Good lighting design is important in setting the mood
Lighting is an often under-used tool in interior design, yet its effects can make or break a room. Too stark, and lighting will kill the best décor. But subtle lighting effects will add depth and mood to the simplest of rooms.
Most decorators know that proper lighting is fundamental to good home design. When lighting becomes an afterthought, which often happens, it limits options.
Quite likely each room in the home will require a different approach to lighting. General recessed downlights may be great in the living room but you would soon tire of them everywhere. Similarly, a super bright LED light might kill the atmosphere in the dining room but provide sensible, even light in the kitchen or bathroom.
We asked our expert team at LIGHT UP for their tips on how to light homes efficiently and effectively. First, however, it’s necessary to understand the different functions of light.
Light has three basic functions:
- It provides general of background lighting in room;
- As task lighting, which provides specific light for activities such as reading or cooking. This type of light should be concentrated in the area where it is needed;
- As accent lighting, which creates a mood within a room, such as highlighting a special architectural feature, a painting or a special piece of furniture.
These types of lighting are not exclusive and all three can be used in combination. Your living room, for instance, is likely to have all three – background lighting for everyday use; task lighting, such as a floor lamp, for reading; and accent lighting, to create the right atmosphere for entertaining.
Let’s not forget decorative lighting, which you could call “look at me” lighting, is the kind of showy pendant you might have in an entrance hall, a stairwell or over a dining table. It usually has a functional purpose as well.
Good lighting is essential to create atmosphere in a room and it is an integral part of interior design.
When designing a room think carefully about the planned furniture layout, what is going to hang on the walls and what tasks are needing illumination. The lighting is both practical – wall lights placed either side of a large make-up mirror in the bedroom, for example – and scene setting – such as a dramatic pendant over the dining table.
Our team at LIGHT UP believe that you don’t need a million-dollar budget to make a room look like a million dollars, it’s just a matter of planning and lighting it properly
You can use lighting to highlight a single item in a room, such as a superb vase of flowers or a painting, to create a brilliant effect. And it needn’t cost a fortune.