Good Lighting Design

Good lighting design means making sure your lighting works for the way you want to use your home. The right lights can add mood, style, and practicality to your home and - because lighting makes up around 12% of your electricity bill – you’ll save by having the correct lights, where you need them.

Here are some thoughts to consider when thinking about your lighting design:

1. Light your walls and ceilings (not the floor)

Ceilings can take up a lot of our visual scene and vertical surfaces have a big impact on how bright a space appears. Because walls and ceilings are often lighter in colour than the floor, by lighting the walls and ceilings you can make a room look larger and brighter than if the lights are focused on the floor.

While having rows and rows of downlights may make sense on a plan, they generally focus lighting on the floor so you’ll require more lights – and a lot more energy – to achieve the level of lighting you desire. Poor design wastes energy and reduces how dramatic your house will look.

2. Be specific with what you light

Consider what you need the lighting to do in the space - is it to provide mood or ambience such as in living or dining areas, or provide crisp, bright light for tasks such as food preparation in kitchens or for applying makeup in bathrooms.

Light tasks such as kitchen benches, seating areas, architectural features such as columns, niches and art. Utilise unlit zones where there is only circulation and no tasks to add effect. Within reason areas of lower light will make the lit objects and areas stand out and appear more dramatic while using fewer fittings and keeping ceilings clean.

3. Use dimmers and switches

By dimming light you can not only control mood and achieve appropriate levels of lighting for tasks, but you can save power and increase the life of your bulbs.

Additionally, by placing different lights in a space on separate switches, you can choose to turn on only selected lights – ideal for setting the mood you require of or providing just the light you need for a specific task.

4. Choose the right fittings to attain the effects you’re after

It is important to consider the function of the room and the effects you are after – and then choose a fitting that meets these requirements.

There are many light fitting types that you can use to create the right effect that is right for you and your interior style. Choosing the location and type of fitting for your different lighting needs can look great and result in long term savings that are good for the planet as well as your bank balance.

Final thought

People often put more thought into how a fitting will look rather than the lighting effect it will provide. If the light provided by a fitting is not right for the space or the task it is lighting, both the look and the function of the room can be compromised.

Check out the Virtual Designer Tool to look at different lighting styles and choices.