Design interior lighting
Design interior lighting
Why lighting is important in interior design?
- Light is what enables us to see the world around us. For example, light takes a crucial part in color recognition, volume, texture, shapes, and facture identification. If there are too many, fewer, or wrong light sources chosen, shapes, and colors look distorted. Light has a bearing on everyone’s ability to navigate and use an environment. For people with hearing issues, enough light helps to lip reading.
- Light also helps us keep track of time and therefore has an important neurological function. Some people can`t sleep well with light from the window at night, and some are afraid to stay in the dark. A dark room promotes more restful sleep.
- Natural white daylight and sunlight impact our pulse intensity, our mood, and cognitive function. There is a relationship between seasonal changes in light and depression experienced by people with seasonal affective disorder. And artificial light can compensate for or make it easier to experience the lack of natural light.
- Lighting helps in home area zoning and attention manipulation. To hide or emphasize specific spots.
Types of lighting
- Natural light (daylight, sunlight, moonlight, starlight)
Natural lighting may be available from windows, doors, and skylights.
Natural blue sky cold and bluer light stimulating activity. Bluer light during the evening is likely to make us feel tired. There is a correlation between evening or night light and sleeping hormones (National Sleep Foundation). Your levels of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, rise in the evening and exposure to light delays the release of that hormone.
If you spend time at home on sunny days, the sunlight could be very intense for your eyes. Moreover, long-lasting sunlight burns out the colors of interior finishings and painting. That is why it is so important to consider window shading.
Calm, natural daylight, is very welcoming and should present the more the better. You can bring it more making more windows, higher or wider.
- Artificial light
- General lighting is usually overhead, ceiling-mounted lighting. Recessed pot lights are a popular source of general lighting. A torchiere floor lamp or a chandelier that lights up a large part of a room also can be your general lighting source.
- Ambient lighting also is called general lighting in interior design but can be “moody” and softer, such as created with dimmers, firelight, and candles. Combine ambient lighting with task lighting for inviting pools of light.
- Task lighting can be a floor lamp or a table lamp that allows enough light to do a specific task such as reading, computer work, etc. Tasklighting can also help create a specific mood.
- Accent lighting highlights something such as artwork, a piece of furniture, or an architectural feature, or may “wash” a focal wall. Accent lighting is directional and adds a layer or layers of dimension to a room.
- Backlighting comes from behind a subject.
- Cove lighting is a form of indirect lighting built into ledges and recesses in a ceiling or high on the walls of a room. It directs light up towards the ceiling and down adjacent walls. Spotlights may be uplights or downlights and are designed to guide the eye toward an area or a particular item. Uplights especially create wonderful textural interest by casting shadows and can visually raise the height of the ceiling.
There are so many nuances with this. Besides, lighting can be pieces of decor or even art.
Mary Shafran, a professional interior lighting designer in New York helps you to
- avoid typical mistakes in artificial lighting,
- to provide specific lighting scenarios, to choose write bulb temperature,
- to create a harmonious lighting layout and switches.
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