Light Your Home Beautifully With Elegant Indirect Lighting

Without lighting we see nothing, but lighting design is an often neglected aspect of interior design. Lighting should not only provide the best possible illumination for the room’s purpose, it should also be an attractive part of the room’s aesthetic. The best lighting design is noticed only when the designer intends it to be – the luminaires or light fittings providing a visual feature that fits in with the room’s overall look.

Designing lighting for your home is a relatively simple process, but the results can be stunning.

First you should ask yourself what the purpose of the lighting is to be. The illumination needed to work is very different from what you will need in a room that is only to be used for relaxation and watching TV. Direct lighting is now most often used to illuminate work spaces, while indirect or ambient lighting is preferred for recreational spaces.

Indirect lighting uses a variety of fixtures, usually on walls as opposed to the usual ceiling-mounted light fitting.

Indirect lighting is actually better for us. Although it’s been known since the middle of the 19th century that more light doesn’t equal better visibility, architects and designers took decades to incorporate this knowledge into their work. In a culture thrilled with the novelty of cheap electricity, bulbs and strips were everywhere.

Indirect lighting provides a more balanced illumination, which is easier on our eyes. There is less glare and less strain on the eyes. It’s also better for the environment. It’s counterintuitive, but lighting indirectly uses less energy than shining a bright light directly down into a room. If you go to a modern office, school or library you’ll often find indirect lighting which has been found to improve everything from worker productivity to patient recovery times in hospital.

Lighting a whole room based to the level needed for carrying out tasks is a waste of energy. A general lighting scheme that suits comfort with specific task-directed lighting where appropriate is much more environmentally friendly. With a more uniform spread of light it’s possible to reduce the general level of light.

Until recently, indirect lighting was not considered an easy option. The installation was expensive, not particularly attractive and unsuitable for many environments. That has changed in the last decade or so, and it’s now becoming much more common in domestic settings. Linear lighting in particular generally requires fewer electrical connections and light fittings than standard lighting and so has lower upfront installation costs.

Materials

Plaster is the Rolls Royce material for light fittings and luminaires. It is natural and environmentally friendly and has several advantages over its main competitors, metal and ceramics. Plaster can be cast to a much higher accuracy than either metal or ceramics. Metal can only be used to create simple designs, and if anything other than straight lines are required then metal starts to suffer in comparison to either plaster or ceramics.

Ceramics and plaster are both cast. However, plaster can be finished to a much higher standard than ceramics. Plaster is formed from powder so can be sanded like wood to a fine, smooth finish. It’s also much easier to paint – almost all our walls are plaster – and to match colours with standard paint tones.

Because it’s a natural, breathing material plaster isn’t affected by heat like metal, which can expand and contract to the extent that it can cause damage to its surroundings.

Styles

Flush lights are recessed into the wall giving an almost magical appearance to illumination. They can be installed in walls for indirect lighting or in ceilings for a more traditional direct lighting set up. The effect of natural light can be enhanced by installing fittings without trims, completing the illusion that the light is coming from the walls themselves. With plaster luminaires and perfect colour matching, the effect is even more effective.

Linear lights are attached to or recessed into walls. They light indirectly, by bouncing light upwards to ceiling. They may also contain an element of direct lighting too. With plaster linear lights, there is almost no limit on the style and design of the luminaires. Fittings can be curved and styled in almost any way. Curved linear lights are generally 100% indirect, pouring all their illumination upwards with a reflecting bowl under the bulb.

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This article was written by Steven Wishaw, a huge fan of interior design and online shopping.