Borrowed Light
 Light Borrowed From Kitchen and Dining Room Enhance the Living Room |
| Rooms feel more comfortable when natural light comes from 3 to 4 sides of a indoor space. We can accomplish this by borrowing light from other rooms or from hallways. In this article, I show 3 examples. |
| The example, above, was the most costly – requiring several structural changes and re-routing of ductwork and pipes. However, the homeowners say that the result has transformed the way that they live. Not only does the living room feel much larger with borrowed light from the remodeled kitchen and from the dining room, but the spaces feel both separate and joined. It’s not unusual for the family members to be doing separate activities but carrying on a single conversation. When the entertain, guests flow seamlessly through the spaces instead of being crammed into the kitchen. The homeowners report that they keep on the lights less frequently during the day since the rooms all feel bright with ample light to read and work. |
 Former Kitchen Space Borrows Light From Dining Room |
| The primary reason for popping this galley kitchen into the adjacent dining room was to gain space and connection. However, one of the benefits was for the old kitchen space to borrow light from the large dining room windows. Similarly, the dining room actually feels larger (even though it has lost space) because it feels like’s it’s borrowing light and space from the newly enlarged kitchen. The wall we removed was not load bear and had only limited electrical running through it. Since the kitchen badly needed remodeling and we used relatively low-cost finishes such as laminate counter tops, this was a quite cost-effective way to increase the feeling of space and light throughout the first floor. |
 Attic Borrow Light From Stairway Landing |
| In this attic, finished for office space, the 10-lite French door (shown open) allows the office to borrow light from the stairway landing. Similarly, because the door was removed from the bottom of the stairs, the bedroom hallway borrows light from these same windows. This change required no structural changes was a much less expensive solution than building dormers into the attic area. |
| All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build |
[...] a corner with windows on 2 adjacent walls, you can borrow daylight from other areas of the home. See Borrowing Light. 2. Bounce Lights off surfaces. You’ll get more daylight if you bounce the light off [...]