Here we are again! A new season is just around the corner. The weather has already taken a more Autumnal turn. Our minds and bodies are naturally beginning to turn inwards, towards our homes, ready to start hunkering down for the colder, darker months.
While we’re not there just yet, now is the time to prepare the home for Autumn. Making tweaks to our home and lifestyle now will make the shift easier and more enjoyable when the time comes. One of the most effective ways to do this, and get an instant hit of Autumn hygge, is to look at the lighting in our home.
Lighting is possibly one of the most underrated elements of interior design. The power of good lighting can be transformative on more than just an aesthetic level. Our wellbeing, mindset and mood can all be vastly affected by the brightness (or lack of) in our home and workplaces. On the flip side, poorly planned lighting can be detrimental to our wellbeing as well as being visually underwhelming.
As with many items we buy for our homes, the goal is to find something beautiful and practical. It plays a role in making our lives easier, or enabling us to do what needs to be done, whilst also looking the part. Form meets function.
As every interior designer knows, without considered and well-planned illumination, our homes will never reach their full potential.
As with all interior design, we often look to the likes of restaurants and hotels for inspiration. There’s something about the way that a well-designed hospitality venue can evoke an atmosphere like no other. One of our go-to for interior inspiration is Ett Hem, a beautiful luxury hotel in Stockholm. Below is a collection of their Instagram posts which convey how they use lighting in such an understated yet intentional way to guide people through the hotel, sit down, relax and lean into their surroundings. From an abundance of festoon lights to bring an indoor-outdoor space to life, to a lone candle-style lantern in a natural light-filled kitchen, it’s clear that the team over at Ett Hem understand the power of good lighting and use it to full effect.
Before we go any further into why and how lighting is so powerful, let’s look at the different types of lighting and how they can work for us.
General lighting – usually a ceiling light or ceiling spotlights which light up the whole room
Task lighting – a light which is focused on a particular area, enabling you to complete tasks
Spot lighting – lights which are directed to highlight a particular area or item
Atmospheric lighting – lighting which is purely there to set a mood
We also should consider how light is diffused or directed. Certain lampshades create a diffused light which lights up the surrounding area, usually in a softer glow. Certain styles of lamps direct light without any diffusion so it’s a stronger beam.
The key is to have a mix of these lighting types in each room. Really look around the room, think about what you want to do in it and how you want to feel. Perhaps some task lighting at the desk so you can work in a well-lit part of the room. A diffused floor lamp in a corner to cast a warm glow around the rest of the room. A picture light on the wall to highlight some beautiful artwork and fairy lights or candles to create a cosy hygge atmosphere.
Lighting adds to the visual beauty of a space in two ways. Firstly, before the lights are even switched on, a gorgeous lamp can be the standout feature of a scheme. Beyond that, the way a lamp directs or diffuses light can accentuate your favourite part of a room, drawing attention to a visual moment that deserves to be seen even when it’s dark. So much beauty can be achieved both with and by a great lighting set up.
Even more important is the role lighting plays in how we feel in a room. As Frida Ramstedt explains in her brilliant book The Interior Design Handbook (2019 page 100), a good glow in all the right places is the key to homeliness and creating a mood. It’s the essence of hygge in the darker months and was one of our top five tips for transitioning into Autumn.
A room can be beautifully decorated, full of character and intent to deliver a certain mood or vibe. But when the lights come on, either those efforts can fall flat or they can be elevated to something special. To truly deliver on the feeling we want to create in a space, the lighting we use should be varied and considered.
On a very practical level, lighting should enable us to get things done. It should make our lives easier and keep us feeling well. Task lighting is particularly important in this area.
Imagine working at a desk with only a ceiling light in the room. The diagonal direction of the light from up high hits your body first and casts shadows across your desk, making it difficult to see your work. You end up straining to see and feeling the ill effects of not having adequate lighting on the task at hand.
A simple desk light, with a beam of light directed on to your work solves this problem. You have the light you need, you feel more productive and are able to complete the task much more comfortably.
Considering how you will use a room is essential so that you can apply the right kind of lighting, supporting you in the way you live and use a space.
So as Autumn draws near, take a look at the lights in your home. Do they guide you as you walk through the house, inviting you in to sit, to rest, to be productive, to relax or feel energised? Or do you feel underwhelmed or out of sync with the mood you wanted to create once the lights come on? Hopefully you’ll understand enough now to at least think differently about how you can make your lighting work harder for you. But if you’d like some help, or want to consider lighting to be as part of a wider house renovation or refresh, then get in touch and let’s figure it out together.
For more of our latest projects, follow along on instagram at @hyggeandcwtchstudio.
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considered Art & Design for Beautiful Spaces
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