Leggy seedlings - light issues

Hello all,

Possibly (probably) a very stupid question.

In my house-move over the winter I gained a lovely, bigger, project garden, but the pay-off was loosing my bright and sunny skylighted kitchen. In previous years I only had the garden space for a few small annuals (usually sweet peas, cosmos plus a couple others) and they were always very happy starting out on the kitchen table and moving on out when ready. Here I am pretty much starting from scratch with lots of bedding space, so trying to sow and grow a fair amount. The spare bedroom has been converted into a nursery of sorts:



The more knowledgable amoung you will probably notice the problem I didn't at first. The only light into the room is from the window and garden door in the back right corner, which don't receive much natural light through the day. I didn't realise for a while, being out at work during the day, but the room is actually pretty dull, light-wise. My seedlings are massively over-stetching themselves and then fading within days.

So for the stupid question. If I leave the overhead light on in there during the day will it help the problem? Obviously it's not comparable to natural sunlight, but might it reduce the over-stretching until they're ready to move outside?

If not, any ideas for alternate solutions welcome. I sadly don't have space or facilites for a greenhouse (rented flat), though I am trying to move things out to the coldframe as soon as possible as a compromise at present - though I fear already too late in some cases.

 

Standard light bulbs wont be bright enough and will be too far away from the plants [1]. What about growlights? I (and others here) used them to bring stuff on early when natural light levels are low.

A couple of pics below, the first I could find quickly, but to give an idea what's involved. They can be set up on a folding table within a demountable enclosure in a bedroom and quickly removed when conditions permit (as I've been doing when our daughter's away at uni, and she's none the wiser about the 100's of plants being brought on in her bedroom whilst she's away).

[1] I'll take a light meter reading under my lights and another at low level under a standard light bulbs and post.

 

I thought that was probably the case :(

Interesting about the lights, will have to do some thinking on that one. There isn't room in the bedroom for a table, hence the plastic sheeting/bed set-up, so I'll have to work out a way of setting up lights without a sturdy base. I assume just putting a growlight bulb into the ceiling socket would still be too far away and wouldn't work?