Featured here are a pair of Murano glass lamps from a dining room we designed in Kessler Park, Dallas.
In previous articles, we’ve talked about how important balance is to interior design. Lighting is no exception. Even the most beautifully designed rooms will look unbalanced if they’re poorly lit. To help your decorations look their best, you'll need to light each room with care.
If you’re furnishing your home from scratch or working on a major remodel, walk through the house and ask yourself along the way: ‘what are the primary functions of this room?’ Odds are that you’ll want task lighting for your study, but mood lighting for your bedroom. Make sure to plan ahead your desired color temperature for the lighting in each room, too. Lower temperatures are warm and yellow, while higher temperatures are closer to blue daylight.
As a general rule, task lighting should be three times brighter than the rest of your lighting. Recessed lights
and pendant lights are reliable solutions for this. Another place where you may want to install task lighting is above the countertops in your kitchen (in this case, under-cabinet lighting strips can be very useful).
In this photo, you can see both the study hall and the dining area for SMU’s Kappa Alpha Theta house. We lit the seating areas for the study hall with brass chandeliers. To the right, the dining room is illuminated with a series of recessed lights.
On the other hand, mood lighting is typically created using a balance of many softer light sources in the same room. Including dimmers in your plans will give you more flexibility to control the brightness levels. A popular new trend is to install one light switch that controls all the lights in a particular area or room. These “smart lighting systems” are preferable because having one switch on the wall looks cleaner than having three or four together.
Make sure that each light fixture is performing a specific task, whether it's highlighting an area, creating
depth, or illuminating a cupboard. There's a saying that "if you light everything, you light nothing." Although it’s tempting to plot lights throughout the room, you do need shadows to create variation and atmosphere.
Pendant lights help to illuminate the sink area in this eclectic master bathroom we designed in a downtown Dallas high-rise.
Lighting can also establish focal points in a room. Use recessed lighting to draw the eye to a central seating area or a piece of art over the fireplace. If you have a gallery of artwork in your hallway, make sure each piece is equally lit. Just make sure not to project light directly onto a mirror, as this will create glare. Instead, highlight the mirror frame with a series of wall-mounted lights on opposite sides.
The overall shape of your room should have an influence on the kind of lighting you choose. Lighting can even compensate for a room’s less desirable features. For example, low-hung pendant lights make ceilings feel taller, while up-lighting will make the whole room feel larger and more impressive.
A chandelier is always an eye-catching lighting solution. For a traditional look, place a chandelier over the dining room table to draw attention. However, in a contemporary home you may want to use a pendant light (or group of pendant lights) instead.
The owners of this Plano residence asked us to update their home with a transitional style. You can see how we complemented traditional and modern pieces together in this dining room. The chandelier, with its fine details, has a more traditional look.
If you read our last article about harmony in design, you can guess that it's important for lighting fixtures to harmonize. Use multiple kinds of light fixtures in each room for variety and interest, but make sure the fixtures also match your decorating scheme. For example, Japanese paper shades typically look best in either modern rooms or Asian-influenced ones, while an antique crystal chandelier could look out of place in the same room. An antler chandelier is a classic choice for a rustic country home.
That said, maybe you have a room that has a little too much harmony, and could use contrast to break things up. In this case, consider making a statement with your lighting. A black iron chandelier would add a lot of impact to a room with a light and bright color scheme.
Whenever possible, get a designer to help you with lighting needs. Much has changed in lighting just in the past few years, and a professional can help you navigate the latest technologies. You'll be glad you went through the extra effort to give your rooms a beautiful glow—after all, a room that is well-lit, is well used. To schedule a free consultation with us, call our office at 214-232-9501 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.