Lighting isn’t just, nor should it be, seen as a solely functional item in any home. How you light your home can impact the look, feel, and overall finish of your home and all of your decor styles and cohesion. It should be considered in conjunction with how the room is lit.
Gone are the days when you were limited to a single light bulb with a shade hanging in the middle of the room. Today, the world of lighting design is your oyster, with a myriad of window options that go beyond the standard default, offering you a wealth of choices and styles to explore.
If you’re contemplating significant structural or interior changes to your home, consider the transformative power of lighting. By making your lighting source the central feature and incorporating it into all your changes and ideas, you can revolutionise the look and feel of your home.
This post is a guide to using lighting as a tool to create a focal point in your room, a starting point from which to design the rest of the space. It’s an opportunity to let your creativity and innovation shine through in your home design.
Rooflights
If you’ve been anywhere online near a home reno account in recent years, you will have seen the popularity of adding rooflights to homes, especially for kitchen and dining spaces, including open plan rooms. Window lights essentially remove the roof and replace it with a pane of glass to allow light to flood in from above. This is an easy way to create more light in a room and add a focal point that wows the space. Be it over your cooking area or your dining table, or if you install a roof light over a chill-out zone, they can be the ideal way to marry design and lighting for maximum impact.
Layered Lighting
Layered lighting is a design concept in which a room doesn’t rely on a single light source. Instead, multiple lighting options work together to enhance your decor choices and elevate your design. To achieve this look, you need ambient, task, and accent lighting, each serving a specific purpose in the room.
- Ambient lighting should be the base of your lighting and provide an overall glow to the room.
- Task lighting refers to the lights you need to perform specific tasks. For instance, desk lamps for working, floor lamps for reading corners, or under-cabinet lights for kitchen tasks. These lights are strategically placed to provide focused illumination where needed most.
- Accent lighting is a type of lighting that accentuates features in a room. It often highlights artwork, architectural details, or other decorative elements. By drawing attention to these features, accent lighting adds depth and visual interest to your space, making it more inviting and dynamic.
Following this guide can enhance the room while giving it all the light it needs.
Statement Lighting
Lastly, one great option is to pick a statement light piece and base all your choices around this light. The light’s look, feel, materials, and shape can dictate how you design the rest of the room and make your lighting options the central focal point. If you have high ceilings, hanging lights or chandeliers can work well for drama and elegance; for larger spaces, “spider” style lights that have many lights coming off a central point to cover a large area arranged in your preference can bring attention to the ceiling and give you a starting point to work around. Or you can opt to make natural light the statement by having floor-to-ceiling windows and creating a more zen/neutral vibe in a room by incorporating natural materials, plants and a minimal aesthetic for a modern feel.
