In most cases lighting can really make an impact on how a room looks and feels. It’s important to look at lighting as a key component in your interior design, alongside decoration and furniture. You should approach lighting in the same way as decorating, for example, layering lighting. A room should have a mix of different lighting: from large lights and pendant lights to smaller lights that are more task oriented. Below is a 3 step guide showing how you can improve lighting in all your rooms.
1. Centre light.
Start with the centre piece that will be located in the middle of the room, this can be a chandelier in a living room for an example. You should try to go for a pendant light and not an overhead light since this will create hasher shadows. If you are not able to have a pendant fixture, try to focus more on steps 2 and 3.
2. Practical lighting.
Look at the space around the walls. Do you have any places where you would like some more practical lighting, such a reading light? Do you have specific items like a picture or a piece of furniture that you want to highlight? One way to bring in additional lighting is to add an accent light over paintings and tables to highlight key pieces of furniture. Try to also add this at different hight levels through the room to create more depth and variation to the room.
3. Fairy lights and candles.
To finish the look, add fairy lights and/or candles to the mix. For example, this can be done to light-up details in the room like dark window corners and an empty fireplace. It’s important to remember that you might also want dark spaces in the room between the light sources. This is because it will bring more variation to the room and not make the room feel too clinical.
4. Finishing edits.
To make a room and home really stand out, it’s all about the finishing touches. If you have a very dark corner in the room, an oversized floor lamp can make it work better. Make sure that the lamp has the same design and colour combinations as the rest of the room.
To give more ambience to a room, add dimmers to the lights. This will enable you to be able to adjust with the seasons and the time of the day based on the natural light available.
Use frosted or soft-white bulbs to eliminate the shadows and hot spots. If you want to use LED lights, go for lights that are labeled “warm white” with a kelvin between 2700 and 3000. Also, you can try to hide any seams from lampshades by facing them towards the wall or at a less visible angle.
This kind of approach works for most rooms in a home, but there are some exceptions when it comes to the kitchen and the bathroom.
Kitchen. It’s important in a kitchen that you have a lot of bright light and less darker areas. A good way of layering light in the kitchen is to add under cabinet lights. If you have cabinets with glass doors, make sure to add lights the inside of the cupboards. When the comes to the ceiling, to get an even look, spotlights work well. If you have a kitchen island, you can also add a hanging pendant over it to light up this area.
Bathroom. Another room that can also need more light is the bathroom. My recommendation when it comes to the bathroom is to also add spotlights evenly across the ceiling. Be careful of adding spot light straight over the sink and mirror as this will easily cast shadows over your face which is not flattering or helpful. Try instead to add wall-mounted lighting at c. 160-170 cm above the floor on each side. This will make a more practical lighting for the person in front of the mirror. I would also recommend to have a dimmer on the spotlights so you can have a weak light on in the night (or when you are having a bath!) and strong light when you are doing your makeup.
What kind of lighting improvements would you like to make in your home?
