Source : https://www.johncullenlighting.com/

Great lighting creates depth and height, cosy spots, and draws attention to your most impressive areas. It’s all about the balance of light and shade and bringing new energy to an interior. An architect or interior designer may just draw a grid of downlights into their plans for your interior, which won’t do justice to what they have designed. Calling in lighting experts to work in harmony with your interior designer or architect will maximise the impact of your space.

We use light and shade to make a room feel comfortable but also dramatic and atmospheric. Let’s say we want to highlight an artwork on a wall, we need a downlight to hit the artwork but in combination with a darker area around – this then draws our eye to the painting.

We apply different strategies for different solutions. We may illuminate special features such as an occasional table with flowers using Polespring downlight with a narrow beam, but we combine it with more general highlighting options. Lighting a beautiful curtain fabric will be done in a different way to creating targeted bright areas for tasks such as cooking, reading, or working at a desk.

What impact does artificial light have in interior design?

Artificial light creates visual stimulation – we’re always drawn to the brightest point in a room, so we use artificial light to accentuate specific features in the space. In a kitchen, these might be flowers on a kitchen island or dining table which we’ll highlight. We will also bring focus to the room’s edges to broaden the perspective. We may add subtle light to vertical surfaces such as cupboards using perimeter lights, which will create reflected light off those surfaces.

Getting the functional task lighting right, to prepare a meal, make a drink, or simply see what’s inside the cupboards, is vital, too. Diffuse light is used for general warmth. A well-designed varied artificial lighting scheme will add brightness, moments of drama, layers and depth.

How do you get the right mix of decorative and architectural lighting in your interior design?

A successful and flexible lighting scheme will always have a mix of decorative and architectural lighting. Our job is to look at your space or plans, play with ideas and then plan layers of light in the space to achieve a balance of light. We’re looking for a happy mix of ambient light, accent light, and architectural lighting.

The wow factor is often achieved with hidden lighting details. Let’s head back to the kitchen: you may have downlights above the kitchen island, but adding an LED strip underneath adds layering and drama. It’s only providing low-level brightness, but at night this simple trick will alter the feeling of the space. Another example is a table with a banquette: if you add an LED strip at the back of the banquette to uplight the walls behind, you create a different atmosphere and impression of a wider space. If you have a coffer without light it will probably barely be noticed, but by adding an LED strip, you uplight the ceiling. This ceiling glow also makes the whole room feel much brighter by reflecting light back into the space.