When you are considering the interior design of a dwelling or room, lighting is most likely the most important aspect of the changes to the interior decoration. After all, it is the element that generates the mood of the room. You can create moods from intimacy to austere clinicism just by the power of your light bulb or turning a dimmer switch.
However, if you want to be sure that the effect of the lighting is the one you are looking for, it is important that you be acquainted with the four main kinds of lighting.
Ambient illumination: This is the general lighting for the whole room. In nearly all rooms it is the usual light in the centre of the ceiling be it a fluorescent tube or an incandescent bulb. It is recommended that you use one or more dimmers in order to enjoy more flexibility in creating effects for every occasion.
Local lights: These lights are used to supplement or even temporarily take the place of the ambient illumination. Local lights are most commonly standard lamps, table and wall lights and are generally used in order to facilitate such activities as reading, cooking, and shaving. The concentration of the light is local and it has to be properly worked out so it won?t strain the eyes.
Accent lights Accent lights are sources of light for showing off decorative items, ordinarily placed so as to draw attention to an objet d?art . Quite literally to show it in its best light.
Natural light: This is the one we get free though skylights, windows and doors. This light is controllable for part of the day by shades, curtains, drapes, blinds or awnings, but obviously varies with the time of the day, the season and the weather. Some locations see huge variations in natural light according to the season, eg monsoon, snow, etc.
It is doubtless easiest, if you take a house room by room. Start by thinking about what the room is used for. Retirees will probably want to take advantage of the daytime natural light for hobbies and reading, whereas a working couple with school-age kids, will be more active in the evening, when additional illumination might be more imperative. Write down what you do and where you do it. Do you have a favourite armchair for reading the paper, do you read the paper during daylight hours or after work? Be courageous in your selection of lighting, but also keep in mind that illumination can have a strong influence on our perception of dimensions, making a room look larger or smaller than it is in reality.
There are lots of ways to light a room but they all come from one of two perspectives: the lighting is either practical or aesthetic. Yes, they are both used to allow you to see more effortlessly, but highlighting the pages of a book or a shaving mirror is not quite the same as using a low light to highlight a statue of the Madonna in an alcove.
In a brief summary, you could use the few lines below to give you preliminary ideas when you are thinking about changing a room?s lighting:
i] Place a standard lamp behind armchairs: they ought to be between three and five feet high. ii] Use an accent light to high or even low light a work of art. iii] Use an accent light to underline the contours of bookshelves. iv] The ambient light ought to be adjustable. v] Use local illumination to swathe the walls with a low light or glow (can be sunk into the floor)
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