Things I have done to improve natural light in my home: 1. front door now is mostly glass 2. removed full height pantry that was in the kitchen/entrance - there is a small load bearing wall there that will be replaced by columns (attached to kitchen island) 3. painted all walls off white 4. chose light coloured finishes in general 5. removed upper cabinets from around kitchen window 6. ensure that window coverings for privacy allow lots of light in Things I am considering doing 1. adding ODL tubular skylights to light windowless areas (from Home Depot) 2. replacing some interior doors that are usually closed with windowed ones to bring natural light into windowless hallway (doors can have curtains or blinds if necessary) 3. adding windows to bathrooms

Hmmmm, I'm going to look up the link to skylight covers in a sec. Interesting. But if Steph is thinking of making her own, it isn't that difficult, you know. The Home Depot sells 100 foot rolls of what is called SHADE CLOTH. I bought a roll of it intending to make roman shades from it, but DH opted to have plantation shutters installed here in Alabama like the ones I persuaded him to install up in Massachusetts. He really likes them. Now, I will probably use the shade cloth to make a cover outdoors for my shade loving hosta that I've gone nuts over. I have two roll up shades made of it on the totally Lexan walled sun porch, and it truly cuts the heat down, plus like Shelayne says you can see through it looking out. You don't want to put a shade on the INSIDE of your skylights Steph, because in AZ what you have is radiant heat, which will come in regardless of you stopping the LIGHT, if you don't stop it on the outside to keep the glass from heating up and transmitting/radiating the heat inward. If those purchased skylight covers can be bungeed into place, then you can see about making them yourself....or maybe ask your SISTER to sew them up for you? Are you handy with the sewing machine? Didn't we just chat about that sitting unused in most of our homes? Well, think about running a few flat hems easy as making a towel, threading the bungee through the hem, and get some young buck of an Arizona cowboy to climb up there on your roof and install it for you. Isn't your neighbor's boy big enough to help you do that? Think about it, Steph. You get the shade, and still have the light. It will make a difference.

@cd7733, yes, I definitely think the alternate pathway is something we will do. I’m contemplating eliminating the hallway portion currently between pantry and kids bedrooms and bring the kitchen all the way to the dining room. I think if I do that and move the master bedroom door towards the back wall, I’ll have a few more options in the master bath which I’m not 100% happy with anyway.

After two years of looking for the right shades for our home I had an A-HA moment this past week - get the windows tinted. We will be getting our windows tinted with a 3M product that gets us where we want to be in terms of UV protection, day & night privacy and allow us to retain our sound & mountain view. Added bonus is tinting will help keep the warmth in winter and coolness in summer. We have three fairly large South and West facing windows that we have scheduled to tint soon and then I'll finally order some natural woven top down/bottom up roman shades! Tinting takes care of another problem I was having when it came to finding the right shades for my home - the need to have a liner. I won't need one now as the woven shades will hang nicely without one and tinting offers the UV & privacy. On another liner note, it would be great if window treatment companies offered liners in something other than plain white for the street view / exterior view color. I found only one place that offered something different - they had the option of an oatmeal, natural, tan or ivory color - any of those would have been best for me as I have a white house w/ white trim and having white showing window shades would have been too much of a good thing. Also, pure white tends to show any wrinkle, water or dirt spots more than other shade color. Just take a look at the backside of your window treatments - up close inside and from your yard.