The Design Brief®️ | Volume VII | Effective Interior Design Lighting Strategies for Stunning Interiors
©️ Dakota Design Company 2017-2024 | All rights reserved. This content may not be reproduced, distributed, or used without permission.
WRITTEN BY DR. GLORIA for DAKOTA DESIGN COMPANY
An effective lighting design is one part science, and many parts artistry. When a space is lit beautifully, the inhabitants may barely notice it, but they are 100 percent affected by it. Lighting design is something clients may provide little input for, but something that will floor them if done well.
"An effective lighting design is like a beautiful painting. Your medium is bringing someone to an emotional state he or she would not achieve at that moment without your art. This does not and can not happen by accident." ~ Unknown
The key to impactful lighting design is truly layering. To appreciate the impact of layering to an impressive lighting scheme, let’s consider the opposite:
A kitchen that is lit by just one center surface-mounted fluorescent fixture
A bathroom lit solely by a three-bulb fixture over the mirror
An elementary classroom that is uniformly lit throughout by strip fluorescents—very effective for its intended purpose, but not at all interesting
A well-designed lighting scheme that adds beauty to a space needs to include a visual hierarchy of light levels: ambient lighting in most areas, but other areas with pools of light for visual interest.
By layering lighting, you are not just lighting the air in a room, you are often lighting walls, a ceiling, art pieces, surfaces, and other elements of interest, and letting that light bounce back into the space. You are deliberately putting higher intensity light levels in some areas, and lessening it in others.
Perhaps it is because nature contains different light levels—across the landscape and over the progression of time—that we are intrinsically drawn to a variation and disparity in light levels within our visual panorama. It speaks to our biological need for stimulation and relief from monotony.
Not only do we derive satisfaction from seeing natural elements and the changing landscape that evolves over the passage of hours, days, and months, but light greatly impacts human health and well-being. Countless studies over the last 50 years have confirmed the link between natural light and healing and recovery.
It is also interesting to consider that there are really only three sources of light: the sun, fire, and electrification. Until 150 years ago—when Thomas Edison developed the first practical type of incandescent lighting in 1879—the sun and fire were the only available sources for millennia. Our ancestors were subject to substantial risk from kerosene lamps, candles, and other sources of fire-produced light to illuminate their homes after the sun went down.
Today, great advancements in solid-state lighting, such as LEDs mean that we can have an abundance of light quality, sources, and effects. Light—natural or electrified—manipulates mood, enhances functionality, encourages activity, and enhances visual interest in our surroundings.
So, let’s look at how to manipulate light—both natural daylight from the sun, and electrified (artificial) light—to create environments that are optimally pleasing to our visual senses.
Natural Lighting
Daylight cannot be controlled, but how light is brought into our interiors can be manipulated. It is important to consider which direction the windows in a room face and how the changing direction of the sun over the year will affect the quality and color of incoming sunlight.
Sunlight entering directly into the interior of a home can cause glare and heat, particularly in the summer when the sun is high in the sky. The interplay between the orientation of the sun in the sky and the location of windows within a space influences the need for lighting as well as window treatments. How windows are treated—with shades, blinds, shutters or draperies—can alleviate these concerns.
Artificial Lighting
All other light—other than what comes from the sun (and perhaps a bit by the moon and the stars at night)—is made possible through electrical current. With electrified lighting, we can easily manipulate its placement, intensity, direction, light color, beam spread, and how it is integrated with all interior elements. We have complete control over all electronic sources of light because they do not exist in a space until we add them.
Our electrified lighting complements natural daylight in our environments during the day, and its impact is greatly amplified at night. As a layered lighting scheme is developed, there are three categories of light layers:
Ambient (general) lighting;
Task lighting; and
Accent lighting.
It is logical to plan and design for light in this order.
01 | Ambient Lighting
Ambient lighting generally lights the space and surfaces in our interiors, and it does so fairly uniformly. It provides a comfortable level of brightness to facilitate our vision. Too little light and we will squint and not be able to adequately discern our surrounding elements. Too much, and our eyes will be irritated and we may develop headaches.
