Choosing your lighting carefull can make a big difference to your home this winer

The evenings are drawing in, the clocks are changing, and now is the time to plan the lighting in your home. There’s more to it than sticking an energy-saving light bulb in your ceiling lamp, as Nick Lee explains

Choosing your lighting carefull can make a big difference to your home this winer

As the nights get longer, the need for more light around our homes becomes more acute. How we light our homes varies enormously – while some people prefer just one light per room, others prefer six or more lights on, and 
if you’ve got halogen ceiling spot lamps, possibly even more. 
Of course, how many we actually turn on in these times of increasing energy costs can depend on your budget as well as your personal taste for more or less light.

Designers such as Hugh Jamieson of At Home 
(athome-interiors.com) build accent lighting, ambient lighting 
and task lighting into their designs from the very start. For most designers, lighting is absolutely key, and there’s definitely much more to it than just hanging a bulb from the ceiling.

Depending on whether the building has a modern or traditional feel, Hugh can include skirting board lights, stair lights, lighting strips by the metre and pendant lights for anywhere in the home. Lighting is designed in layers says Hugh, including down lights, pendants and table light. ‘Each layer creates pools of light to pick out the most attractive features in a room,’ he explains. ‘The whole room isn’t one light level, there are darker and lighter parts. And art and wall pictures can be lit by directional low voltage down lights around the room, creating key points of interest and a top layer of lighting.

‘An illuminated shelf, as well as lighting up the objects on the shelf, can be a wall washer – a light which lights up a wall above and below the light source. One illuminated shelf either side of a fireplace can create enough ambient light for when watching television or chatting with friends, and be a mid layer of light.’

Skirting lights are most commonly used on a staircase to direct your eye up the treads and beyond, but can also be used around a sitting room wall. These stylish but inexpensive recessed lights can be LEDs, which use less electricity, don’t get hot and last thousands of hours. ‘Run all your light circuits into one control panel the size of a single light switch instead of umpteen dimmers,’ says Hugh. ‘Four buttons will give you four different ambient settings.’

The most important thing is to give yourself enough variety of lighting to accommodate plenty of mood settings, advises Hugh. ‘The more you can layer, the more interesting your lighting scheme becomes at night,’ he says. ‘Light creates pools of interest. The same can be said for lighting your garden, which is not just a visual, aesthetic extravagance but also a useful security and garden pathway highlighter.’

John Stevens of Cambridge company Lighting Sensations (lightingsensations.co.uk) says, ‘Modern lifestyles mean that now more than ever, most leisure time is at night. Careful planning will enable you to control the lighting to suit the mood or occasion. Don’t think simply plonking table lamps around the edge of a room will sort out your lighting shortfall! This might be OK to create a warm and cosy atmosphere when first entering a room, but it can soon feel dingy and lacking ‘energy’ when your needs change.’

John advises installing more points of light, sited strategically. ‘Make sure you carefully use pencil beams to “lift” tables and furniture,’ he says, ‘wash light on to art for warmth and interest, and put those stunning centrepieces in where you want a real impact. Chandeliers are fine if you have the height; if not, there are new models designed to be closer fitted for lower ceilings. If you’re using mirrors or have long stretches of wall, liven them up with a pair of wall lights, as these bring warm tones to skin and round off most lighting schemes. Such a strategy will achieve layers of light.’

Choosing your lighting carefull can make a big difference to your home this winer

If the idea of numerous lighting points makes you worry about energy bills, fear not. The latest LEDs and compact lamps are cheap to run, and also dimmable, with warm lifelike colour temperatures. Take professional advice, as making these new devices work with switches and dimmers, requires experience and not inconsiderable technical knowledge.

Abbey Emmerson of Trend Designs (trenddesigns.co.uk) says, ‘When considering lighting I always try to bring some femininity and glamour. I try to think about the lighting of properties not just in an economical sense but in an efficiency sense – side lamps and floor lamps with dimmers on them not only save energy but can be used to create appropriate lighting for the requirement and ambience. This has to be the most stylish simple way we can save money.’

So despite the rising costs of energy, the choice and variety available means we should all be able to lighten our homes without lightening our wallets and purses.