Lighting by Lux

Last week we showed you that lighting can be used to create interest and add space to a room. This week, we bring you some how-to tips to add definition and accentuate the details of your homes interior.

In homes with architectural details such as molding, columns, archways, built-in bookshelves or display nooks, light can highlight these features and bring out the character of your home. Uplighting is usually best for this. Use a low-glare, narrow-beam halogen or warm white LED light with a 10-degree spread. The source should be set deep into the floor or otherwise concealed to prevent glare and keep the fixture itself from drawing attention. It should also be set close to the feature so it casts a pattern of light and shadow over horizontal elements. Try this uplighting effect on either side of your fireplace to create a warm glow and add emphasis even when the fire isn’t lit.

In more contemporary homes without a lot of architectural detail, something as simple as a wash of light over a wall to bring out texture or highlight flaws in a smooth surface can add interest provide your home with its own character. Create this effect with a white xenon recessed downlight or a concealed LED strip located close and shining down over the wall. For a more even wash over the entire wall, rather than emphasizing the top, try a recessed directional downlight located further out from the wall with a frosted lens to dilute and soften the effect. A wash can also be achieved with a series of uplights on the floor, positioned close to the wall and grazing the surface with light.

No matter what type of home you have, lighting staircases, bookshelves and niches or recesses is a great way to bring dead space to life while adding accent lighting and elevating a room’s impact. On staircases, set recessed uplights into each step to create a low-level wash of light going up the front of the stairs, and also along the floorboards on the underside of the staircase to widen and enliven the space. For display nooks and bookcases, install undercabinet lights to highlight objects from above, or try mini surface-mounted lights to accentuate displays by either spotlighting them from the front, or mount them behind objects to cast them in silhouette. Linear shelf lights, flexible picture lights, and colored string lights are also useful tools for illuminating these areas and highlighting objects displayed within.

By now you should be getting a picture of the versatility of light and the many ways it can be used not just to illuminate, but also to enhance your décor. Next week we’ll broaden the picture by looking at even more ways light can be used to create contrast and drama.

As the air grows crisper and the night grows longer, we’re seeking the cozy comfort of the well-lit indoors. It’s a good time to explore the decorative functions of light. I’m not talking about the pretty sparkle of a crystal chandelier or the artistic statement of a Tiffany lamp; I’m referring instead to the optical illusions and area-defining effects that light itself can achieve.

Light can change a rooms proportions, creating scale and volume to make it feel bigger, or visually shrinking it to a smaller, more intimate space. Strategically placed uplighting can wash the walls with light and reflect off of the ceiling to create a soft, diffused effect that mimics natural light, creating a roomy, airy feel. By illuminating opposite walls and leaving corresponding walls unlit, you can add the illusion of length to a room. Lighting something beyond the room, such as a patio or an adjoining room, can also trick the eye into perceiving more space than is actually contained within the room, adding to the feeling of openness.

Light can define areas and link spaces. In a loft apartment, for example, using track lighting to create pools of light and shadow of varying intensities can define zones and provide a feeling of distinct, separate areas for lounging, dining and sleeping. Conversely, using similar intensities of light in two separate but joined rooms, such as a living room and den, can draw the eye beyond the room’s barrier and create the illusion of a single large space.

Light can create focus. Lighting focal points in a room, such as a painting, an architectural feature or a piece of designer furniture, is an easy way to create interest. It can be easy to get carried away, though, and create so many “focal” points that nothing stands out. A simple way to avoid this is, when planning the room’s layout, use a yellow highlighter or sticky note to denote where your lighting focal points will be. If you end up with too much yellow, then you’ll know that you need to be more discriminating about which aspects of the room to bring into focus.

When creating focal lighting, the point is to make the object being lit brighter than its surroundings in order to draw the eye; so the light source will need to be hidden so that it doesn’t become the focal point, and it will need to be controlled separately from the room’s primary light source so that it will remain bright when the other lights are dimmed.

This is just a small sampling of the effects that lighting can have on a space. In the coming weeks, we’ll explore other ways to decorate, set mood and create drama with light.