Amazing lighting ideas
Lighting
Regardless of the size, scale or nature of your project, how you choose to light a space can have a big impact on the final look and atmosphere. Your Architect is of course there to help you navigate these challenges and is something that we at BWMA consider from the initial design stage, but it’s a good idea to do your own research and get a perspective on what you like, or dislike from the available options on the market and pass these to your Architect, whilst of course remaining open to suggestions.
We know that you are keen to find links to ideas for your project, but first we’d like to challenge you for a moment to think about what type of lighting you might need, and how this could influence your choices.
Natural Lighting
Taking advantage of natural light has a number of benefits:- connecting us to outside spaces, creating a soothing and pleasant atmosphere, increasing efficiency and productivity for home offices or studios, as well as the potential energy savings and above all; benefits to our physical and mental health.
Take a look at your space at different times of the day, and throughout the year, (if time permits). This helps you get a perspective on how more natural light will impact the room. For BWMA, in most cases it’s about taking all of these things into consideration and finding a balance between function and design - how are you planning to use the space and what light might you need for that?
The South facing vista, whilst often held up as the holy grail, (and it can be an amazing focal point to any home or site, even in the most Northerly points of the UK), with excessive summer or winter sun, can make a space very uncomfortable. Often causing issues with excessive glare, reflection off surfaces and overheating of living spaces, if it is approached without careful design consideration from the outset.
So we encourage you to start this process by thinking more about your current or future space and sources of natural light, before going down a pinterest rabbit hole.
Your options will be specific to your design, and you to this point, may have spent hours scrolling through bi-fold, large sliding, pivoting floor to ceiling glazing, but no one individual thing will be the solution. The space or place must be considered in the round, access to natural light, inside/outside connection and importantly how we control the light throughout the year and not just via blinds or shades. If this sounds like you then we are always happy to discuss your project further and in the interim you can also use our curated list of natural lighting ideas on Houzz, which is constantly updated and worth bookmarking for future reference.
If you want to take advantage of more natural light in your home, here are some interior design tips that we like, from the team at House Beautiful Magazine.
Artificial Lighting
Well considered artificial lighting can transform your home, creating the right ambience for your space that has a significant impact on how you feel. Often this is subconscious for most people and when they experience it, they can't quite put their finger on it, but it is something we consider as part of every design.
Some years ago a craze of installing lots of LED downlights hit our nation. Thankfully, we think that with the popularity of Pinterest, Houzz, and other social media platforms, people are reconnecting with well considered lighting. Good use of table lamps, floor lights, wall lights and feature lighting has seen somewhat of a resurgence. We aren't saying that downlights don't have their place, because they do, but the risk with too many downlights is that a home can feel clinical and is comparable to the blue light we get on from our phones and devices.
Sputnik chandelier by Heals in one of BWMA’s renovation project
avoiding the excessive downlighting
One way to consider things when thinking about how to light your home or studio, is instead of making it as bright as possible all over, imagine that space is entirely dark with no light at all....Now we can start to carve out and illuminate areas for specific tasks.
For example:- do you have a favourite spot that you like to sit and read a book or look out to the garden and watch the birds? If so, perhaps a floor task lamp is best suited to this area. With a warm low level glow that works on an evening or a dull day, (think bookshop with a coffee; rather than a dentist's waiting room, with respect to all our dentist followers).
Do you have a snug area where you relax and watch tv? Perhaps a soft low level floor lamp or an uplight in the corner, that diffuses the light across the walls and room, is best suited to shape this area- helping to avoid glare and reflection on the television. A small table lamp can cast a warm hue that helps you to subconsciously unwind whilst watching Barnwood Builders or Building Alaska, (maybe that's just us).
However, where you want a big statement or feature light, we say go for it! For example above a dining table, where we seem to be spending more of our time, a feature pendant that cast a warm orange hue over your table and the people around it, provides the perfect backdrop to share stories, do the last moment homework, or attempt the hipster sourdough bread you have been trying to perfect during the numerous lockdowns.
Getting this right can really make a space go from a good space to a great space and BWMA are more than happy to share our thoughts on the right lighting for your project throughout the process.
As we always say, it's not about how much you spend, it's about spending it in the right place...and for us spending some money on amazing lighting is well worth it. Amazing doesn't need to mean expensive, but we don't want people to settle for the disappointing default pendant or clinical downlights anymore.
Below are a few inexpensive examples we have used in some of our own projects.
lighting doesn’t need to be expensive
Image of Stockholm pendant shade by John Lewis
Used in the BWMA studio space
Feature pendant light in on of our renovation projects
Light by Tala
Again, take your inspiration from our Houzz ideabook for Amazing Lighting. Just remember to consider the overall theme of your design and what sort of light source you might want when using the space. Try our carving light out of a dark space idea and this could avoid a mispend on a clinical atmosphere and give you the well considered pleasant space, with amazing lighting you have been looking for.
All the best,
BWMA