Using Lighting to Effect.
By Mike James

When you are considering the interior design of a house or area,  is almost certainly the most important aspect of the alterations  to the interior decoration. After all, it is the factor that  generates the ambiance of the room. You can create moods from  intimacy to austere clinicalism just by the strength of your light  bulb or rotating a dimmer switch.

However, if you would like to be sure that the consequence of the illumination  is the one you are looking for, it is essential that you know  the four principal kinds of illumination.

Ambient illumination
This is the general illumination for the entire room. In most rooms  it is the standard light in the centre of the ceiling be it a  fluorescent tube or an incandescent bulb. It is recommended that  you use one or more dimmers in order to have more  flexibility in creating effects for each occasion.

Local lights:
These lights are used to complement or even temporarily replace  the ambient lighting. Local lights are most commonly standard  lamps, table and wall lights and are ordinarily used in order to  facilitate such activities as reading, cooking, and shaving. The  intensity of the light is local and it has to be correctly  worked out so it won’t put a strain on the eyes.

Accent lights:
Accent lights are sources of light for displaying ornamental  items, usually placed so as to emphasize an objet d’art . Quite  literally to show it in its best light..

<b><u>Natural light</u></b>:
This is the one we get free though skylights, windows and  doors. This light is controllable for part of the day by shades, curtains, drapes, blinds or awnings, but  obviously varies with the time of the day, the

season and the  weather. Some locations see huge variations in natural light  according to the season, eg monsoon, snow, etc.

It is in all probability easiest, if you undertake a house room by room. Commence  by analyzing what the room is used for. Retirees will in all probability  want to take advantage of the daytime natural light for hobbies  and reading, while a working couple with school-age kids, will  be more active in the evening, when additional illumination might be  more essential. Write down what you do and where you do it. Do  you have a favourite armchair for reading the paper, do you read  the paper during daylight hours or after work?  Be bold in  your choice of lighting, but also bear in mind that illumination can  have a strong influence on our perception of dimensions,  making a room look larger or smaller than it is in reality..

There are lots of methods to illuminate a room but they all come from one  of two perspectives: the illumination is either practical or  artistic. Yes, they are both used to enable you to see more  effortlessly, but highlighting the pages of a book or a shaving mirror  is not quite the same as using a soft light to highlight a statue  of the Madonna in an alcove.

In a short summation, you could use the few lines below to give you  preliminary thoughts when you are considering changing a room’s  illumination:

i] Position a standard lamp behind armchairs: they ought to be  between three and five feet tall.
ii] Use an accent light to high or even low light a  canvas.
iii] Use an accent light to emphasize the lines of  bookcases.
iv] The ambient light ought to be adjustable.
v] Use local to cover the walls with a low light  or glow (can be sunk into the floor)