Lighting a room correctly can make the difference between a good and great interior design. There is an art to layering lighting to create a mood because even the best designed room can look bad under harsh light. This does make it all sound a little scary but with a few hints and tips, you can’t go wrong. So, where should you start?
Levels of Lighting
If you are just starting out on the design of your room, you are in the ideal place to think through your lighting options. Downlights, spotlights, lamps…and of course, avoid any trailing electrical wirings and misplaced light switches. You want to create a lighting scheme that can be adjusted depending on the time of day, and the tasks you are looking to do in the room. So, think about what you use the room for, when you use it and who will be using it?
Layering Your Lighting
Downlights often bring a ‘love it or hate it’ reaction from clients but we do feel that they give a versatile and overall ambient light option to a room that is invaluable. Spotlights are just as useful if you want to highlight key pieces or corners of the room. Keep these two sets of lights on two different switches and you can choose when you want to use them depending on the time of day.
Lamps are a wonderful way to warm up areas of the room, either switched on the wall using 5 amp sockets or individually turned on depending on when they are required. You should look carefully at where lighting is needed if you don’t have downlights, as a room filled with lampshades is not particularly stylish and will ultimately detract from everything else you have carefully thought out.
Task lighting is not perceived as particularly glamorous but with so many stylish, less expensive options on the market now, this is no longer the case. Look at where you might need concentrated lighting for example, kitchen worktops, desks or staircases and then consider how bright these lights need to be. If necessary, combine different types of lighting to create the effect and intensity of light you want. Don’t forget that uplighting a piece of art or furniture can be just as effective as downlighting, and can create an exciting and unexpected design feature to your room.
Finishes
Try to keep your style similar throughout the house. Yes, combinations of styles do work for example vintage and contemporary, but there should be a link between them, for example a brass metal finish. This way, there is a design element running through your schemes that will add to your look rather than leave it looking messy. Your style theme needs to hold together and speak about you and not only the latest trend for that season.
Taline & Victoria