Dimmers are very important to control the quantity of light and light intensity in our spaces. And dimmers provide an important energy-saving strategy. They allow artificial lighting levels to be adjusted as the day passes from morning to night. The most recent building codes require lighting controls (dimmers or occupancy sensors) in most rooms in new construction and remodeled residences (unless this requirement has not been adopted within a specific jurisdiction) because of their energy-savings capability.
As long as it contributes to the overall light levels throughout a space, any light source can provide ambient lighting: recessed cans, flush ceiling-mounted fixtures, pendants, chandeliers, sconces, and table and floor lamps.
02 | Task Lighting
Task lighting provides additional light—in addition to ambient light—that facilitates the activities we perform in our homes, and prevents eye fatigue while we do them. It provides a higher intensity light concentrated on where we need to perform a task. More than lighting space, they are usually directed at a surface—a countertop, desk, computer screen, mirror, or any other element that needs to be illuminated so we can see it better.
Under-cabinet lighting and pendants above our kitchen islands better allow us to prepare food. But these light sources also highlight our backsplashes and countertops.
Table lamps assist when we are reading by putting light on the pages of a book. Task lighting at our desks—perhaps a desk lamp—aids our sight for computer work and writing. Bathroom lighting above or beside mirrors helps us see well when we are grooming. Any light that helps us see when we are doing something is task lighting.
Types of fixtures used as task lights can include sconces and other wall lights, pendants, table lamps, and linear or strip lighting. Task lighting will create a pool of light directed to the specific area where we need it. It will be a more concentrated pool of light with a bright center, compared to ambient light. It is important to remember that—as people age, or rather, as their eye muscles age—they will need higher light levels to perform tasks.
03 | Accent Lighting
Accent lighting is really where the artistry within lighting design comes into play. Light is directed at key, specific areas of interest within a space, typically at about three times the intensity of ambient light. This is what adds visual interest and creates drama and sparkle within a space.
The details of features within a space will be lost unless they are highlighted with light. And adding light at the boundaries of a room (rather than all in the center) will give the perception that the space is larger.
Accent lighting is not always required for a space to be adequately lit. Ambient light does that. But accent lighting is the additive process and the key illumination technique to add visual interest—it is truly the icing on the cake that adds emphasis and focus to the most interesting elements in a room. Accent lighting is much more impactful when the sun goes down, where the contrast in light levels with ambient lighting can be better perceived.
Accent lighting is often achieved using directional lighting—narrower beams of light directed specifically at a room feature. This could be a small recessed directional fixture aimed at a piece of wall art. Or it could be a ceiling-mounted directional fixture that hits an entire fireplace wall. A wall washer fixture is a ceiling light—placed close to a wall—that washes a portion of the wall with a pool of light. This works well to highlight a textured wall material or patterned wallcovering. Cove lighting is typically achieved by using strip lighting along or inside a ceiling moulding, ledge, or detail to add a warm, light glow to the ceiling plane. Under-shelf lighting—also using strip or small puck lights—serves to highlight key objects and collectibles on shelving.
Whereas ambient lighting lights space, task lighting lights a surface, accent lighting highlights a focal point.
The light hits the object, then bounces back to create ambient light within the space as well. When some of the ambient light level is achieved with light that is bounced off a surface back into a room, it is called indirect light, and can be a very dramatic effect.
Summary
A good lighting design is an additive process that requires skillful placement of lighting fixtures. Layering the light—ambient light, layered with task light, layered with accent lighting—adds drama and visual interest. Think of an impactful lighting scheme as a visual hierarchy: ambient lighting for generalized illumination, task lighting to enhance functionality, and accent lighting to add variety and excitement.
Sources used:
Clemons, S. A. (2021). Interiors: Design, process, and practice, 2nd ed. Goodheart-Wilcox.
Winchip, S. (2022). Fundamentals of lighting, 4th ed. Fairchild Books
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