The Side of the Flat That Never Got Light

Two bedrooms on the north face that never received direct sun at any hour, in a flat where adding a window was not on the table (the wall is shared and the building is not the family's to alter). A previous owner had leaned into it and painted both rooms a deep charcoal, which is a defensible choice and made them read as caves.

Without more daylight the work was about making the little that arrives go further: pale, slightly reflective finishes rather than matte dark ones, a full-height mirror set at ninety degrees to the window rather than opposite it, a glazed panel above the internal door borrowing light from the corridor, and layered artificial lighting on two temperatures so the rooms are warm in the evening without being gloomy at four in the afternoon.