How do I bring more light into a Victorian Terrace? : 4 Top tips
In this sensitive refurbishment of a dark, cramped Victorian mid-terrace home, 4 S A looked to significantly improve daylighting and sense of space for its owner.
Brighten up gloomy hallways by removing solid walls
By creating a larger door opening, or eliminating a wall entirely, once dark, windowless hallways can ‘borrow light’ from brighter windows in adjacent rooms or spaces. In this project we removed the wall between the central room and the adjacent hallway to create a ‘Grand Hall’ which now borrows light from the over-panel in the front door, and additionally is animated by the staircase.
To get the same effect while maintaining a sense of division, replace solid walls with glazed partitions or install curtains for maximum flexibility.
Always check with your structural engineer first to make sure you aren’t removing load-bearing walls without additional support.
Install an enormous rooflight in rooms with small windows
The installation of oversized rooflights in a small space like this shower room in our Victorian Terrace retrofit project floods the space with natural light and creates a dramatic showering experience.
The removal of the original flat ceiling to extend the bathroom volume up to the sloped roof rafters, paired with the large rooflight makes this small space feel much more spacious than its footprint would imply.
Install small strategically placed rooflights above stair landings
The addition of even a small roof light, like this one at the top of the staircase landing in our Victorian terrace retrofit project, can significantly increase the natural daylight entering a space.
Research shows that under similar conditions, roof windows provide at least twice as much light as vertical windows of the same size (Johnsen et al., 2006), so you don’t need to go large if you don’t want to.
Adding a high-level shelf below the skylight creates space for out of season items, books, or a bright home for plants works well.
Embrace the cosiness of dark spaces by carefully considering your light fittings
Sometimes its best not to fight the darkness everywhere, and instead embrace it by creating a cosy comforting space like our deep blue living room.
At 4 S Architecture we like to create three layers of light in a space; a layer of general ambient light (that is provided in this project by a Nelson Saucer pendant light), task lighting (such as a floor lamp for reading, just out of shot) and lighting which just adds sparkle (like the vintage heat lamp on the left of this fire place).
Each type of lighting should be controlled individually so you can set a number of different scenes to suit the season, occasion and your mood.