Faith Smith: How did you know my kitchen was tiny?

Sherlock Holmes: Well, look, the fading pattern on the paper, it’s not much, but it’s enough to know your kitchen window faces east. Now, kitchen noticeboards. By instinct, you place them at eye level, where there’s natural light. Now look, the sun’s only struck the bottom two thirds, but the line is straight, so that means we know the paper is facing the window. But, because the top section is unaffected, we know the sunlight can only be entering the room at a steep angle. If the sunlight was able to penetrate the room when the sun was lower in the sky, then the paper would be equally faded, top to bottom. But no. It only makes it when the sun is at its zenith, so I’m betting that you live in a narrow street on the ground floor. Now, if steeply angled sunlight manages to hit eye level on the wall opposite the window, then what do we know about the room? The room’s small.