While living areas like rooms need the most ventilation, a bathroom without windows can turn into a dark and dreary place.
You may not realise it while looking for a place to live, but having no sunlight pouring in can lead to dank, musty smells and moisture buildups, creating a lot of annoyance.
However, there are many things you can do to make your bathroom look fresh.
Install a Ventilation Extractor Fan:
As per UK building regulations for ventilation, all bathrooms require some source of ventilation. It can be either a window or an extractor fan.
It is important because a bathroom without windows can quickly get filled with humidity and moisture, resulting in many problems ranging from mould to peeling paint and respiratory issues.
This problem can be easily solved by a toilet ventilation extractor fan that quickly reduces the bathroom's humidity.
However, you should make sure that the fan can ventilate 15 litres per second/ 54m3 per hour air from the bathroom. You may easily find this information on the box or product description of the fan.
How Does Ventilation Extractor Fan Help?
Other than complying with legal requirements, ventilation extractor fans help in many other ways.
- One of the biggest benefits of the fan in the bathroom is that it significantly reduces the amount of steam produced by a shower.
- With proper ventilation of moisture, the risk of mould forming can be minimised.
- The moisture that builds up in the bathroom can damage vanities and other fixtures over time. The ventilation easily solves this problem by reducing the moisture in the air.
- The bathrooms without windows can have an unpleasant smell due to damp stale air. The ventilation is helpful by removing and replacing it with fresh air.
Declutter and Clean Your Bathroom Regularly:
The ventilation extractor fan alone is very helpful, but if your bathroom is not clutter-free, you cannot solely rely on it.
Keeping your bathroom clutter-free and cleaning regularly is even more important if it does not have a window.
You may install a bathroom vanity unit or tallboy cabinet to keep things organised. Bathroom cleaning and decluttering every 2-3 days will help keep it fresh.
How Regular Cleaning and Decluttering Helps:
With no natural light coming into the bathroom, it can promote the growth of mould and mildew.
In addition to that, dirt that you wash from your body can also accumulate on washbasins and bathtubs. Regular cleaning helps prevent all these buildups.
On the other hand, a well-organised bathroom feels bigger and brighter. So, keeping it clutter-free will help create the atmosphere you want.
Choose Light Colours:
Bathrooms without windows have no natural light, so using neutral colours is highly recommended.
You can opt to paint your bathroom walls in a colour that reflects light around the area. In addition to that, you may also use
Bathroom mirrors do the same. LED mirrors are another good option to lighten up the room.
How Does it Help?
It is hard to brighten up a bathroom without windows. Therefore, a combination of light colours such as pale, different shades of white, or light blue can help it by reflecting light throughout the entire space.
In addition, it will help take full advantage of the artificial lighting for creating an illusion of a larger bathroom.
You can also combine gloss worktops and wall panels to help reflect light around the room.
Use Glass or Transparent Bathroom Fittings
The bathrooms without natural light look dark without proper use of the lighting. So, we need to do everything we can to help this lighting be even more efficient by using different tricks.
One of such tricks may be the use of shower enclosures or screens instead of curtains. However, it may be costly but will be helpful.
How does it help?:
The curtains don't block the light, making it appear dark and crowded. At the same time, glass enclosures or screens reflect the light like mirrors.
You can even see through the glass, making it appear bigger. So, the use of glass or transparent fittings and fixtures in a bathroom with windows is highly recommended to make it significantly open and brighter.
There are many types of plants that can survive without natural light. So, it will be a great idea to add a few such plants in your bathroom depending on the available space. It will make your bathroom feel lively and bright.
How Does it Help?
Bathrooms in the absence of natural light may feel dark and dull places. Adding a few plants will bring an outdoor ambience and a lively feel to the bathroom.
If you don't want to add natural plants due to any reason, artificial ones can be a great alternative to it.
Summing it Up:
Although a bathroom without windows can be a problematic place, you can turn it into a better place by using a few easy tricks.
From using a ventilation extractor to keeping it clutter-free and using a better colour scheme, there are several ways discussed above to brighten up the space.