Layout: A room without a window - how to make it "residential" -

There are no new-build apartments with rooms without windows – builders simply will not be able to hand over such an object that violates existing SNIPs. But as a result of redevelopment, rooms without windows appear quite often: parents want, albeit microscopic, but their own bedroom, children of different sexes have grown up – but you never know there are situations. TOHow to make ventilation in a room without windows and what should be its interior design – we will consider in this article.

Mila Kolpakova

It would seem a contradiction: you can’t build – you can agree on the redevelopment. How so? The fact is that the owners “deliberately go to the worsening of living conditions.” And if they call such rooms “non-residential” (dressing room or study) on the BTI plan, the redevelopment project will be easily agreed upon.

But another problem arises: you will get permission, and then what? A room without a window looks like a gloomy closet: I really don’t want to use it as a living room, bedroom or study. Yes and there is no ventilation in a room without windows. What to do?

Tiffany Eastman Interiors, LLC

1. Additional lamps
Thinking over the design of a room without windows, ptry to add as many light sources as possible – this will make it appear much lighter and more spacious. This can be achieved in various ways. Your task is not to hang a more powerful chandelier, but to imitate daylight. To do this, you need to install small lamps that give diffused light (and the lamps themselves should not be in sight when the light is on), creating the appearance of daylight streaming from the window from above. Luminaires can be placed both on the ceiling and installed in special niches. Most importantly, they should not resemble familiar light sources. According to the light temperature, the bulbs should correspond to neutral white (daylight) light.

Julia Khokhlova

In the photo: “Instead of cabinet doors, there are shutters tinted like teak,” says the author of the project, designer Yulia Khokhlova. – It seems that this is a huge window to the floor, closed with blinds. The desired effect is created only by the LED strip to illuminate the cabinet. The guests do not believe that it is not a window in front of them. “

Advice: If there are a lot of cabinet furniture (cabinets) in the room, try to place LED strips between them: among other things, such lighting will make the interior items “lighter and more airy”.

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ZeroEnergy Design

In the photo: additional windows from the nursery open onto the adjacent living room

2. Window openings
A room without a window will become brighter if cut through an additional window in one of the interior walls. Of course, such a window will not face the street, but it will allow daylight from the next room to enter the room.

A2studio

Small windows are good not only in dark living rooms – they will absolutely not interfere in any “technical” rooms: dressing rooms, walk-through corridors and hallways.

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Fact: The interior window does not have to be miniature – sometimes the best solution is provided by a glass partition between the rooms.

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Inna Velichko

3. Transom
If a window opening in the wall seems too radical and violates the boundaries of personal space, then a transom can be an excellent alternative. A transom is a small window between rooms under the ceiling, which also serves as an additional source of light. In the planning of Soviet apartments, transoms were often installed in the wall separating the kitchen and the bathroom.

Adrienne derosa

In the photo: another implementation of the same idea – not to make a partition between the light room and the dark room at full height.

4. Paintings and wallpaper
Wall murals or a beautiful landscape in a large painting, especially in a white frame, will become a so-called “window to nature”. And panoramic paintings (for example, with the image of an open window overlooking the lawn) are completely the prototype of a real window.

Ivan Skorikov

4. Sliding panels
And also full-folding partitions instead of a wall is another well-known trick. On the one hand, such a partition allows you to create a separate, isolated room, on the other, if you wish, the panel can be pushed apart and let daylight penetrate into every corner of the room.

Fact: The presence of a partition is especially important if it is required to coordinate the combination of a living room and a kitchen with a gas stove. In a situation where the combined studio space also flows into the bedroom, the partition that “reveals” the space and creates privacy becomes simply irreplaceable.

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Maria Gladysheva

5. Mirrors
So that the absence of a window is not too conspicuous, you can create the illusion of its presence in the room. For example, using a large mirror. Another way to visually enlarge a room is to decorate the ceiling or wall with a beveled or sandblasted mirror.

6. False window
Traditionally, there are a lot of questions to him – a frame with a light box on the wall sometimes looks a little “fake”. Slightly less striking are window-shaped mirrors in places where they are not expected.

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Kohler

Or even a conscious imitation of a window frame by the layout of the facade: you are not trying to depict a “view of the river” in this place, but the brain subconsciously reads – it is very similar to a window.

Mosaik Design & Remodeling

7. White walls
Only those who have not read anything about home improvement do not know about their ability to “expand” the space. This is achieved due to the fact that the white color does not absorb, but, on the contrary, reflects the rays of light (including artificial). So for the ceiling in a room without windows, it is definitely best to use white. For walls and furniture – of your choice, but light shades are preferable. Add brightness to the decor with the help of accessories.

Toronto Interior Design Group

8. Closed curtains
Perfectly create the appearance of a window. Drape one of the walls – for example, behind the back of a sofa or bed. There are two windows in the project in the photo: small ones at the corners of the bed – but it seems that one is huge.

What else?

Forced ventilation

Lack of ventilation provokes high humidity, mold and mildew. Therefore, in a room without a window, it is important to make artificial (supply) ventilation instead of natural. For ventilation of small rooms it is recommended to use a supply unit. It is a compact system where all the components are assembled in one monoblock (noise-insulated housing). In order to understand what kind of air exchange is suitable for the room, you need to multiply the area of the room by its height and double the resulting value – this way you will understand how many cubic meters should get into the room every hour.

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Airgiver

One of the simplest ways to solve the problem of air exchange in a room is to install an airgiver (ventilator). It is a wall-mounted supply unit installed inside the apartment. Airgivers do an excellent job with their main function and do not spoil the interior of the room. A neat decorative grille is installed on the facade of the building: it protects the device from moisture and insects. Air from the street is taken through an insulated air duct in the wall, which, before entering the room, goes through several stages of cleaning and heating.

It is recommended to install one airgiver per room – in this case, ventilation will be as efficient as possible. It is advisable to place the airgiver above the floor itself: when the device is at the bottom, it captures all layers of air and thus provides better convection. The airgiver installation process will take 1-2 hours on average. Installation includes the following steps: preparation of a place for installing the device, creating a small hole in the wall with a diameter of 100 to 135 mm, inserting a heat-insulated air duct into the hole. After that, the hole is closed with a decorative grill from the outside. The airgiver is hung on a hole inside the room and connected to the network.

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Air conditioning

An air conditioner in a windowless room is a great companion to an Airgiver. Aerogivers do not cool the air, but only provide an inflow of fresh clean air from the street, heated in cold weather to a predetermined temperature. Some apartment owners believe that if you have a good air conditioner, you can do without an airgiver. However, this is not the case. The air conditioner does not take air from the outside: it recirculates and cools the indoor air in the room. For this reason, in the absence of an airgiver, the air conditioner will drive polluted stagnant air. And only working in pairs, these devices will give an ideal result: the air conditioner will provide the apartment with fresh and clean air supplied by the airgiver.

London Garden Designer

Roof skylight

The problem of small areas is familiar not only to apartment owners, but also to townhouses and houses of a small area. If a small room is formed as a result of redevelopment, a light well can be an excellent solution.

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YOUR TURN…
Is there in your apartment a room with no windows? How is its ventilation arranged?