This Game-Changing $315 Project Brought “Sunlight” to a Room Without Windows

I have one window in my bedroom, which looks out into another building, so the room receives virtually no daylight. (To get some privacy and utilize the space, I now store my books on the windowsill.) Unfortunately artificial lighting (while necessary for my situation) sometimes makes me feel itchy or boxed-in, so I’ve always been supremely interested in how others with similar environments brighten their rooms. 

One such case is how Cylia Hendriks, who lives in a mid-century modern home in Amsterdam, brought the look of natural light into her bedroom with no windows. “Waking up in complete darkness every day was quite something, so I knew that had to change,” she explains. 

There was a catch, though. Cylia’s home is a rental space, so that means she couldn’t make permanent or structural changes. So, she got crafty. “I’ve always loved the look of glass brick walls — they remind me of old music videos and have this warm, nostalgic vibe,” Cylia says. “I figured that if I combined this aesthetic with remote-controlled and automated lights, I could simulate a ‘rising sun’ and, in a way, create the feeling of having a window in my room!”

Cylia knew that having a glass brick wall built by a professional would cost a lot of money, so she took the project on herself and had a little help from her dad. After finding glass bricks online, she asked her dad if he’d be willing to keep her company on an adventure to pick up her purchase. Little did he know that he’d be helping Cylia carry 500 glass bricks into the van, drive back to Amsterdam, and bring the bricks up to her apartment. 

After the bricks were in Cylia’s apartment, they watched a YouTube video as guidance on how to create the structure. It took two days of building, wooden beams, 16 tubes of sealant, and “plenty of blood, sweat, and tears,” but they crafted the wall on their own. “To make it look like there’s light on the other end of the wall (like there’s an outside), I have installed light strings that can change color so it can resemble the sun coming up,” she shares. 

The materials cost just under $315 (or €300), but Cylia ended up selling leftover glass bricks, so she broke even. She hasn’t yet figured out how to remove it, but says she’ll worry about it later. (The wall isn’t attached to anything in the home, which makes it removable and renter-friendly.) All that matters is that her room now looks like it’s drenched in natural light, and Cylia’s really proud of herself.

“Honestly, I usually have two left hands, and in the past I would either let someone else handle projects like this or just not do them at all,” Cylia explains. “But every day when I look at the wall and remind myself that I built this — together with my dad — it fills me with a warm sense of pride.”

To see the rest of Cylia’s incredible apartment, visit the full House Tour.