Light

For six years I thought my old flat was dark because I had furnished it badly. Then I moved four streets away into a place with the same size windows and completely different light, and understood what I had actually been living with.

My front room has never once had direct sun on the floor, in any season, at any hour. After three years of trying to brighten it I stopped, and started working with what it actually is instead.

I spent a week paying attention to where the light actually was, hour by hour, instead of where I assumed it was. It changed which chair I sit in, when I do the washing up, and which room I gave up on entirely.

Ground floor windows, a street that people walk along at nose height, and a flat that needs every hour of daylight it can get. Four curtain attempts later, here is what I settled on and what I would skip.

There is an hour in every flat where the daylight has gone but nobody has admitted it yet. Working out when to switch on, and which lamps, did more for my evenings than any piece of furniture I have bought.

Last winter my flat went dark at half three in the afternoon and there was nothing I could do about the windows. Here is what I tried anyway, what was a waste of effort, and the small things I will repeat next year.