Lighting Tips – The Art of Layered Lighting

Lighting Tips – The Art of Layered Lighting

What exactly is the art of layered lightening?

A room should never be illuminated by one, sole ceiling fixture. This is because long shadows are casted and corners of the room may not be sufficiently lighted. Hence, various combination of lighting is recommended to achieve the best lighting effect for a room.

Thus, such a popular practice is known as “light layering”.

Like makeup, each lighting layer has to be is progressively applied to a room to achieve the desired effect. In fact, at least 2 layers of lighting is needed to properly light a room. So what are they?

Layer #1 – General Lighting

Commonly known as ambient lighting, general lighting should serve as a foundation for a properly light room due to its fairly uniform lighting. Chandeliers and flush-mounted ceiling fixtures usually fall into this category. The purpose of overall lighting is to provide enough light for us to proceed with general daily activities such as walking and finding our way around a room.

Layer #2 – Task Lighting

Task lighting provides direct illumination to aid us in performing certain tasks such as reading, putting on makeup and cooking. Study or desk lamp, recessed can lights, mini-pendants over the kitchen island, under-cabinet or under-counter kitchen lighting and powder room vanity lights are common types of task lighting.

Layer #3 - Accent Lighting
Accent lighting adds visual texture and interest to a room. Track lights, up-lights, down-lights, directional lights and flushed wall sconces fall under this category. The job of accent lighting is to spotlight a special object (such as artwork, architecture, sculptures), special features like textured wall or to strategically throw shadows to add visual interest, intrigue, depth, dimension and texture to an otherwise boring and plain room.

Layer # 4 – Decorative Lighting

Decorative lighting doesn’t provide much light as they are mainly for ornamental artistic purposes. These lightings are usually on the dim side and meant to accentuate the object itself. Examples of such lighting include deck stairs strip lights and special lights for water features.

Room by Room Guide Lighting Tips

Refer to this site for lighting tips for each individual room. :)

All images are copyrighted to the respective sites.

Read More

iTunes App Store - Interior Design Resources

Here are some really amazing interior design related apps for iPhone/iPad users. :)

1. Houzz Interior Design Ideas

 " Called the "Wikipedia of interior and exterior design" by CNN, Houzz has the largest database of home design ideas on the net, with over 200,000 high resolution photos. Browse photos by style, room and location and save them to your virtual idea book — it's the equivalent of clipping design magazines to a scrapbook — making ideas easier to search, save, and share...."

2. Houzz Kids' Rooms

" .. Browse, save and share thousands of big, beautiful photos of inspiring kids’ spaces. Filter spaces by age group, and get information on the pros who designed them. Tap through guides to creating soothing nurseries, fun toddlers' rooms, flexible shared bedrooms, and spaces for bigger kids to teens...."

3. Interior Design Photo Collections

".. This app lets you view the whole spectrum of interiors, to elegant North American mansions to refreshing rooms with ornamental plants and beyond.These albums have many uses: helping design a new home or remodeling, examples for arranging rooms, studying design, for wild ideas and more. "

4. Home Design Interior Space Planning Tool 

"...lets the interior design professional, their clients—and do-it-yourselfers alike—plan, preview and carry out their design visions while staying organized and within budget..."

5. Interior Design Magazine

"Interior Design magazine is the essential resource for every design professional and enthusiast, on all projects, throughout the entire design process. Interior Design, the design authority, shapes design opinions, while providing boundless inspiration and vital information through compelling coverage of the most groundbreaking projects, products, and people in the industry."

Read More

Creative Living - Transforming Your Walls Part 2

Ways to Spice up a Plain Wall

1) Fresh coat of Paint

One of the easiest way to spruce up a plain wall is to give it a fresh coat of paint. You can look for online tools to help you in visualizing and preview your place before you start painting. However, if you prefer to D.I.Y, you can refer to this post for some painting tips.

2) Artworks and Posters

If painting walls is too much of a hassle, you can consider hanging paintings or posters to give an instant makeover.

3) Wall Decals

 

Wall decals are quick and efficient ways to brighten and make your walls more interesting! To put it in a layman's term, decorative vinyl stickers are designed to be applied to walls. There are a vast number of different styles and patterns available in all sorts of colors in the market. In fact, you may also request for customization at a small fee.

4) Useful and Practical ideas

 

Why not make full use of what a plain wall can offer by including shelves, decorative clothes, keys hangers and clocks. You may even want to convert your wall into a drawing board! :)

5) 3D Wall Art Panels

3D wall panel brings a dramatic impact to home design, instantly adding another dimension to the interiors. Environment friendly, and considerably cheaper than traditional carved wooden panels, they offer an inexpensive and yet impressive alternative. In fact, here are some articles which covers 3D wall panel from beds.sg and renotalk. You can get interior designers to do it for you or even D.I.Y yourself at a fraction of a price! :)

6) Graffiti aka Street Art

This is definitely not for the faint hearted...increasingly, more people are open to bringing street art into the home interior design. However, the difficult part is to find a skilled graffiti artist. Here is a post which covers on decorating your home with graffiti art. 

Read More