Good tiling, joinery, and stone will sight and feel a certain way because of what they are, and the craftsmanship with which they’re made and installed. But if you throw tons of light at bad or just mediocre finishes, the combined impact can just be jarring. Too clinical, too screaming, too boring, too cold. Let’s learn some lighting design techniques to help you make the most of your home’s living spaces.
5 Lighting Design Concepts to Utilize
Good lighting design goes hand in hand with good interior design. Everything is connected. Whether you’re looking at large scale lighting for a large space or accent lighting to complement what’s already there, you’ll want to consider each element in a space as you make your choices.
1. Plan Lighting Before You Touch a Wall
The biggest error made in home renovations is not about the wrong choice of fixtures. It is rather that lighting is considered a final decision, not a structural one.
Electrical wiring has to be roughed in before you close up the walls. That means all switch positions, dimmer circuits, and fixture placements need to be locked during the planning stage – not selected from a catalogue after you’ve plastered over the wires. Skip this step, and you are likely to end up with a single ceiling pendant in the center of your room because that’s where the wire already runs.
The light-goes-here discussion has to happen at the same time as the walls-go-here discussion. Companies like Veejay’s Renovations take this seriously. They list light placement among the things their architects will plot out with you, way before any demolition happens.
2. The Three-layer Rule
Many rooms are visually uninspiring because they are all being lit by one light. The downlight, the center pendant, all perfectly evenly lit. No depth, no shadow, no magic.
This is where a layer of lighting will change your life. There are three kinds. Ambient light is the workhorse. It is the light that fills a room without contrast. Think downlights. If you were forced to renovate in the last 20 years, then this is probably all you have.
Task light is where you work. Above your benchtop, in your wardrobe, the light that’s directly above your bedside table or office. It’s the brightest light, and as such, the one you don’t strike a shadow in. Remember that. It needs to be easily accessible in the form of being directed to where you need it most.
Accent light is where they get you on the expensive look. Wall sconces, joinery, acid-filled strip lighting, landscaping spots shining up the sandstone, timber shelves with LED strips in the shadow of each cantilever. This is where your expensive materials look good. Your builder will think you’re the biggest wanker breathing. It’s a must.
3. Temperature, Color, and Why They’re Inseparable
Light has a color, and it’s not just white. Color temperature is measured in Kelvins, and it ranges from the warm amber light given off by things like fire and wood stoves, around 2700K, to the increasingly cool blue-white light at 5000K or above.
This is a bigger problem than anyone suspects. Warm-toned wood cabinetry photographed under cool blue-white light looks grey and lifeless. Crisp white walls captured under a 2700K bulb will have a distinct yellow hue that you will never be able to unsee. Choose the wrong Kelvin range, and the moods and vibes of your keyed-to-perfection finishes and cabinetry are subconsciously programmed for failure.
CRI, or Color Rendering Index, is the other spec that you should really understand. A light bulb with a CRI above 90 renders colors so that they look essentially how they do in natural daylight. Low CRI bulbs flatten and distort colors in intangible ways you can’t exactly put your finger on, but you can definitely feel.
If it costs you some real money to get those tiles fabricated in the exact hue of French absinthe, then the lighting had better render the color as accurately as possible. Or you’re essentially paying for the honey to bury your treasure.
4. Kitchens and the Function-aesthetic Balance
Kitchen lighting is put to the test more than in any other room in the house. It must be functional enough to prep food safely and comfortable enough to end the night with a last glass of wine at the bench.
Pendant lights above an island bench visually anchor the space and define the zone, but they don’t throw enough light onto the work surface below. Recessed lighting directly over the benchtop handles the functional requirement. Under-cabinet strip lighting eliminates the shadow your own body creates when standing at the bench.
All three of those things need to be on separate circuits with individual dimmers. That way, the same kitchen can run at full task-lighting intensity at 6 pm and shift to warm ambient-only at 9 pm without anyone touching a globe.
5. Dimmers Do More than Lower the Lights
Dimmer switches are the unsung heroes of a renovation. For a relatively low electrical expense, they make it possible for a single room to be used in multiple ways – high-output for cleaning and working, mid-range for daily use, and low for evening and to set the mood.
Lighting accounts for about 10 to 15 percent of a home’s total energy bill. Specifying dimmer controls paired with LED fixtures throughout an entire renovation reduces that number, with far more precise control than a standard switched circuit could ever provide.
Lumen output adjusts with the dimmer level, so you’re not just saving energy. You’re creating a room that changes as needed.
Great lighting design should not be noticed. When it’s effective, you’re simply comfortable in the room. When it’s missing, no amount of expensive tile or countertops will make up for it.
Related: 13 Cool Lighting Ideas for Your Contemporary Living Room
