How to Light a Room with No Windows: 5 Easy Tips
Surveying your newly renovated guest bedroom, you’re struck by how dark and dreary the space feels. Although you’ve spent hours carefully decorating, the room’s lack of windows prevents it from being as welcoming as you’d hoped. Determined not to let your hard work go to waste, you pull out your phone and search for tips on how to get more natural light into a room without windows.
Equipped with this new knowledge, you realise there are plenty of ways to make your guest room feel bright and inviting despite the lack of windows. You picture stylish lights and lamps layered throughout the room, illuminating even the darkest corners. Light bounces beautifully off your metallic fittings, while dimmable lights allow your guests to adjust the level of light depending on the time of day.
Discover our 5 easy tips for how to light a room with no windows and never put up with drab interiors ever again.
5 tips for lighting a room without any windows
Bedrooms, bathrooms, and basement or loft conversions can sometimes lack natural light, but that doesn’t mean they have to be dark and soulless. The right lighting scheme can bring a windowless room to life, creating a bright, welcoming atmosphere.
Follow these tips to add the right amount of light to your windowless interiors while also enhancing the room’s style and ambience.
1. Layer different light sources
‘The key to lighting a room with no natural light is layering multiple sources to eliminate as many shadows as possible’, says Ally Dowsing-Reynolds, lighting expert and co-founder of Dowsing & Reynolds.
To create an effective layered lighting scheme in your windowless room:
- Start with bright overhead ceiling lights. In a rectangular space, consider placing main ceiling lights at either end of the room rather than opting for one central light – this will help to ensure light reaches every corner.
- Add ambient wall lights. These are a must for bedrooms and living spaces because they help to create a relaxing atmosphere. Put your wall lights on dimmer switches to set the right mood with ease.
- Finish with decorative floor and table lamps. These are ideal for brightening up dark corners that your overhead lights don’t quite reach, as well as providing task lighting. Choose lamps with eye-catching designs to add visual interest to the space.
2. Choose the right bulb colour temperature
It’s important to consider the colour temperature of the light bulbs you’re using when lighting your windowless room.
Bulbs with a colour temperature higher than 3000 Kelvins (K) provide a cooler, bluish-white light that is closer to natural daylight. Bulbs with a colour temperature of 3000 K or less give off a warmer, orange-yellow glow that creates a more cosy and relaxing ambience.
You should use a combination of cool and warm light bulbs throughout your space to ensure you have the right type of lighting for every time of day. Cool bulbs are best for your main overhead lights to simulate the natural daylight that the room lacks, while warm bulbs are the ideal choice for your wall lights, floor lamps, and table lamps to help you unwind and switch off at the end of the day.
3. Opt for reflective metallic fittings
Metallic fittings and finishes will reflect the light around your room and make it feel brighter. Your lighting fixtures themselves could have metallic finishes, such as the Fender wall light with its eye-catching gold finish, or you might opt to add more subtle metallic detailing through other home accessories.
‘In a bathroom with no windows, consider using metallic or partially metallic tiles’, Ally suggests. ‘Anything that shimmers will help make the space feel brighter’.
Light switches and sockets are often overlooked when designing a room, but they’re a great way to add metallic details. Gold switches and sockets are ideal for making a space feel more luxurious and high-end, while silver and brass switches and sockets add a beautiful contemporary flair.
Style tip: Choose the same metallic finish for your switches, sockets, and lighting fixtures to effortlessly tie your space together and add visual interest.
4. Use mirrors to reflect light around the room
‘Mirrors are a great way to bounce light around’, says Ally. ‘Place them on the narrower walls of your room to instantly make it feel larger’. A large mirror or series of mirrors will also give the room an attractive focal point, helping to create an inviting atmosphere.
To improve the overall illumination of your room, make sure your mirrors are positioned so that they can reflect the light from your overhead light fittings. Alternatively, consider placing mirrors behind table or floor lamps to enhance the room’s cosy ambience.
Style tip: Put wall lights on either side of mirrors to effortlessly brighten the space, especially if you’re lighting a bathroom with no windows.
5. Cast light onto the walls and ceiling
Positioning your lights so they cast light onto the walls and ceiling can help to make the room feel bigger and brighter.
Wall lights are excellent for this – opt for a design like the large porcelain wall light to cast large beams of light onto the wall and emphasise your space.
For your ceiling lights, choose a multi-arm option with multiple bulbs to throw as much light as possible across the ceiling. The Trikonasana gold multi-arm light is a stylish option that would work well in any windowless space.
Show us your brightly-lit interiors
If these tips for how to get natural light into a room without windows have inspired you, we’d love to see what you’ve come up with! Just tag us on Instagram @dowsingandreynolds.
