Posts Tagged ‘light’

Colour Me Brightly! Understanding Light in Interior Design. Part I: Introducing Patterns of Light

Professional interior designers are expertly trained in the use of lighting features to create incredible results. In this four-part series which I call “Colour Me Brightly: Understanding Light in Interior Design,” I draw on my experience in London’s interior design community to explain this fascinating subject. This first article is about patterns.

Ask a London schoolgirl to envision natural patterns, and she might speak at length of curvaceous seashells, the undulating edge of waves on the shore, the grooves in a gnarled tree trunk. Interior designers know that patterns are all around us. Patterns profoundly influence all interior design schemes, transforming our appreciation of color and texture, adding fluctuations and drifts or promoting harmony and stillness. London Interior Designers will focus on soft, fluid outlines in order to create resting patterns. By contrast, bold graphic statements in a cover stencil can be invigorating for a London discotheque or salon. Pattern is a foundational ingredient of interior design, fragmenting overwhelming shapes and plain surfaces while simultaneously lending personality and profundity to a room.

London’s professional interior designers know one huge secret: pattern is created not only by artifact and wallpaper. Light also forms any number of patterns through a virtual tussle or rough-and-tumble interaction between light and shadow. Light patterns are foundational to interior design schemes – from snippeted, kinetic and frosted patterns to curvy arcs, spearhead-style lines and theatrical projections of nonfigurative forms.

Patterns of light start into two main interior design categories. The first is all about objects in the path of light, casting shadows. We draw our inspiration from the natural world where, when sunlight strikes rippling water on London’s famous River Thames, flickering patterns are reflected up into the trees along the water’s edge. Similarly, if an artificial light source is directed onto water – perhaps a pool, fountain or babbling artificial brook – active reflections will dapple the surrounding walls and become an interior design feature. Sunlight might shine through the branches of a tree to create moving patterns of light and shade below, and similarly a low-voltage uplight, positioned behind indoor plants, can create beautiful interior design features on the walls and ceilings. This technique can be stunning both inside and outside the building.

In my next article, I turn to patterns that use perforations and glass.

Colour Me Brightly! Understanding Light in Interior Design. Part III: Patterns from Opaque Materials

Professional interior designers are expertly trained in the use of lighting features to create incredible results. In this four-part series which I call “Colour Me Brightly: Understanding Light in Interior Design,” I draw on my experience in London’s interior design community to explain this fascinating subject. This third article speaks about how to create patterns using opaque materials.

The second way for an interior designer to create light-based patterns involves opaque surfaces, which reflect light back into a room. This pattern creation process is more sophisticated and can be fine-tuned for stunning interior design effects. Light portrayals impact how we comprehend a surface and its texture. For example, the “standard” technique often seen in London residences simply involves casting a gentle play of light crossways a wall. The light brushes the fittings, causing the surround to appear even, flat and two-dimensional. Some top London Interior Designers know that their clients crave more drama and stylistic nuance. In such cases, placing lightwell fillings very close to the surround and angling them downwards can be really striking. Using this technique, interior design consultancies can transform the previous gentle wave into an enunciated designer style, as the photons shave the surface and build to form sturdy optical patterns, including top-level arcs and dramatic textures. A sharper, more laser-like focus will only make the pattern more conspicuous – recreating a look that is favourite in many trendy London nightclubs.

The direct counterpoint to this interior design technique involves the use of close-offset uplighting. With this approach, floor-level filaments cause the eye to move up vertical columns of light which diversion crossways the surround to form puddles of dappled reflected light on the ceiling. Professional London interior designers often work alongside colour consultants to make sure that the result has practical relevance as well as aesthetic appeal. In particular, some newer London residences often have uncomfortably low ceilings. Interior designers can use this lighting approach to draw attention to the vertical plane of the wall, thereby counterbalancing the hemmed-in feel of the low ceiling.

In the next and final article in this series called “Colour Me Brightly!” I will finish by revealing some top lighting tips from London’s interior design community.

Colour Me Brightly! Understanding Light in Interior Design

Professional interior designers are expertly trained in the use of lighting features to create incredible results. In this four-part series which I call “Colour Me Brightly: Understanding Light in Interior Design,” I draw on my experience in London’s interior design community to explain this fascinating subject. This fourth article concludes my series.

Linear light patterns can focus on either the horizontal or the vertical metrics of a room. A given wall-light technique can create an immersing halo effect, if the interior designer uses concentrated super-bright light at high level that gradually fades out towards the base. Some London Interior Design consultancies specialise in choosing continuous sources, such as a miniature tungsten demolition for a soft light or overlapping fluorescents for a cooler light. This is an effect that works very well in contemporary interior designs, where light can be concealed between the surround and the ceiling in a crevice in order to take the place of the traditional cornice.

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How Interior Design Consultancies Use Lighting – The Three Types of Light

Interior Design

Article by Interior Design London

Interior design consultancies comprehend the richness of light in all its forms. In London, lighting is crucial to interior design consultancies that need to create stunning results. In this, the fifth article in my series which I call “DeLIGHTed by Design,” I continue to draw on my experience working with some of London’s Top Interior Design Consultancies to explain this exciting area.

Traditionally, a lighting scheme in the olden days would often comprise a single fitting, such as a pendant light, which would be used to meet all the residents’ needs. This was commonplace even in fashionable London, where the electricity supply was intermittent up until the first half of the twentieth century. Sometimes interior design consultancies would simply install a economical bedside lamp to serve dual duty, casting both general light as well as light for games or tasks. However, today’s lighting options give interior design consultancies so much more opportunity to illuminate multiple zones at once, bringing interiors to life and delighting guests and homeowners. London’s interior design consultancies excel at casting light exactly where desired, sparkling over a shiny floor or washing an captivating wall.

There are three basic types of light. General lighting, also known as ambient light, guarantees whole-room illumination. It is basic, flexible and imperative for standard each day lighting. Interior design consultancies will incorporate a dimmer switchbox for extra versatility if appropriate.

Top London interior design consultancies often rely on feature or accent lighting for design highlights, focusing the attention towards points of interest, such as a resplendent piece of furniture, a bouquet of fresh red roses, or an historic architrave or cornice. Feature lighting can also give a absolutely new look to display closets and wardrobes. Feature lighting acts as an additional layer in the interior design consultancy’s scheme, subtly fine-tuning the lighting mood without imbalancing the overall theme.

Finally, task lighting is perfect for specific needs, such as tweaking the cutlery arrangement on the dining table, playing chess in bed, or putting on make-up in the bathroom before an extravagant London soiree. Interior design consultancies will use strong localized light, with the bare bulb or tube usually hidden to eliminate glare.

In the next article in this series “DeLIGHTed by Design,” I will reveal the six main lighting tools that are most often used by London interior design consultancies.

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Interior Design London – Global Interior Design Consultancy Company in London, UK for interior design services.

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