some reason the family room was designed with the only window being the sliding glass doors which lead to the west-facing back yard. It does get a little light from the south and west-facing breakfast room windows and a bit from the east-facing "Daddy's room" window, but not enough to keep it well illuminated to suit my taste. I'm certain it was a man who was the architect on this job back in 1966. Ideally, there would be a window on each side of the fireplace to permit the lovely southern light to flood the room with the appropriate amount of brightness.
We've considered putting in a skylight, but have heard nothing but negative reviews on them from friends who have them. They say the heat they allow in the house during the summer (which is about half of our year here in central California) is unbearable. Although we could install a skylight with built in louvered blinds (expensive?). In the future, I think I'll look into the cost of installing windows on each side of the fireplace versus the louvered skylight. Until then, we utilize two table lamps, a wall-mounted light and a ceiling fan/light to bring light into this much used space.
I should say that this room doesn't usually appear as dark as it is in the photograph though. I took this photo at 4 p.m. and by that time, the sun is considerably low in the west sky over our backyard and we have a very large pergola (open wood slatted patio cover), which keeps a lot of the light from coming in during this time of day.
I also want to mention that last year, we upgraded our "college dorm room-style" desk with a new modular one from Pottery Barn (the Bedford desk) and I looooove it. I feel so grown up now.
* You can click on the picture to englarge it. Sierra wanted me to crop her feet out of the photo, but I decided to leave them in. :-)
Robyn
