A few weeks ago I went to the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. I knew of Kapoor's sculpture work and had seen the brilliant Cloud Gate bean-shaped mirror sculpture in Chicago several years back, but I wasn't prepared for some of the works in this new exhibition. In particular the 'Vantablack' images. Image: Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery/Southbank Centre Vantablack is a substance created 'with nanotechnology that absorbs up to 99% of visible light. It subverts...

1. What direction does the room face, and how do your sash windows affect the light?Victorian terraces are often built in long rows facing the same direction, so front and back rooms can have very different light quality: one flooded with morning sun, the other permanently in shade. Original sash windows also tend to be smaller and more divided than later Edwardian glazing, letting in less light overall, which changes how a colour reads compared to a swatch held up in a bright shop. 2. What...

Most period hallways are dark for structural reasons, not decorating ones. A narrow hall lit only by a fanlight or a small half-landing window, with no direct daylight source of its own - that's just how these houses were built. Here are three fixes I come back to most often on Victorian and Edwardian projects. 1. Paint the woodwork a bold, dark colour The instinct with a dark hallway is usually to paint everything white and hope for the best. It doesn't work - white woodwork in low light...