Let there be light: how to design an internal window
Walls and doors may be a conventional way to divide up your house or apartment, but there are times when the most obvious solution isn't the best one. This is particularly true in small spaces, where a healthy dose of ingenuity is often required. Internal windows can be objects of beauty, but they are also a highly practical way to help create more rooms in a small footprint, when to divide up the floorplan might mean missing out on natural light from the external walls.
Sebastian Bergström's Stockholm apartment is an excellent example, where he has created a kitchen and bedroom out of a single room, with glazing in between to allow light to flood into both spaces from the bedroom window. Gytha Nuttall's flat, too, which uses a ‘box within a box’ construction to create more rooms hanging from a vast double height ceiling, required internal windows to bring light into the box. But even if you're not working with the awkward constraints of your architecture, they can be beautiful addition to your house. A full set of of glazed doors, for example, can be a wonderful compromise between a fully open-plan layout and something a little more intimate. Scroll down for our favourite design ideas for internal windows.
Mark Roper1/11The library area in this modern country house by Phoebe Hollond is quite dark at one end, so Phoebe added French doors (which mirror those beyond to the garden) to bring more light into the darker side of it.
2/11Internal windows are in most houses on the Greek island of Patmos, allowing light to flow between spaces without the need for large exterior windows which can contribute to heating the house too much in high summer. Here, in John Stefanidis' iconic house on the island, they sit above the doors of most rooms.
Paul Massey3/11Rachel Chudley used internal windows to bring light to this middle room of a Victorian terrace in London from the bright kitchen beyond. Above the doors themselves is a window to maximise the light from the glass roof. Without this trick, this room would be extremely dark.
STEPHAN JULLIARD4/11This apartment in Paris occupies just 25 square metres, but has been cleverly designed by Marianne Evennou to feel as spacious as possible. Marianne often installs atelier-style windows between rooms: ‘For me, they are just as important as the windows to the outside; I don’t think they are used often enough.’ Not only do they allow light to circulate more easily, they also allow the eye and the mind to travel. ‘That way, you don’t feel imprisoned in a room. And there is something poetic about them,’ she adds. ‘Your imagination can move from one world to another.’ We also love that the deep window reveal also allows space for a cupboard underneath - the perfect storage solution for small spaces.
Alicia Taylor5/11Interior designer Gytha Nuttall has adapted the structure of an office space in a former schoolhouse in south London to create a flat within a flat as a home for her family. While you walk into the vast, full-height sitting room, a cantilevered box containing two bedrooms, a bathroom and Gytha's denim-lined office hangs above. The upstairs rooms are fitted with floor-to-ceiling internal windows overlooking the lower floor, which introduce light and add a sense of height.
'This flat is really all about the windows,' she explains. 'It's our one architectural feature, so I wanted them to really sing for their supper.' The dark paint was met with some resistance from Gytha's perplexed builders, but the effect is that each of the views are framed like a tableau.
Paul Massey6/11Maria Speake of Retrouvius has restored the spirit of an unattractively extended Georgian farmhouse in the Chilterns by introducing modern and reclaimed industrial elements. An original Georgian window, which Maria has retained, provides a glimpse into one end of the new sitting room. 'I love an internal window,' explains Maria. 'They give a nice feeling to a house.'
Simon Bergström7/11In his tiny, cleverly designed apartment in Stockholm, designer Sebastian Bergström has used a leaded internal window to divide his kitchen from his bedroom. This space would otherwise have little natural light as the only window is beyond, in the bedroom. Although he has lost space that might otherwise have been used for shelving or cabinets, the window includes a narrow built in sill where Sebastian can keep jars and pots of herbs.
Michael Sinclair8/11With her innate sense of proportion and symmetry, interior designer Pallas Kalamotusis has capitalised on the lofty dimensions of a hotchpotch mansion flat in west London to create a harmonious home. Calling to mind both Japanese shoji screens and room dividers by modernists such as Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, in the main bedroom, a stained-oak and glass dividing wall designed by Pallas separates the sleeping area from the bathroom facilities (the loo is in a cubicle to ensure privacy is still afforded). It fits into the breaks in the moulding made by previous walls and has a secondary benefit as a headboard.
Paul Massey9/11Crittall windows aren't just there for the end of your kitchen extension; they can make highly stylish internal windows as well, dividing up spaces as effectively as a wall while still allowing light to travel. A wall of Crittall windows in this London project by Ann Boyd separates the family room from the hallway, in which a large ink-on-gesso artwork by Idris Khan dominates.
Ollie Tomlinson10/11A more traditional take on the same idea can be seen in this glazed partition in a Marylebone townhouse by Anahita Rigby, where the drawing room is entered via a beautiful set of French doors.
Michael Sinclair11/11Using a half-glazed door is a good compromise between walling a space off entirely and allowing the flow of light. Here, in a Hampstead house beautifully restored by Maria Speake of Retrouvius, leaded glass panels and doors, made to match the original doors on the other side of the hall, balance the space and offer privacy for the dining area while allowing natural light into the hall.
