Category Archive: Interior design and lighting

So you need to light up a room but want to know more first? Well in this article we’re going to delve into light; understanding light, uses of light and learn about lights by room. After reading this article, you will have become an expert on everything you could ever know about light!

Where to begin? Well light! It boasts variety – light in general varies – probably more than anything! Daylight changes every hour, possibly even more frequently than that, and the colour changes every season with the intensity alternating too! This is what makes light so fascinating and confusing all at the same time! Because of how light changes, this will also change the light in a room so you have to be careful you furnish your home in accordance with this; for example, if you have small windows, make sure you make the most of them by not obstructing the little light the window could give, which large windows might need to be covered so as to prevent the light becoming too much at certain parts of the day.

Artificial light is often used to help light rooms where natural light isn’t enough. This light is usually background lighting, to keep it subtle and literally in the background so it isn’t noticeable that additional lighting has been used. Additional lighting can be hidden e.g behind furniture, in the pelmets of windows or around the perimeter of the room.

There are 3 different types of background lighting which can be divided into –

· general or background lighting
· local or task lighting
· accent or decorative lighting

Local or Task Lighting

Local or Task Lighting is lighting for a specific purpose, e.g reading, working at a desk or computer – literally doing anything that might need more light than the general ceiling light; lighting for a focused area. Your bulb should be at least 60w for this lighting – to ensure you are lighting the specific area to be bright enough.

Fully adjustable lamps are usually best for this situation because the light can be changed to wherever you may need and the angle of them can be changed too, so if there is a glare this is easily fixed! Don’t try and save money when it comes to task lighting because there is so many different factors that might need to be changed – you don’t want to miss out not being able to change one of those factors.

Clip-on spotlights are an inexpensive way to get task lighting; they are cheap but you can also move then around to wherever you might need to get the extra light.

Accent or Decorative Lighting

This is the widest type of lighting with the options of using, down lighters, uplighters, spotlights, tracks and table lamps. They are additional to general lighting adding depth, shape and generally changing the ambiance of the room with more light. Specifically, tracks are used for lighting different areas of a room.

When deciding to use decorative lighting, you first need to decide what you want to highlight in a room – what possessions, what photos, if it’s going to be a coffee cable. This is because the lighting options will change depending on what you want to highlight. If you want to highlight a book, or bookshelf – using spotlights would be best in this situation because you can attach it to a shelf and emphasize the books.

Highlighting a photo or picture on the wall is the hardest thing to highlight – but not impossible! This is because the picture will usually be behind glass which could cause a glare. To avoid this, you need to use a broad bean so that the light is even distributed across the picture or photo. This will undoubtedly make it the focal point in any room!

Plants are also hard to highlight because they are living and you don’t want to kill them by giving them too much light – even if they are light loving! So it is essential that you read the instructions for the plant and whether or not it would be able to cope with being subjected to light.
There are also options which would mean that the plant isn’t fully exposed to light; tiny lights can be bought to be put into the pot with the plant to light it up from the bottom, however because these lights are only small, the plant would also have to be in proportion and fairly small. For bigger size pots, having a light behind and angled will light up the plant creating shadows and illuminating it.

Lighting your home isn’t easy, and it’s important you have it in your head what you want to light up, how and the affects you want in the room. If you have any questions or would just like to talk through your ideas with someone, we are always available to help. We have a website online which is there 24/7 or alternatively you can call us on 01420 520521. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you want to improve the appearance of your home by setting up the attention grabbing light fixtures, then you can consider about Crystal chandeliers. They add additional ember to your home decorations. Crystal chandeliers are becoming more popular because they provide attractiveness and elegance to rooms and make it more impressive and stylish. They are accessible in many various types and styles. You can choose from different Crystal Chandeliers because this wonderful item of art can give your residence very eye-catching look.

Chandeliers are a great method of obtaining lighting, which hangs from the roof of the room and make the room wonderful. In crystal chandeliers, different varieties of crystals are utilized. Among many other crystals the Strass crystal and the Swarovski crystal are the best. The Swarovski crystal is most frequently used in the chandeliers because they are less expensive when compared to Strass crystal. At the time of manufactured, they were wrapped having a clear layer of amazing optical high quality to offer an impressive wonderful tone. Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers are still very shiny for lighting up any home and make it appealing. People use this as a decoration inside of the living room for stylish and lively look.

The magnificence of crystal chandeliers is undeniable.  If you set up a crystal chandelier, you will notice an instant variation in the room by looking both in its overall look and the atmosphere. By installing a crystal chandelier, you don’t need to change it for several years and can consequently be passed on through the generations. A stunning crystal chandelier can give a lot more beauty and charm to your home than any other lighting fixture.

Crystal chandeliers are most generally used in the in entrances and dining rooms to make it gorgeous. You can also use smaller Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers to make your guest rest room beautiful. If you want to beautify your living room, you can set up a big chandelier in your bedroom.

