Top 10 Tips for Lighting Your Home
How to Guides | 30.11.2023
Why limit yourself to a single dimmer switch when you can be surrounded with warmth? Good lighting is imperative to creating an ambience, a cove of cosiness and a feeling of intimacy. It makes or breaks the look of a space and the mood of a room.
So, with the recent launch of 50 new lighting pieces, we asked our founder Martin Waller and the Andrew Martin design team to give their top 10 tips on how to effectively light your home.
Photo: Lighting Gallery at the Andrew Martin Walton Street Showroom
1. Natural Light
'You don't light for the light you light for the shadows.' Lighting a home is as much about controlling natural light as using electrical lighting. This is what the ancient Egyptians, the druids of Stone Henge and the Mayans building temples in Central America did centuries ago and it still rings true.
With light you can create drama, illusion and art. Pare back your scheme to see what you can illuminate naturally first before layering with additonal floor, ceiling and side lights.
2. Lighting for Function
Think about the function of each area and use lighting to create different zones in a room. For example, cooking requires more concentrated lighting so bright downlights, whether built in to cabinets or design-led pendants, work well. For reading, adjustable and directional lighting like a desk lamp or a large spot floor standing over an armchair is what you should look for.
3. Lighting in Layers
Layer lighting and use multiple light sources to make a room flexible and versatile. Create a conversation, using different heights with side lamps as well as floor standing and ceiling lights too. Opt for dramatic pendants as your main source of light and pair with statement table lamps to create an atmospheric mood. This is where you create character as well as feeling and the amount of light can be adjusted for different times of the day or year.
Photo: Denton House from the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol 22
4. Lighting Direction
Change the size and dimensions of your room by playing with lighting direction. For example install uplighters to add height and side lamps in the four corners to add depth.
Photo: Kari Andersen from the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol 22
5. Lighting as Art
Choose bold designs featuring sculptural shapes, interesting texture or coloured glass to make a style statement, even when the light is switched off. Think of your lamp as an art piece or sculpture, like a design-led finishing touch. Our Linden table lamp in plaster white or black fits this brief perfectly.
A light is a good way to throw surprise in a room, to merge modern with traditional. Putting an industrial style lamp or a graphic mid-century form in a traditional stucco setting injects excitement, equally an Art Deco chandelier in a stark, modern plan. The Royal Opera House bar is a great example of using lighting to bring a traditional interior up to date. If you go in the evening, the central bar glows like an ethereal space ship under the magnificent domed glass ceiling.
6. Symmetry in Lighting
Create symmetry (or conscious asymmetry) with lighting, using pairs of table lamps on either side of a bed or wall lights on either side of a statement mirror or piece of art.
Photo: Sophie Ashby from the Andrew Martin Interior Review Book Vol 22
7. Create a Focal Point
Create a focal point with large pendant or chandelier like our new Brooklyn ceiling design. Hang it, for example, over the centre of a dining table to draw people into an inviting dining scene.
8. Lighting to Highlight
Wall lights and spot lights work well to accent or highlight interesting features in the room, such as art or artefacts. Oterkjaer (pictured) does this phenomenally, making an otherwise uninspiring black painting dramatic and exciting. Our range of picture lights are a great way to bring attention to a new or favourite piece of art as well as helping to create different levels of lighting in a room.
Photo: Geir Oterkjaer from the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol 22
9. Neon Lighting
Popularised by Tracey Emin, neon lighting is in high demand and has been named the hottest trend of 2022. Luckily we have a whole range of light up neon posterboards to add some high voltage wit and rebellion to your walls. Introduce some retro cool into your interiors with this playful neon artworks depicting Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo or John Lennon ready for an intergalactic journey through space.
10. Lighting and Technology
Today, lighting is a technology we can play with, from using fibreoptics to bend with a space, scrolling LEDs and projection. Think about the surfaces you are lighting and try reflecting or faceting to create a kaleidoscopic effect. Especially for commercial spaces, this is where you'll make an innovative interior that is unique and electrifying.
Photo: Soda Architects from the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol.21
