Dear Marc: I’m working on the design for my living room. I’m going for a contemporary style, and have picked my furniture and a beautiful pastel colour scheme for my walls. I’m now shopping for light fixtures, but I have no idea where to start. Is lighting that important? — Pauline
Dear Pauline:
There’s a restaurant where the hallway going to the washrooms is so badly lit that women end up in the men’s washroom, and vice versa. During my first visit to the washrooms, I was welcomed by dark-coloured walls with a small source of light trying to illuminate the entire room. You can imagine my surprise, after trying to find the men’s room for what seemed like forever, I walk in another badly lit room. The entire journey to the men’s room was like an obstacle course — and a race against time, might I add! As a designer, I wondered if the horrible lack of lighting was due to their small design budget for washrooms, but it was not the case: The washrooms fit quite nicely with the entire decor of the restaurant. So why would they choose to renovate the washrooms and not have anybody see them? It just doesn’t make sense!
The same can be said for a residential space such as a living room. If you’re going to spend hard-earned money on a space, it must be properly lit so the design is visible. Very few homeowners leave room in their budgets for lighting. Most of it is spent on furniture, accessories, textiles, paint, wall and floor coverings. Then, once all the items are purchased, the homeowner spends whatever pennies are left on light fixtures. This should not be the case, as proper lighting can make or break a space. I have seen expensively designed spaces look mediocre, simply because the light fixtures seemed like an afterthought.
There are three kinds of lighting: general, accent and local. General lights the overall space, while accents are used to light certain features in a room. Local lighting is for practical uses, such as reading areas. A designer space will maximize the use of all three.
In order to successfully integrate lighting in a space, draw up a floor plan. This will help determine which areas should have accent and local lighting. If it’s an existing space, the general lighting will already be in place, therefore, you have the option of keeping the current lighting or upgrading it with the help of an electrical engineer. Before upgrading current fixtures, be sure to consider the amount of light the fixture will exude, and balance that with the esthetic look of the fixture. A pretty fixture exuding very little light will have to be complemented by many accent and local light fixtures.
Another thing to consider is energy efficiency. While visiting your local light store, ask the staff about the efficiency of the fixture you have in mind. While shopping for fixtures, be sure to also bring along measurements of the room in question.
The fixture’s size should be in proportion with the overall design and size of the space. Nothing looks worse than having a small fixture in a large open space. The same goes for small spaces. If your “dream” chandelier is too large for the space, choose the pendant version of the chandelier from the same lighting collection. Pendants come in smaller sizes than chandeliers and are often large enough to look perfect in small spaces.
A badly lit space is like dressing up for a party and staying home so nobody will see you. Sometimes you just have to put the limelight on your work of art.
Marc Atiyolil is the editor-in-chief of Canadian Home Trends — Canada’s Home Decor & Lifestyle Magazine. To submit a question for him, visit CanadianHomeTrends.ca.
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