Borrowing Light

Kitchen & bath remodel

(Oakland, CA.)

To increase natural illumination, borrowing light is a useful strategy if using more exterior windows or skylights is not possible or desirable. Where appropriate, interior walls can be made more open, transparent, or translucent so that daylight from adjacent rooms can penetrate further, even into spaces which have no exterior openings at all.

For example, this single-family fixer has been upgraded with various improvements prior to sale. At the main level, walls separating the kitchen and dining room are removed to allow better light, visual connection and spatial flow. Upstairs, a porch is converted into a new bathroom, and the master bath borrows more daylight into the tub/shower area with the use of glass block.