Using House Lights to Great Effect.
When you are taking into consideration the interior design of a dwelling or area, illumination is probably the most important aspect of the changes to the interior decoration. After all, it is the element that creates the atmosphere of the room. You can create moods from intimacy to stark clinicalism just by the strength of your light bulb or turning a dimmer switch.
Nevertheless, if you want to be sure that the consequence of the lighting is the one you are looking for, it is important that you be familiar with the four principal kinds of lighting.
Ambient illumination: This is the general illumination for the entire room. In most rooms it is the standard light in the centre of the ceiling be it a fluorescent tube or an incandescent bulb. It is suggested that you make use of one or more dimmers in order to have more flexibility in creating special effects for each occasion.
Local lights: These lights are used to complement or even temporarily take the place of the ambient illumination. Local lights are most frequently standard lamps, table and wall lights and are ordinarily used in order to facilitate such activities as reading, cooking, and shaving. The concentration of the light is local and it has to be correctly worked out so it won?t strain the eyes.
Accent lights Accent lights are sources of light for displaying ornamental items, ordinarily placed so as to highlight an objet d?art . Quite literally to show it in its best light.
Natural light: This is the one we get free though skylights, windows and doors. This light is controllable for part of the day by shades, curtains, drapes, blinds or awnings, but clearly varies with the time of the day, the season and the weather. Some locations see huge variations in natural light according to the season, eg monsoon, snow, etc.
It is possibly easiest, if you undertake a house room by room. Begin by analyzing what the room is used for. Retirees will in all probability want to take advantage of the daytime natural light for hobbies and reading, while a working couple with school-age kids, will be more active in the evening, when additional illumination might be more important. Write down what you do and where you do it. Do you have a favourite armchair for reading the paper, do you read the paper during daylight hours or after work? Be bold in your choice of illumination, but also keep in mind that illumination can have a great influence on our perception of dimensions, making a room look larger or smaller than it is in reality.
There are numerous ways to illuminate a room but they all come from one of two perspectives: the lighting is either practical or artistic. Yes, they are both used to enable you to see more easily, but highlighting the pages of a book or a shaving mirror is not quite the same as using a soft light to highlight a statue of the Madonna in an alcove.
In a short summary, you could use the few lines below to give you initial thoughts when you are considering changing a room?s illumination:
i] Place a standard lamp behind armchairs: they ought to be between three and five feet high. ii] Use an accent light to high or even low light a work of art. iii] Use an accent light to underline the lines of bookshelves. iv] The ambient light should be adjustable. v] Use local illumination to swathe the walls with a low light or glow (can be recessed into the floor)