Using Lighting for Mood & Style
Author: Design Team at the Designory Date Posted:19 August 2019
Lighting can often transform your space more than any other element in the home. It’s such a large aspect of the design process which should be used for visual comfort, but also to create a preferred atmosphere throughout the space. By using lighting with various levels of illumination and colour, as well as mixing up the lamp styles themselves, you can set the desired mood you are looking to create throughout any room. In order to understand the best ways in which to create mood and style within a space, we’ve called in our design team to give us their top tips to achieve this. Read on below to find out what they said…
Varying levels of lighting can produce a range of emotions – from cheerful and alert with high levels of light to relaxed and restful with lower levels of light. This is a great tip to keep in mind when choosing lighting for each room and the type of mood you’d like to create, try to think about what kind of emotions you’d like to evoke. Another tip from our designer, Harriet Issac-Cole, is to ‘use table, floor, and wall lamps in living and bedroom spaces as this will create softer overall lighting, as opposed to downlights. Also, using dimmers on all downlights will help you achieve that variety of lighting you are after.’ She has suggested that ‘task lighting is a must in a kitchen space, however you always want an option to have different levels of lighting.’
Lighting often also plays an integral part in the overall style of your home. You can use lighting to create a unique style for each space in your home, Harriet suggests to ‘use wall lighting in corridors or stairways to play with how the light is cast on the walls to create patterns.’ The type of lights you use will also affect the style that you are going for, Harriet has also said that, ‘pendants are a great way to add style to a space, I do love a single pendant light in a powder room over the vanity asymmetrically. Also using pendant lighting in the kitchen and dining spaces ensuring that it doesn’t interrupt the eye line when people are sitting at the dining table or standing at the kitchen bench.
Lighting can define the ambience of a room, and we often use chandeliers to create this ambience for our projects. Whether it’s a simple pendant that provides a minimalist, modern touch or a show-stopping crystal fixture that exudes a regal elegance, a chandelier instantly catches the eye and sets the design tone. When finding the right chandelier for your space take into account the other elements of the room. You want the light to compliment the room and harmonize with all of the elements – if there are a number of bold statement pieces already in the room, a simple chandelier may be more effective. Conversely, if the room decor is more minimal, a bold sculptural chandelier will be the signature statement.
