Getting light into a windowless landing - glass bedroom doors?

[Gentleness]

Crazy idea maybe with a toddler and baby, but then I saw a door with kind of narrow vertical strips of glass instead of panes and I thought they'd be less easy to smash. Like this

There are 4 doors off the landing. Having 2 of the bedroom ones glass would make a massive difference - at the moment we leave those doors open the whole time as I hate gloom. The other 2 would need to match at least.
Not even sure I like that style of door for a Victorian/Edwardian house though...

What would you do?

[Marrow]

Have you looked at these. I was looking in to these for our old house but we moved before we got round to it. There are quite a few companies who do them.

[seb1]

Sunpipe

[seb1]

Marrow great minds think alike!

[lindsell]

I don't like those doors sorry and don't think they'd look right in a period property.

Something like this (below - links not easy on phone!) would be more in keeping especially if the glazed panels were in an etched glass, you can get reclaimed doors and have the top panels glazed which is much more in keeping. Also if you only glaze the upper panels less of a running into hazard

example

[PrettyCandles]

I wouldn't put glazed doors in bedrooms, not even with the safest, toughened, laminated glass. It's not about the safety, it's about the ambience. Glass bedroom doors would reduce privacy and destroy the cozy haven feel of a bedroom.

You could install 'fanlights' above the doors, I suppose, but I don't think that looks right, either.

Is there a possibility of installing a skylight? Or putting a mirror opposite a window to reflect light into the landing?

Though TBH the solution I would choose is probably also the cheapest and easiest: fit good lighting. Warm daylight bulbs, beautiful lamps/shades, and dimmer switches.

[PrettyCandles]

What an excellent idea the sunpipe is!

(And now I know what that strange little dome is on the roof of the house across the road!)

[Gentleness]

The sunpipe idea looks great but this isn't our forever house and the interior doors need replacing anyway. We don't really want to spend big money either way.

I think you are right lindell - that style is much better. If only I could be sure we could train our boys to never throw things indoors! And if only they were cheaper. And if only I could decide on white or oak...

[Marrow]

Gentleness The sunpipes aren't hugely expensive. I think the cheapest one is around £200 so there wouldn't be much of a difference between the sunpipe and new doors.

We have used light reflecting paint in a gloomy room before and it does brighten things up a bit.

[herhonesty]

Doors are pretty awful IMHO. Wount they drive you up the wall from inside the bedroom. Also may create a real selling minus point, which is impt as you say you wil be selling in the future

[Decorhate]

We put sunpipes in our landing & would really recommend them. We also replaced two doors with ones with glazed panels to the top half (not bedroom doors) - we had to replace all the doors anyway as the originals were long gone. We got reproduction panelled doors (Edwardian house) and the supplier did matching half-glazed doors. If you have the original doors, a good carpenter should be able to take out the top panels and replace them with glass.

[DaisySteiner]

We were going to install a sunpipe when we did our extension and lost our landing window. It would only have cost about 300 pounds inc labour and I bitterly regret not doing it. Installing new glazed doors would cost a lot more IMO.

[Pannacotta]

Agree with the sun pipe suggestions.
I would glaze the top of a bathroom door (using toughened/safety glass) but not bedrooms, for the same reasons as PrettyCandles gives.

[minipie]

Agree that the second door style is better. White is definitely better than oak (Victorian doors would have been pine, stripped or painted white, not oak).

You can also get reclaimed Victorian doors quite cheaply from Salvo and other reclamation places - including ones with glazed panels. You might be able to find some with etched or stained glass which would help with the privacy and add some period detail too.

A part glazed bathroom door does seem less odd than a part glazed bedroom door. However, I don't think a part glazed bedroom door is too weird.

But what's wrong with just leaving the doors open the whole time? That's basically what we do...

[noddyholder]

We have gorgeous glazed doors on our landing and I hate them! I can see the constant flicker of ds computer at night and the ambience and privacy is lost. If I wasn't moving i would re do them. A sunpipe is great though

[WillieWaggledagger]

we have this in our rented house - all internal doors (including bathroom!!) are glazed with lots of small panes in that wibbly wobbly glass. i have put up thin, light curtains for privacy, and actually they do look nice. if it had been me choosing the doors, though, i don't think I would have chosen these ones

[WillieWaggledagger]

it's a period house, by the way, old mill terraced cottages

[CroissantNeuf]

In our old house, a Victorian terrace we had a Velux window above the stairwell -it was fantastic as it let in so much light. It made a real difference and looked great too (it was commented on by everyone when we sold the house).

[Cattleprod]

If you are putting glass in a bedroom door that adults will use, the only two types of glass I would use are Pilkington Satin, or sandblasted glass, but make sure the sandblast is coated or you'll have a nightmare cleaning fingerprints.

Normal obscured glass - minster, stippolyte etc. - still shows through the colours of what is behind, so doesn't give full privacy.

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

We live in a small victorian terrace, we moved in with all the doors being glazed, up and down, the only was that isn't is the bathroom.

All are etched and I really, really like it, everywhere is so light, I think I would almost certainly do it now in another house as I have got used to it and solid doors seem kind of odd now.

[ChasingSquirrels]

I have a very small internal landing with 4 bedroom, 1 bathroom and 1 airing cupboard doors off - not alot of other wall space and no windows.

I leave the bathroom and 3 bedroom doors (mine is usually closed) open during the day and the level of light is fine.

[Ihatebeingfrugal]

We also have an Edwardian house. The biggest things that have improved the light are the original features we restored.

It is a "long" house with 2 landings (front and back of house) and luckily has fanlights (pieces of clear glass) set above the door frames at the front and back of house . These were painted in white gloss paint and before we removed this it did feel quite dark.

We knew there were 2 small windows in the roof (front and back) but didn't know why they were there.
We also have 2 loft covers which were gloss painted. When we stripped these we found they were glass - which meant that the light comes through the roof windows and then through the loft covers. Makes the landings really bright - but also helped by painting the landings white!

[kbaby]

We don't have any windows in ours either. It's just a small corridor with the bedroom doors coming off. We have wooden doors but between the top of the door and The ceiling are glass panels. They seem room brighten it up. Tbh though the doors are mostly left open.