How do you bring light into a room that faces a light well?
With a combination of four moves: enlarge the window or opening, pass light through glass partitions from bright rooms, make the finishes reflective and add artificial light that imitates day. Painting the walls is not enough: light that is not there does not appear.
An Eixample light well is a narrow shaft 3 to 6 metres wide running through all floors. The windows look onto the nearby wall opposite, and the room has little daylight. So in such rooms you put what does not need bright day: a bathroom, dressing room, study or secondary bedroom, and light for the others is created by the layout and the finish.
Can you enlarge a window onto a light well?
Sometimes. A window onto the well is part of the building's facade, and changing the opening needs the technician's calculation and the comunidad's agreement and, if the building is protected, the city's too. If the wall is load-bearing, the opening is widened by calculation, with a new steel lintel, and the usual move is to lengthen the window downward: remove the sill section and take the opening to the floor.
The width of the opening is limited by walls and supports. If it cannot be enlarged, improve what exists: remove heavy curtains, swap the glazing for a unit with higher light transmission, clean the glass and the courtyard walls. Painting the walls of the well itself a light colour, agreed with neighbours, adds far more reflected light than it seems and costs little.
Which colours make a dark room lighter?
Light warm whites and beiges reflect more light than greys and cool tones. The ceiling is made lighter than the walls, and the floor lighter than in bright rooms. Gloss and satin finishes, polished plaster, lacquered fronts and mirrors return light deeper into the room. Matt dark colours absorb it.
Do not fear deep colours if the room is used in the evening: a dark green or blue study, a bedroom with a rich wall feels cosy if it is deliberate and not an attempt to hide the darkness. Work and living rooms are better light, with neutral furniture. Dark furniture on a light background keeps the balance. We have a separate article on the palette.
How do you use glass partitions?
A glass partition in a steel or aluminium frame with clear or frosted glass passes light from a bright room to a dark one and keeps acoustic insulation if the glass is laminated. It goes between the corridor and the study, between the living room and the dressing room, or over a door as a transom.
Transparency is not needed everywhere. For a bedroom or bathroom, choose fluted, frosted or cream glass that diffuses light and hides silhouettes. Glazed doors, sliding glass leaves, strips above wardrobes. Each device adds a little light, and together they change the room. If the wall is load-bearing, a window in it is opened by calculation, like any opening.
Do sky-effect light fittings work?
They work if well made, and only for rooms with no window or little light. A sky-imitating panel is an LED source under a diffusing screen with a colour temperature of about 5000 to 6500 K and a high colour rendering index (CRI 90 or more). The larger the area and the deeper the sense of depth, the more convincing the effect.
Expectations should be realistic. It does not replace daylight in benefit, but it removes the basement feeling. It suits a bathroom, dressing room, utility room, a room you pass through. A bedroom needs the option of warm, dimmable light for the evening. A small panel with uniform light looks like a lamp in the ceiling. It must be large enough, with no visible dots, with colour and brightness control by scenes.
How do you screen yourself from the neighbours' windows across the well?
Light well windows sit so close together that neighbours can see each other almost face to face. Solutions that keep light: fluted or frosted glass in the lower part, a diffusing film, light voile and linen curtains, tilting slats, inner timber shutters that cover the lower half of the window.
Do not cover the window completely: you lose the little light there is. Privacy is solved with translucency. Ventilation matters too: windows onto the well are often the only ones in the room and must open. For the bathroom and kitchen, add mechanical extraction. A room without a window cannot be a bedroom under the Catalan habitability rules, and the technician confirms the details.
How does BCN YARD handle light in dark rooms?
We see the flat at different times of day, measure the illumination, discuss with the technician where an opening can be enlarged and propose a plan: what to open, what to glaze, where to put artificial light. We run the project in Russian and Spanish: our own crews and trusted subcontractors, one person responsible for the project. Send the plan and photos and we answer within an hour.
Frequently asked questions
Can you enlarge a window onto a light well?
Sometimes. A window onto the well is facade, so you need the technician's calculation and the comunidad's agreement and, if the building is protected, the city's. If the wall is load-bearing, the opening is widened by calculation with a new lintel, usually downward to the floor. If not, remove heavy curtains and paint the well walls light.
Which colours make a dark room lighter?
Light warm whites and beiges, a ceiling lighter than the walls, gloss and satin finishes, polished plaster, lacquered fronts and mirrors opposite the light. Matt dark surfaces absorb it. Deep colours work for a study or bedroom if chosen on purpose.
Do sky-effect fittings work?
They work in windowless rooms: bathroom, dressing room, utility room. You need a large panel with no visible dots, 5000 to 6500 K, CRI 90 or higher, with brightness and colour control. It does not replace daylight, but it removes the basement feeling. A small one looks like a lamp.
How do you screen yourself from neighbours' windows in the well?
Fluted or frosted glass at the bottom, a diffusing film, linen curtains, tilting slats or inner timber shutters. Do not cover the window completely, so you keep the light, and leave it able to open for ventilation. Translucency keeps light that dark fabric would lose.