Lighting in the home should be a many splendoured and flexible thing. Jane Drew discovers how to use it as a decorative tool
To say that good lighting improves quality of life is no exaggeration. When properties go up for sale, a north-facing aspect (in which the majority of the rooms get consistent indirect light during the day) is as big a draw as a sea view. Dark, dank basement flats are cheaper than those on the top floor.
Making the most of natural light is therefore the starting point of any interior design scheme. If you have the versatility to move rooms around, think about what kind of light you want where. An east-facing room with morning light will work well as a kitchen or (if you are an early riser) a bedroom; use a west-facer with terrific views of the sunset as a living or dining room. North-facing rooms that soak up oblique rays throughout the day make good home offices.
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to bring in natural light if your home’s not getting enough. Hong Kong-based designer Deirdre Cox points out that, “Mirrors reflect and bounce a certain amount of light around a room but they don’t perform miracles. In a dark apartment, your only real option is to enlarge the existing window space, refit exterior walls with glass bricks, install skylights… or switch on the electric light.”
Artificial light is a decorative tool like any other and you shouldn’t underestimate the effect it has on a room. Certainly you can tell a well-designed interior by the way it is lit. Top-dollar pads feature programmable lighting systems that you can adjust to preset atmospheres, like ambient, entertaining and the romance glow. At the very least, ceilings are dotted with spotlights, specially installed to create a hazy, overall illumination much like natural light.
High-tech systems are continually evolving but the basics of good lighting are set in stone. “It’s important to remember that too much light is as detrimental to a room as too little,” says Cox. “The worst modern lighting bleaches out a space and bathes it in too full a light. It’s too functional. And that goes not just for the harsh fluorescent strip still found in many Hong Kong kitchens but for overhead lighting in general.”
One solution is to set your central ceiling light on a dimmer, which allows you to change lighting levels to suit your mood. But as a sole option, Cox says, the dimmer switch falls short.
“Sure, a dimmer switch allows you to turn the lights down low whenever you choose… but wouldn’t candlelight be a more romantic option? And if you want to read, you have no option but to ignore the dimmer and bathe the entire space in brilliant light,” Cox explains.
The British-born designer goes on to say that lighting set at a single level of brightness (whether high or low) will make a scheme appear flat and boring. “The most interesting and dramatic effects are created when a number of different light sources are distributed around a room,” she explains.
For the best background lighting, use up- and down-lights, whether wall-mounted or freestanding. These so-called wall-washers reflect light by bouncing it off a wall and create a gentle, non-directional, overall glow that’s glare free.
“In this kind of light you will be able to perform most tasks and still see tonal differences in the paintwork,” says Cox. “Remember the effect you are looking for is ambient not interrogation room.”
With wall lights in place, low-voltage ceiling fixtures should be positioned anywhere you perform the same activities regularly, for instance over the dining table or above a desk. Add in a couple of track lights, at head height, so that you can manually direct rays of light to specific areas of the room. This type of target lighting is ideal if you want to draw attention to a favourite piece of artwork or a special architectural feature.
“And don’t forget table lamps – the classic way of getting light where you need it,” says Cox. “You need one by every chair, as well as on either side of a bed.”
With wall washes and table lamps creating generous, atmospheric pools of light, track lights targeting specific areas and pendant lamps casting a brilliant overall illumination as and where necessary, your lighting scheme is complete. At the flick of a switch, you will be able to imbue even the simplest scheme with a rich theatrical quality – dazzling or demure depending on your mood.
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