How to Decorate a Room With No Windows

Some rooms are simply windowless. It could be a guest room in a basement, a hallway, powder room, or even an interior bathroom or kitchen in an apartment or townhouse that lacks a window. The trick to decorating a dark, windowless room is to create the illusion that there’s a window in the space. Then add in plenty of the right lighting along with light and airy furniture and fabrics.

Simulate the Look of a Window

This easy trick can be accomplished in two ways. Hang an oversized mirror on a wall or hang floor to ceiling drapery on a rod. For extra depth on the wall that creates a window-like effect, hang drapery on a rod over a large mirror. Here are a few placement ideas that will give you the feeling that there’s a window in the room.

• In a basement guest room, create the aura of a window behind a headboard by hanging floor-to-ceiling drapery that’s kept closed.
• In a windowless living room or guest room, mount a mirror with divided panes of glass that makes it look like a window. Place it next to your sofa, chair, or bed and then hang curtains as you would on a regular window.
• Mount a large mirror on a wall opposite a sofa or bed, and add wooden shutters or blinds over the mirror for the illusion of a window.
• In a kitchen or bathroom, add a mirror the size of a window across from your sink, then hang a green plant near it so that it’s reflected to give the illusion that there’s a bit of foliage peeking indoors.

If you don’t want to create a faux window, take advantage of the magic of mirrors by hanging a few of varied sizes throughout your windowless space. Drape a string of white lights around them for added sparkle. The mirrors will work together to reflect and bounce light around the room for a dazzling effect.

Use the Right Lighting

It’s especially critical to have enough layered lighting in a windowless room. Overhead fixtures (think crystal chandeliers that reflect light), accent, and task lighting with clear glass or light, sheer shades to hang or place on the table or floor, will work together to create a brilliantly lit room. Add track or recessed lights strategically aimed at dim corners and to highlight artwork around the room. Run light strips underneath upper and lower cabinetry and inside exposed shelving to brighten surfaces with diffused lighting, especially in a windowless kitchen.

Bulbs Matter

Bulbs impact how a windowless room looks and feels. Color temperature (bluish mimics daylight while soft/warm white is more yellow like an incandescent bulb’s glow, for example) is a personal choice. However, as a guide, choose LED bulbs with the brightness of 1,100 lumens (equivalent to 75-watt incandescent bulbs) or 1,600 lumens (equivalent to 100-watt incandescent bulbs) in your preferred color temperature to compensate for the lack of natural light coming into the room.

Keep It Light and Simple

Decorate a windowless room like you would a small space, with lots of light colors and fuss-free furniture. There are a few more tricks to turning a windowless room into a breezy, bright space.

How To Brighten Up And Decorate A Room That Has No Windows

Sometimes it’s inevitable to have a room without windows, such as a basement, a hallway, a bathroom, or any other room that lacks natural light. While no natural light may be pouring into the room, there are other ways to brighten and decorate a room without windows. A simple illusion is all it takes to pull off a brightened look.

To brighten and decorate a room without windows, try the following:

• Use mirrors
• Paint the walls (and ceiling) a light color
• Hang large art
• Include sufficient lighting
• Install full-wall draperies
• Add greenery

If you still have some questions about brightening and decorating a room with no windows, don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll talk more about some of the ways you can brighten the space. Just keep reading!

Ways To Brighten And Decorate A Room Without Windows

Here we’ll discuss some different ways to brighten and decorate a room without windows in more detail.

Use Mirrors

Mirrors do a wonderful job of opening up a room. Whether there are lots of windows or none, a mirror will bounce light around in the room and add a sense of depth. Mirrors help to distract from the fact that a room doesn’t have windows.

There are multiple ways you can use mirrors in the design as well. Hang or lean one large mirror on a wall to make a large impact. Or you can incorporate a bunch of small mirrors on one wall or several.

Mirror Wall

There are lots of mirrors on the market that have distinct styles and features. This ensures you’ll be able to find a mirror that stylistically fits in with the rest of the room and contributes to the overall aesthetic.

Natural Wood Hanging Mirror

Paint The Walls (And Ceiling) A Light Color

Whether painted white or some other light color, it will make the room appear much lighter. If you use darker colors, it makes the room appear smaller and less open, and nobody wants that in a windowless room.

When both the walls and ceiling are coated in the same light hue, the room appears larger. In a room without windows, you’ll want to do everything you can to make the space look more open. Light and bright is the way to go!

Prestige Interior Paint

Hang Large Art

Large artwork can compensate for a lack of natural light. You can use one large piece of artwork or create a gallery wall for the same effect. While wall art cannot offer natural light as a window can, it takes up space on the wall to break up the wall space.

Expansive Art

Artwork is captivating, making it a wonderful option for your windowless room. Light-colored or reflective frames also make the room look and feel wider.

Framed Canvas Artwork

Include Sufficient Lighting

In a space with no windows, it’s important to include artificial light. There are multiple ways that you can simulate natural light in a windowless room. You’ll want to include enough variety in lighting in the room in order to layer the light. Do what you can to illuminate all areas of the room, not letting any corners remain in the shadows.

Start off by installing an overhead fixture such as a chandelier or pendant light. Choosing a chandelier with crystal or other reflective surfaces helps brighten the room.

Crystal Chandelier Lighting

Place a floor lamp, table lamp, or a couple of them in the room. These are great for task lighting which lightens specific areas in the room.

Add either shelf or under-cabinet lighting. Doing so eliminates any shadows in the room, guaranteeing that all areas in the room are illuminated.

