We tend to adapt so quickly to our environments, that sometimes I forget that it’’. Weirdly enough, even though I’ve lived in my flat – bedroom in particular – for three years; it still feels like I live in a closet. (Literally. No windows, it’s in the centre of the building and I’m completely boxed in by my neighbours walls.) That being said, I’ve come far from my dingy little windowless ‘closet’.
I’ve managed to turn it into a fairly comfortable and oddly cozy room that people often say they can’t believe is my bedroom when they hear it has no windows. Granted, this didn’t happen overnight. I made a lot of mistakes along the way.
Originally, I thought I should embrace the lack of light in my room. So I painted one wall navy hoping to achieve that dark and moody bedroom look you see in magazines.
While the paint looked lovely in the tin, it did not look lovely on my wall.
Navy made the room feel smaller, more closet-like. And sleeping in a shoebox really is what I felt like I was doing…literally sleeping in a shoebox (ok, maybe not literally but you get the point). The dark colour of the paint just amplified that feeling.
A week after painting my wall navy, I painted over it. Moral of the story: always test your paint colours beforehand. Now I always buy tester pots of paint and let them live on my wall for at least a week before committing to anything larger than an accent wall in the bathroom.
In order to make a room like mine feel like an actual livable space, you need to reflect as much light as possible without creating that dreaded ‘ sterile white box ‘ look. After many weeks of deliberation I finally settled on String by Farrow & Ball as my main colour on the wall behind my bed. Sure, buying paint that costs £50+ a pint isn’t ideal for a room the size of mine; but trust me, it was worth every penny.
I painted each of my other walls a very pale grey; almost white but with enough warmth so the room didn’t feel sterile. One thing most people don’t take into consideration when refreshing a room without windows is the ceiling. Paint your ceiling and main wall the same colour.
Life changing. By painting them both white, it creates this illusion where your eye can’t distinguish where the ceiling ends and your wall begins. Creating the illusion that the room has more height to it than it actually does.
Trust me, it works. Magic. Soon after deciding to take down the original bulb that hung down from my ceiling (think police interrogation room type lighting) and replace it with a series of other light sources throughout the room (AKA, my light layering process), my girlfriend started calling me “the Lighting Guy”.
Before these upgrades she said she didn’t really know shit about colour temperature or lumens but now she constantly offers her unsolicited input. My original setup consisted of this LED strip I clipped onto the back of my headboard that emitted a warm white light. They not only gave off ambient light around my bed but it also helped me relax before trying to sleep.
They weren’t cheap at £40 on Amazon but they were super easy to install with its adhesive backing and took me maybe 20 minutes. Having adequate lighting around my bed wasn’t enough. I needed two brass adjustable bedside lamp fixtures to finish tying the room together. (Bedside lamps were only £15 each from a local car boot sale but they had to be rewired as the previous owner clearly fucked around with the wires.) These were enough light to provide me with adequate lighting when reading but was warm enough that they didn’t make the room feel clinical.
Finding that balance was tricky. What really took me aback during this process was mirrors. Everyone talks about how mirrors can make a small space feel more voluminous and they are right.
But placement is key! I bought this huge circular mirror from IKEA and placed it in front of my door entrance (about £30) and spray painted the rim gold to make it feel more luxurious. Now when you walk into my room the first thing you see is reflected light instead of a dark wall.
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I then hung a smaller mirror on the other side of me, opposite my bed wall so that light could reflect back and forth from these two mirrors creating another subtle brightening effect. I even hung a full length mirror on the back of my door. Which not only allowed me to get ready and see myself at full length but when my door is open, it reflects any hallway light that may be coming through.
As you can see, I didn’t drop a bunch of cash on new mirror… I simply relocated some IKEA mirrors I already had. Storage was another aspect of my room that needed to be dealt with. Cluttered rooms with no natural light will always feel smaller.
So I bought a bed with drawers underneath it. (May have been one of the best decisions I’ve made in terms of upgrading my room). All my winter clothes and extra blankets are stored under my bed. I also installed floating shelves from floor to ceiling on all four walls.
They not only draw your eye up to my nicely painted ceiling but give me plenty of shelf space to store books and decor. When it came to storage for clothes I had to think outside the box. I couldn’t just fit normal wardrobe sized cabinets because that would’ve taken up almost all my floor space.
Instead I bought some hanging rails and a light coloured curtain to drape in front of it. Not only does the footprint of the railings + curtain take up less space than doors would; I can also easily pull back the curtain if I want my room to feel more open. One thing no one tells you about windowless rooms is they fuckin’ heat up.
Or more like become stuffy very quickly. As a result I purchased an air purifier that I keep on 24/7. Aside from it actually cleaning the air; it also helps me autumn asleep at night due to the white noise.
You want air flow in your room. It helps with that closed-in feeling that being in a dark room can bring. I wasn’t sure how plants would fair in a room with no natural light.
Turns out they’re quite easy to manage. I have a snake plant in the corner of my room that I can pretty much guarantee will survive anywhere. I also train pothos plants to hang down from my top shelves that line my room.
They both seem to be happy with the minimal amount of light coming from my LED light strips. Something that has surprisingly helped brighten my room more than anything is my bedding.
All white sheets with a light grey duvet cover.
Nothing crazy, but when you have zero natural light coming into your room; every little thing that helps brighten it up is a bonus. I’ve played around with different textures; chunky knit throw in cream and added some soft pastel coloured linen cushions to keep the room interesting without cluttering it. Trust me I learnt the hard way when I first bought these black-out curtains to hang across my door.
Going to my neighbours whether they could hear/hear music or not was unbearable with these curtains up. Needless to say I replaced them with a lighter fabric and now I allow as much ‘daylight’ into my room as possible while still maintaining a level of privacy. So it took me about six months and £800 to complete my room.
Paint, lighting (mirrors kind of count as lighting right? ), storage you name it. It wasn’t cheap (£800 is like…five weeks rent); but I’ve spread the room out buying bits here and there instead of dumping it all at once which makes it slightly more manageable. How do I feel about sleeping in a room with no windows?
Better than I ever did in rooms with tons of natural light. There’s something about being shut off from the outside world and having a room that you made cozy rather than a box you’re trapped in.
