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I state that I am not a lighting technique, but the experience I gained in interior design over many years of activity led me to propose this reflection: Have you noticed the importance of lighting in creating a pleasant atmosphere in our homes?
I am of the opinion that furniture finds a particularly important factor in the choice of lighting and that the different rooms of the house need a careful study of the different light sources according to the uses for which they are intended.
In particular, what I always recommend to my customers is to introduce different light sources in each environment to be used at different times, and in combination with each other, rather than always opting in doubt for an open lighting of the entire room. I'm not talking about using only super expensive designer lamps, for example over time I have collected many small or large different lamps, many bought from antique dealers or flea markets, some beautiful pieces of design and others "inherited" from friends and relatives who do not they used more.
Lighting for kitchen and dining room
I particularly love playing with different types of lights to create more or less light effects. When I cook, for example, I will need nice direct light on the kitchen counter, but not necessarily an "operating room" style light throughout the room. When I return in the evening, in fact, I particularly like the welcoming and muffled atmosphere of my kitchen, I love to take the time when I can, to put on good music and to dedicate myself to preparing good dishes for the whole family, but I want to do it in an atmosphere and a light that induces me to relax. Sometimes I light a few candles, and a single more intense light placed on the kitchen countertops. The whole room is colored with a warm golden color with accentuated areas of shadow and with more intense lighting only in the operational area.
The same happens in the dining area, usually, I privilege the installation of different lamps, wall, ceiling or countertop which if lit all together will illuminate the whole environment, but which can also be alternated to create elegant shaded areas. or in any case areas of lower light and others of stronger light, suitable for different types of moments and evenings.
Another trick that I often use are intensity dimmers, that is, those switches that allow you to lower or raise the dimming of the light.
What is important to keep in mind is that the different lamps that you can choose can illuminate with more or less wide direct beams, or reflect the light or even diffuse it delicately, perhaps filtered by different types of materials and fabrics. In addition, you can also create interesting shaded areas that will follow and underline the shapes of your home.
Of course, by choosing your lamps, you will have to take into account the exposure to natural light of your home, if you have a very bright house during the day, you will have to take care above all of the evening lighting, if instead, as often happens in the city, you can enjoy poor lighting. natural, it will be good to integrate light sources suitable also to properly illuminate the rooms during the day, when we most need light and energy.
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How to light up the bedroom
In this room I almost always advise against using a central ceiling light point, such as a chandelier, perhaps near the bed, because I find that lying on the bed with your eyes pointed towards a light point on the ceiling is really annoying. In this room, in my opinion, one should opt for light sources positioned at a maximum height of one meter, placed on furniture or suspended next to the bed.
Under no circumstances should the lights be annoying or blinding and in no case should we be forced to turn on a single light point in the middle of the night, which could disturb those who sleep peacefully next to us. I think it would be better to opt for small directional lights or adjustable in intensity, or in any case positioned so as not to light up the entire room. A beautiful solution that I find useful and very elegant is the use of a sparse floor lighting. I am referring to small spotlights sunk into the floor and positioned in strategic points, in corners, leaning against the walls, which will delicately illuminate the environment and our steps, keeping the rooms in dim light. Of course, this solution is especially recommended if you are doing masonry work, because the installation of these lights will require the breaking of more or less large areas of walls and floors.
And for the bedside tables? You will need a lamp that illuminates your side of the bed and is bright enough to allow you to read but at the same time allows those who sleep next to you to rest undisturbed. I have often used lights suspended from the ceiling on the sides of the bed and positioned very low, at bedside height. Even better if equipped with a variator. For this purpose I created our bubbles lamps in linen gauze cylinder and available in different sizes and colors. The light is delicately filtered by the gauze but illuminates the side of the bed sufficiently and the rest of the room more gently. This solution is also suitable in those cases where due to lack of space we may have to give up the bedside tables and we will perhaps opt for a shelf positioned just behind the head of the bed as the only point of support.
The same lamps, however, can be used for other environments, used in a regular row of several elements of the same size and color or instead broken down into many of different sizes and colors, have been more often unused in our projects to illuminate long dining tables, or even very high stairwells that required a vertically distributed light.
On the other hand, when the shape of the table is less elongated, I opt for a large chandelier positioned in the center and in this case I think that my Nuvola composed of 12 or even 24 lights is at the same time a perfect lamp for this environment and a spectacular installation that it will catalyze attention. Speaking of this, I would also like to talk to you about a topic that I often face with my clients and concerns the ideal size for a chandelier. Almost everyone is afraid of putting “too big” lamps above a table in particular, but I am of the opinion that we should be afraid of putting them too small! A small chandelier in fact in the center of a room or above a table will only create a terrible effect of misery. To be clear, if you have a room of about 4 by 4 meters and you want to put a chandelier in the center, I would not put something under 80/90 cm in diameter. Instead, worry about the height of the ceilings, and even here, if you are lucky enough to have them high, do not hang your chandelier too high but place it at about 1/3 of the total height from floor to ceiling. In particular on a dining table, I recommend that you place your (large) chandelier at a maximum of 1 meter, 1.20 meters above the table. You won't hit your head with it unless you stand on the table! And the decorative effect will be fabulous!
All our lamps have been designed and conceived to be at the same time a decorative element and a lighting body, so for example the Readme series of lamps, made with salvaged books, constitutes a piece of furniture that hardly goes unnoticed. Among all I believe that the amazing Readmestanding, with its six feet of stacked books, always makes a smile on those who notice its slender and only apparently, shaky elegance, surmounted by the large hand-sewn gauze lampshade. The light it diffuses is delicate and the reference to books and the love of reading makes it particularly suitable to be placed next to a comfortable armchair, even in a rather small space.
When my daughters were very young, I designed what has become an icon of our collections over time and which, despite being particularly appreciated for the children's room, is often also used as a bedside lamp in the her / him version by adults. Frida started from the idea that I had to reuse or at least not want to throw away some really wonderful dresses that I had for my little girls and that had quickly gone in size. From this idea, I designed very small dresses very simply sketched but with a soft and swollen skirt that simply rested on an iron crutch, topped by a square lampshade and made with raw cut, I wanted something simple and ethereal in hand-sewn linen gauze .
It was a success! Today, after almost 17 years, we cut and fray thousands of Frida dresses by hand every year. Naturally, shortly later, we thought of giving her a companion and so Bob was born, a simple white men's shirt, perfect for both a child's room and a businessman's bedside table, possibly in a totally minialist environment.
Well, now I have only one last theme to submit to you and it is the type of light bulbs to use.
My absolute dogma is Yellow Light Bulbs!
I hate white light and I don't even like what they define natural white! No no no, for me the light bulb is only and always in warm light. Today I always choose the low consumption ones, but I prefer those in clear glass because I don't like the milky globe light bulbs. In particular, with our gauze lampshades that let the bulb shine through, I like the glass to be transparent and to see the incandescent filaments on it.