Designing with Light |
Living rooms
 LIVING
SPACES present prime opportunities for flexible, multilayered
lighting schemes. You’ll want to include well-shielded
task lighting for reading or handiwork as well as accent lighting
for artwork, collections, or architectural features. Soft, adjustable
levels of ambient light set a congenial mood for entertaining
or watching television.
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| Built- in architectural fixtures
such as valances, soffits, and coves are effective ambient
sources. So are wall sconces, movable torcheres, and wall
washers. Traditional floor and table lamps are enjoying a
renaissance, too, with many new design options on the market
and in the works. Remember, though, that these and other decorative
fixtures shouldn’t carry the lighting load: if turned
up high, they’re big glare producers. Pharmacy lamps
with adjustable necks and built-in dimmers are tops for efficient
task lighting.
Discreet downlights can complement both contemporary and
traditional styles of décor, but they’re best
reserved for accenting or for lighting casual tasks. Art and
furnishings change over time; choose adjustable downlights
that can be adapted for future needs. If you’re retrofitting,
consider whimsical cable lights or other low-voltage tracks.
Dimmers, panels that control individual lighting scenes, or
computer controls let you adjust multiple light sources for
varied living-room uses and moods. Floor outlets enable lamp
cords to follow furnishings; three-and four-way switches
let you access lights as you enter one way and exit another.
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Collectibles
seem to float within this elegant display cabinet. Recessed
downlihgts shine from the top; backlighting, separately switched,
comes from fiber optics behind the translucent back. |
Pinpoint downlights
handle both ambient and accent lighting needs. These fixtures
are meant to be in the background, allowing the decorative neon
wall art to take center stage.
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A beautifully spare living
room and the bedroom beyond are highlighted by low-voltage MR-16
downlights with aimable slot apertures. The hallway's smooth,
indirect light comes from two dimmable 250-watt quartz wall
washers tucked up in the skylight well.
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Understated colors and accesories are underscored
by a matte-black pharmacy lamp-a particularly
apt choice for living-room task lighting
(especially when supplied with a dimmer) |
Comfortable and ecletric, this TV room has seemingly casual but highly effcient lighting. The overhead pendant casts diffuse light down and bounce light up, avoiding the glare of a standard ceiling fixture. Discreet downlights with pinhole apertures add "invisible" accents. A paper-shaded corner fixture supplies fun and fill light. Light from an adjacent space is shared through glass blocks. |
Tall walls-especially those below vaulted ceilings-are made for built-in uplighting. The wall sconces at left, mounted in the high "clerestory" area, shine light up and off the white, angled ceiling, creating lots of soft ambient fill for the living space below..
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Lined up along a pedestal shelf surrounding the sunken room, a marching row of tall torcheres extends style and ambient light into an otherwise dark area. Torcheres are handy, movable alternatives to sconces or other ambient built-ins |
Soft fill light, harder
accenting, and a warm candlelight glow combine in this inviting
living room. The design takes advantage of open ceiling trusses
to hide rows of adjustable track fixtures. High-mounted wall
sconces supply the fill. |
Formal but flexible,
twin table lamps atop a library desk serve both desk and sofa.
Classic candelabra sconces above the fireplace mantel add ambient
light as well as decorative sparkle. |
This
retro decor is brought to life by intergral banks of fluorescent
fixtures that send ample light both up and down. Light shines
down through mesh-screen covers that serve as louvers, softening
the ouput and cutting glare. Open above, these fixtures bounce
additional fill light up and off the ceiling.
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A curving cable system
is an updated alternative to traditional track fixtures. Here,
the mini-reflector bulbs handle accenting and wall-washing tasks.
Cable systems make easy retrofits for existing ceiling fixtures
and can help "liven up" a tall, potentially cold-looking
room.
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Votives in glass holders dance from decorative
wrought-iron fixtures, bringing soft light
to a garden-room scene. |
 It's
not illegal to have fun with light fixtures! This inventive
"chandelier," straight from the hardware store, forms
the perfect counterpoint to a wall display of junkyard car emblems
and a parking-lot mirror. The fixture is fashioned from standard
work lights or "clamp lamps" hard-wired into several
junction boxes above. |
The clean, classic lines
of this room shine through, thanks to a sympathetic lightig
scheme. Recessed, aimable down-lights handle accent and wall-washing
tasks; soffit-mounted display lights shine down through glass-shelved
display niches. To counteract all that downlighting, uplights
bounce indirect light off the warm wood ceiling. |
 You
can accent artwork in many ways. One of the simplest-and least
expensive-is with an add-on picture light. The fixture shown
here looks traditional and helps artwork appear bolder and shine
brighter. |
 A
portable, easy-to-add uplight silhouettes a tall indoor plant
and highlights the textures of rough-hewn walls and moldings. |
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