Touch-Activated LED Lightbar

Install Full-Wall Draperies

Even if you don’t have a window in a room, you can make it appear as if there’s on by installing full-wall draperies. Pick out a curtain rod and some fun curtain panels to hang just like you would over a window. Doing so adds more texture and dimension to the room.

For a fun effect, you could hang a framed window or window-shaped mirror behind the curtains.

Beige Curtain Panels

Add Greenery

Greenery is an excellent way to incorporate natural elements into the room design. Any time natural elements are placed in a room, it livens it and makes it feel fresh. Feel free to use live or faux plants, but keep in mind which live plants can tolerate low light. Don’t be shy with size—small, large, and in between.

Faux Potted Green Begonia

Tuck greenery and other florals into all areas of the room in order to make a big impact. Place it on a bookshelf, next to the TV, or as a centerpiece on the table. However you do it, channel your creativity and make the space work for you and your vision.

What Is Natural Lighting?

Natural lighting is a lighting technique, called daylighting, that brings natural light into the room by means of exterior features (windows, doors, etc.). Natural lighting can also be introduced to the home via skylights and solar-shading devices.

Thanks to technology, artificial light now does an excellent job of mimicking natural light. Natural lighting is so valuable to a home’s atmosphere considering its positive impact on health and comfort.

How Do You Simulate Natural Daylight In A Windowless Room?

Use full-spectrum lightbulbs in your light fixtures because these do a great job of simulating natural daylight. These types of lightbulbs look soft and warm.

There are even light fixtures on the market that mimic natural lighting such as faux skylights and windows. The LED lights that are used have multiple settings that can be adjusted to give off a certain level of light. The warm glow gives the impression of natural light filling the room.

Slim LED Light Fixture

This simulation skylight features various dimmable light settings. These range from 3,000K warm white, 4,000K natural white, and 5,000K cold white.

What Light Bulb Is Closest To Natural Light?

LED light bulbs are the best thing you can get to simulate natural light. There are tons of LED varieties on the market, each having varied characteristics to provide different looks. These are the most energy-efficient lightbulbs available. You can use them in all kinds of lighting sources from chandeliers to lamps to under-the-counter lighting.

Thankfully, now there are dimmable light bulbs on the market. This characteristic makes it rather easy to attain just the right level of brightness in the room. Crank it up or dial it back to get the glow you’re after.

Halogen light bulbs provide a close simulation of natural daylight. These types of light bulbs cannot be used in all lighting sources, though. They burn at a higher temperature, so use caution.

What Color Scheme Brightens Up A Room?

Any light colors or light neutrals do a wonderful job of brightening a room. Try to maintain a rather minimal color combination with no more than 3 different colors. Doing this will keep the room looking orderly and as large and bright as possible.

White is always a classic for brightening up a room. If it’s too bright for your taste, you can opt for more muted shades of white like ivory or cream. Furthermore, if you’d like to use some color on the walls, try out pastel shades like lavender, blonde, baby pink, mint, or powder blue.

Stay away from using dark colors. You can incorporate a few dark shades in the room items such as the frame of a piece of art or mirror, vases, or accent pieces. Just don’t go overboard.

In Closing

We hope this guide has helped you figure out the best way to decorate and brighten your windowless room! Let us know in the comments below which methods you decide to use. Before you go, be sure to check out these other home decor guides:

How to decorate rooms without windows? – 6 brilliant ideas!

As true as it is that all human beings need a great amount of sunlight, whether consciously or organically, it’s also true that circumstances are not always according to what we expected in our life. It could be a lack of budget or, simply, the design of your home, sometimes we have to face rooms without windows. In some Indian cities, for example, there are a multitude of houses that have no windows due to both the high density of buildings in a small area and the climatic conditions (especially in the colder areas), since the absence of these elements can help to maintain the optimal climate of the house or, simply, not to break the standard building design.

However, the absence of windows, modifies in part the characteristics of a room. The most obvious is the lighting, without a source of natural light, artificial light sources play a determining role. The lighting has to be distributed in an appropriate way for greater comfort and coexistence. And in a room that does not have windows, the care must be even greater. In these cases, it is best to use light colors and live generously. Walls, for example, should be painted white or in warm colors such as yellow, light red and orange. In addition it is advisable that you choose bright carpets or bright colors in the floors; some dark furniture (bedside tables, for example) or wall shelves, to contrast with light surfaces; as well as dark frames for walls and ceilings. These small gestures will allow you to highlight the light and bright colors while giving a more natural feeling. Another feature that also changes in rooms that do not have windows is the ability of the room in question to move you to another universe, and is that, often, just to look out the window to see how big the world is and all the life that exists beyond our walls. Who has not spent long moments looking lost in the street, watching people, the movements through a window? Lack of ventilation is also another important factor. In a room without windows the air is left without circulation and in hot climates, it can be harmful as well as unhealthy. in this book of ideas we have prepared some tips to help you modify a room without windows. Take note!

1. The lighting

The main consequence of the absence of a window is the lack of natural light. So much so that it is especially important to devote time and attention to lighting design. In this sense we can say that there are two options. On the one hand we can create a warm and intimate atmosphere, although it does not necessarily give the feeling of natural light. In this case yellow incandescent lights have been used, which can be distributed in specific points, as you can see in this design by Lucia Navajas. Also the use of lamps and candlesticks as well as candles and incense can also help provide the environment with the necessary feeling of warmth.

The second option is to opt for a lighting that resembles or can imitate natural light. White incandescent bulbs are a good idea, full-spectrum light bulbs are the best alternative and although they cost a little more than normal incandescents, they mimic the natural light of the sun. Another trick that will suit you well if your room does not have windows is the use of curtains instead of doors to create a window effect when the room is closed, while also facilitating the illumination of the environment.