Lighting is often an after-thought for many people when they are planning the interior of their homes, but lighting is one of the aspects of interior design that can fulfil a room’s potential. The wrong lighting can make a room look too harsh, fill it with distracting shadows or cast an unpleasant hue over a colour scheme. It needs to be adaptable, as a room may have multiple functions and will require different lighting for different activities. A room may be used for reading, writing, close up work or for relaxing, in which case background lights are required. It is also one of the easiest aspects of interior design to update and transform a room’s atmosphere.
If a room is being decorated from scratch, think about the lighting early on. This way you can install sockets in strategic places to avoid unsightly and dangerous wires trailing across the floor. The amount of natural light available should also be considered. If a room is to be used during the day but does not get a lot of natural light, you will need to consider lights that recreate natural light as closely as possible and those that light up the entire room, not just sections of it.
A single bulb is never going to give you the versatility you need to create different atmospheres in a room. Directional lights are good option for moving light to where you need it and for highlighting features such as mirrors or paintings or interesting architecture such as coving. A combination of ceiling lights, wall lights, up lighters and table lamps will let you create different effects for different moods and tasks. All the lights in a room should be controlled separately to avoid overkill and ideally have a dimmer switch, so that you can tinker with the brightness according to your needs.
A room’s décor will also influence the type of lights that will fit best. An old fashioned or period room will look better with lamps, whereas a modern room will look best with wall lights, up lights, down lights and floor lights. The bathroom is a room that requires good light for applying makeup, shaving etc. but also needs to have soft light for a relaxing atmosphere. Indirect lighting is a good way to add interest to a room. Lighting underneath a bath or running a track of LED lights along a bookshelf look good and LED lights will not produce any heat.
A large living room with a lot of seating will benefit from each chair or sofa having its own lamp. A long arm swivel lamp is a good option. Lamps, of course, need lampshades and these need to look good amongst the rest of the room’s decoration. Think of them as accessories to the main features of the room. When it comes to staircases, especially those that have awkward corners, directional floor lights are a good choice for subtle but effective lighting. Overhead spotlights from the ceiling can create shadows on the staircase, which is not very safe.