There are many types of crystal chandelier accessible in the markets. Among many other crystal chandeliers, Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers will be main in the beautification of your rooms. As soon as you buy the crystal chandelier you want, you can now hang it out of your room to improve the beauty of it. Absolutely, your room looks amazing as the crystal chandelier is hanging there. If you want to get the perfect crystal chandeliers, you can look on the internet for several large crystal chandeliers for your home.

When designing a room layout, colour scheme, lighting and furniture all will ultimately be affected by size. The most basic example of this would be that if you have a room that’s a corridor and only two meters wide you can’t put an armchair in, as it will take up the entire hallway whichever way you put it! Whilst a basic and obvious example it does portray the basic rule that if you can’t comfortable walk to an area of your room that will need to be accessed, all you need is meter wide path, then you need to either move some furniture about or get rid of something as you’re most likely unnecessarily filling your room and not allowing the rest of the furniture to be seen and appreciated. Of course the situations changes if the rooms main use if for practical work such as a garage but even then you need to be able to access tools and you will require some good cool white LED panels or LED tubes so you can see clearly should you want to use it as a workshop.

But there is a lot more to layout than this, but I’m not able to cover it as extensively as I would like, so I recommend you go read another article that’s more specific on that subject, but in all honesty layout really comes down to what suites you and furniture is relatively easy to move so it’s no problem re-adjusting if you don’t like the layout. Wall colouring comes at the other end of this scale, as it not only requires you to move all your furniture away from the walls anyway but it’s simply hard work, and costly to hire on a small scale property. But it needs to be done and it is so much easier to do early on when the other items are not in place, simply due to the nature of the task. The other key aspect on the layout is lighting and this can invariably mean the introduction of architectural LED lighting or if you have a tradition design scheme then a crystal chandelier is often an excellent idea.
I am sure we have all heard of the basic concept that light colours make a room feel larger whilst darker colours make it feel smaller. If you have not, then well now you have. Whilst simple, this is your bread and butter basic size to colour design tip to keep in mind at all times when colouring a room. Another effective technique that ties into this is using dimmable light bulbs to make a room darker or lighter to change how large it feels. Just make sure to be wary of CFL bulbs, as they are prone to having lower quality dimming. Yet filament bulbs work fine, and I find that LED energy saving light bulbs work the best due to the greater variety of different light colours available with them. The additional benefit is that you will be playing your part in improving the environment for future generations.
As a final point, you can also use texture to make a room feel smaller, which can be very effective when you do not want to sacrifice colour scheme yet change how spacious your room feels. When it comes to size and interior design, that’s pretty much all I got on this subject. All there is left to say is good luck!

Filling space in a room is often a simply task, simply put in some more furniture! Yet I have seen so many cases where this simply leads to the over crowing of a room and it feels like I am in a storage warehouse, not a living room! The real secret to filling a room well is not by putting more items in it, but by putting the right things in the right place, not simply putting them anywhere!

One of my favourite ways to fill space in a living room is actually through the use of mirrors and televisions. This may seem odd, but hear me through. Whilst most wall items, such as wardrobes or pictures, simply develop the space directly in front of them, both TV’s and mirrors have a wide arch of space which they give purpose to, and one or the other fit into almost any domestic home design. As a plus a TV has a purpose, obviously, and can add colour and atmosphere to a room of your choice by simply putting on a DVD and putting the sound on low, effectively acting as a moving picture with sound. And for the mirror, it not only fills space but due to the fact that it reflects the room it is in the area can feel larger on top of more effectively used!
As for the space right in from of the TV or mirror I always feel that a rug can add character to the space and further develop it, via the use of vibrant colours and a rich patter it actually brings itself up from the floor making the space you have just given purpose to feel even more filled. This can also work well in front of large windows and as a centre for a semicircle of chairs and sofas we all so love to have in our living rooms, but you should definitely have a coffee table on it as well so you have somewhere to put drinks, magazines and anything that guests, family and anyone would want to have whilst in the living room; so be prepared for getting food on the rug once in a whilst as nobody is accident prone! For the very reason and the way that furniture dents a rug whilst resting on it I often opt for a less expensive rug in these situations to try to not cut into my coffers too much!
My final tip for using the space in your room would have to be to try to fill the upper room space as much as possible. Imagine one of those huge ball rooms with a glistening crystal chandelier in the centre, but then without the large chandelier. It would be a lot more empty, wouldn’t it! But although beautiful, not everyone can afford a chandelier and many simply do not like them, so I would recommend trying the use of floor lamps, bookcases and general taller furniture to try to fill the ceiling area. Yet in the end I do find the best way to do this is to go for a chandelier, crystal or ornate. But it really comes down to personal preference which I suppose is my true final suggestion. Go for what you like the best!