Within the interior design world lighting is my super power! I am passionate about the use of lighting to enhance our wellbeing and creating architectural interest through the play of light and shadow. Clever lighting design is one of the most important aspects to creating a jaw-dropping design, and something that many designers will outsource… Me? I love the challenge that it presents!
The light fittings selected in the interior design of your space can make or break the room design. Sadly, it is something that is often overlooked in the initial design process. Here in Darwin our weather is naturally brighter and the days are longer than in Australia’s southern states, but this doesn’t mean that we should skip good lighting design and amazing light fittings are like icing on the cake!
Lighting is one of the first things that a guest will notice inside our home – and let’s face it we all want to show our homes off especially when we invest so much time, money and energy in making them look amazing! Well thought out light fittings are just as important to your designs as the use of colour in your furnishings as it creates depth, accentuates key features and adds a dramatic finishing touch.
I absolutely LOVE using light fittings in my design projects that are different and unexpected – something that is a real conversation piece! Choosing fittings is a lot of fun and I know my clients love this part of the process of an interior design consultation as much as I enjoy sharing it with them.
Choosing the appropriate light bulbs is also important because nothing ruins the look of that incredible light fitting more than an inappropriate bulb, and my blog post “Lighting Design is Both an Art and a Science” explains in detail what we need to think about when choosing bulbs for our beautiful light fittings!
So, what light fitting to use where? A grid of downlights installed in a room may be functional, but the little details of your room design may end up being washed out or overlooked, taking away from the overall impact and the slight nuances of your design. Using pendant lights instead of downlights, or an interesting floor lamp to light up a corner of the room adds the illusion of additional space as well as accentuating the mood of our rooms.
Choosing the appropriate light fittings obviously depends on the kind of room that we’re designing. If we’re designing an office space for example, the lighting needs to encourage alertness and productivity, but rooms such as kitchens and workspaces will have brighter more colour accurate lighting, as opposed to a living room where we want something more mellow and relaxing.
There are three types of lighting for different applications and spaces: ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. Each of these can add function to a space, as well as accentuate your small design choices.
- Ambient lighting is used in functional spaces such as kitchens and dining rooms, where we need good visibility.
- Task lighting is used in spaces such as bedrooms and living rooms. Spaces where we want to feel relaxed and cosy.
- Accent lighting can be thought of as decorative lighting. Something that creates a focal point in a room, such as track lighting focused on a piece of artwork, built in shelving or an impressive indoor plant.
Overhead lighting is trickier than lamps to incorporate into our designs because they are fixed and once in place need a bit of work and several trades to move or replace. A brief run-down on the different types of overhead lighting will be helpful to those of you who are wondering which overhead light is best:
- Flush mounts, which are generally used in smaller rooms where a larger light fixture would overwhelm the rest of the design.
- Chandeliers which are statement fixtures hanging from the ceiling. We would usually use these in spaces such as entryways or foyers, or over a dining table.
- Pendants, which also hang from the ceiling like chandeliers, but they are generally smaller and usually have a single light bulb. Pendants are often hung above islands in groups of two or three.
Of course, just because a light fitting looks incredible, suits our design perfectly, and is something “we must have” means that it is going to be right for our room! We do need to think objectively about these decisions because they are important decisions that will make or break our whole design! There are a few tricks to making these big decisions:
Determining the size of your light fixtures is just as important as their visual design. You can calculate how big your fixtures should be by measuring the length and width of your room, adding them together and converting to inches. For example, an 45cm light fitting would be ideal for a 2.5mt x 3mt room.
When deciding on which pendants to use for your kitchen island, measure how long the island is and decide on whether you prefer the look of two or three pendants. If you go with three pendants you would want to opt for smaller ones, while you would want larger ones if you go for two pendants. A good rule of thumb is to space your pendants around 75cm apart, leaving around 15cm at the edges so the pendants don’t hang over the edge of the island. This will give you an effective spread of light over your benchtop, while not looking too cramped.
For dining room lights, look for chandeliers that are about 60% the size of your dining room table for a proportionate size.
Obviously, a single light isn’t enough to fill an entire room, so use a combination of all three lighting types to effectively light a space.
I know that I may well have just confused you even more about selecting light fittings for your home or office space! Maybe you feel that you need an interior decorator or an interior stylist to help you out? That’s what I’m here for and as you’ve stopped by my website and read my blog, we’re old friends now! If you need some advice and maybe feel that booking an interior design consultation is going to shine a light on the lighting in your home, let’s chat!
