Summers can particularly be toasty in South Florida, turning our town into a sweltering sauna. However, certain design elements can help to significantly reduce the amount of heat that enters your home and keep your house refreshingly cool. The goal is to maintain a comfortable indoor space all year-round while also giving your utility bills some relief in the process. Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not a tropical fairy tale. It’s a few good design tricks. 

Design Changes You Can Make to Help Keep Your House Cool 

• Use More Indoor Plants: Did you know that plants release water vapor into the air, preventing indoor air temperatures from climbing too high? They also have a psychologically calming effect that makes a space feel airy and relaxing, as opposed to hot and heavy. Placing plants in front of windows can even diffuse incoming sunlight (not to mention the sunlight helps the plant grow and continue to healthily do its job).

Some of the most effective plants for cooling down a space are philodendrons, snake plants and spider plants. To add even more oxygen and water vapor into your space, complement your houseplants with biophilic elements like living walls. 

• Create Cross Ventilation: Cross ventilation is a form of natural ventilation that uses wind-driven force to consistently bring cooler air indoors and drive warm air out. Before air conditioning took hold, this is how South Florida homes would keep cool. 

For cross ventilation to work, the space also needs to have at least two openings (a.k.a windows or doors). One opening should face the wind and serve as an inlet, and the other will serve as the wind’s outlet on the opposite side of the room. Cross ventilation is most effective when the inlet and outlet don’t have much distance between each other, so the wind doesn’t slow down and continues driving warm air out. Ceiling fans also help in this one. And if you ask us, this is best for the less muggier days. 

• Design with Natural Materials: Natural materials such as stone, tile, and hardwood absorb and release heat, as opposed to allowing heat to stay in the room. While stone and tile are notoriously cool underfoot, which can help reduce the temps in a space and why you see it so often being the flooring of choice across Miami. So, when selecting materials for flooring, countertops, and cabinetry, it’s wise to consider natural materials, especially if the room gets a lot of natural light. 

• Install Window Treatments to Minimize Direct Sunlight: There’s a lot you can do to minimize the amount of sunlight that comes through your windows. While Plantation shutters have long been en-vogue, there are a plethora of newer options that are taking the design world by storm right now – including café curtains, top-down, bottom-up treatments, and half-coverage stained wood blinds. These all do a great job of blocking out sunlight and keeping heat out of a space while keeping style at the forefront. If your budget allows, hurricane windows are incredibly energy efficient and can significantly improve your home’s insulation.  

• Paint with Cooler Colors: Would you wear black on a hot day? Well, maybe because we’re crazy here in Florida. But typically, darker colored objects absorb more heat than lighter ones. Interior design works the same way. Choosing light-colored interior finishes can make your house feel fresh, cool, and airy. So, you’ll want to avoid warmer hues like brown, red, orange, and black in favor of whites, grays, and softer hues. 

You can also augment this cooling affect by choosing lighter-colored furniture and accessories. Light-hued curtains, for example, facilitate interior air circulation while minimizing the amount of heat that comes in. 

Is heat resilience a major concern for your upcoming design project? If so, the experts at Debowsky Design Group would be happy to help you achieve the aesthetic you’re looking for. We’ll make sure your home is the coolest – both figuratively and literally – on the block. 

Give us a call and let’s beat the heat together!