Let There Be Light

This month I was working on a consultative basis on a café fit out.  What this meant was that instead of designing and specifying I was advising the client on important interior design elements and principles such as negative space, balance and light and lighting.  Like colour, light and lighting can be hard to navigate, here are my tops on getting the lighting right in your space;

1. Assess the natural light in the space, observe how much natural light it receives, shadows and the direction of the sun. For example you don’t want to position a seat whereby a person sitting in it might be blinded by the afternoon sun.
2. What’s the purpose of the space? This will help you choose appropriate artificial lighting.  If you’re performing a task in this space such as a home office then the lighting you choose will be different to the lighting needed for a lounge room.
3. Scale and proportion are important to consider as you don’t want a small pendant in a large room. Ensure the dimensions of your light fitting suit the total volume of the space.
4. Ambient lighting is also an important consideration; this is light not from a direct source of lighting for example the flicker of candles or the speckled reflection of crystal droplets. How will the ambient lighting impact the space?  Keep this to a minimum.
5. Make sure you know how to change the light globe in your fitting. Despite light globes lasting a long time you will eventually need to change them and you don’t really want to pay for an electrician to do this.

Putting a space together successfully is not easy and lighting (like colour) can really impact the space, people’s comfort and whether the purpose of the space is realised, to get it right, contact us.