Tips for When Your Apartment Doesn’t Get Natural Light

A big south-facing window can be a game-changer in an apartment, allowing you to make tons of compromises in the name of natural sunlight. Meanwhile, a dark apartment that lacks large windows — or windows facing the right direction — can feel imperfect even if it comes with the most luxurious amenities. However, we’re here to tell you that you don’t need to give up on your apartment, even if it falls more into the latter category.

Natural light is hard to replicate, but there are a few tips and tricks you can try out to make the most of the light you do get and to make your home look sunnier.

If your landlord prefers you don’t make any changes at all to your apartment, then you don’t have many options outside of your decor and organization choices when it comes to lightening up your space — and the former will cost you. If you do have the budget to buy a few pieces and up your interior design game though, check out the below tips to help combat a lack of natural light. 

Mirrors are a historic hack for making a room feel bigger and brighter. For hundreds of years, people have been hanging them on their walls or building them into furniture for exactly that purpose. Here’s how you can place mirrors to improve their functionality in a low-light room:

Some people even elect to have multiple mirrors in their living space to compound the effect, which makes a huge difference in a dark space.

What’s worse than an apartment without a lot of natural light is an apartment with no natural light and no built-in artificial lighting. Luckily, there’s a lot of renter-friendly lighting options you can invest in to make your apartment feel like it’s getting a lot more sun than it is.

Here’s a few tips:

Dark and moody colors can make an apartment give off fun Victorian chic vibes, but in a small and dark apartment, they can also make the setting feel drearier. Even if it isn’t quite your style, you may want to try out some lighter design elements. Here’s a few options: 

If you aren’t looking to break the bank but want to put some effort into brightening up a dark room, there’s a lot of progress you can make just by rearranging your furniture and keeping things tidy. Below, we offer a few (free!) things you can do to let in more natural light. 

Similar to what we said about window treatments, you want to avoid letting large furniture pieces prevent the little natural light you are getting from reaching the rest of the room. So, if you have any large bookshelves, dressers, or armoires directly to the left or right of a small window in a dark room, you may want to move those around. Put them in darker corners, so they won’t cast large shadows in the way of your light. Large plants may be having the same effect, so think twice about placing a tall plant right in front of or next to one of your only windows.

It may not seem like it will make a big difference, but a monthly clean of your windows will ensure that there are no smudges, dirt, or film blocking light from coming in. If your windows don’t open all the way or allow for easy cleaning of the exterior, try asking your landlord for help.

It can be difficult to separate from your stuff, but in general, a cluttered room is a cramped feeling room. Try to stay on top of regularly doing laundry, putting clothes and objects away when you’re not using them, and keeping your room clean. If you have too much clutter out, it could give the effect of absorbing your small amount of natural light.

If your landlord is okay with you making more hands-on renter-friendly adjustments to your apartment, then there’s a few bigger DIY projects you may want to take on to maximize the light in your space. As always with renter-friendly hacks, just make sure you’re able to return the apartment back to its initial state before changing anything. 

Painting your walls a lighter color will help reflect light rather than absorb it, so look into white or off-white paint colors. Peel-and-stick wallpaper is another option if you want to introduce texture or a pattern to your walls; as a rule of thumb, just try to keep it simple since you’ll be committing to what you pick for a while. An added bonus is that light wall colors ofter make a small space appear bigger, too.

You can use adhesive floor tiling to brighten up the floor too — so if you have dark walls and dark wood or linoleum flooring, you’ll want to lighten up at least one or the other (but if you have time, both!).

Breathe new life into your furnishings by adding glossy, metallic, or otherwise reflective surfaces and finishes where possible to reflect even more light back into your room.

If you live in a one-bedroom apartment that you don’t mind turning into a studio-like apartment, then you can even remove your bedroom door. While this may sound a little crazy, doors create shadows when they’re open and block the passage of light when they’re closed. If increasing natural light in your apartment is your goal, then this (slightly drastic) step can help you achieve it.