Mood and Lighting

Automatically colour comes to mind as a way to create mood and atmosphere when choosing a design scheme, however lighting can be just as effective.

Lighting can come from natural or artificial sources and can be enhanced by using reflective surfaces and mirrors. Rooms decorated in darker colours will absorb light whilst lighter colours will reflect it. It is often best to work with a room’s natural qualities rather than to fight against them. A room that receives very little or no natural light will be better with rich warm tones, using texturally extravagant fabrics like velvet, wood and chenille, with soft lighting and a real fire to achieve a cosy, welcoming space.

Centre ceiling lights are a fairly standard fixture in a room but generally are not great at creating atmosphere, try adding a dimmer to soften the glare. Why not group three or more pendant lights together as a contemporary alternative to a single? Additional lighting is an advantage as a variety of moods can be achieved; the easiest way to add light is with table lamps, floor lamps or candles. Other options are spotlights, up lighters, and down lighters, but these involve more complex fitting to avoid unsightly cables.

In kitchens and bathrooms lighting really is best if kept simple with halogen spotlights and concealed lighting focused on work surfaces. However, more elaborate chandeliers can look stunning in these settings just be aware they will require a lot of maintenance to retain their good looks!

Let’s not forget floors, a relatively new area for the installation of light, with some very exciting possibilities. Inset halogen lights to stair treads or into the plinth under kitchen units, think about playing with colour too, a blue or red glow can be very atmospheric!

Mood is born from how a single or combination of things makes us feel. On the whole most of us want the same thing from our home, we want to feel comfortable and happy within its walls, albeit in order to achieve that goal we’ll all make many different design choices, the result “mood” to the individual will be similar. 

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