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Article by Interior Design London

Professional interior designers are expertly trained in the use of lighting features to create breathtaking 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 imagine natural patterns, and she may talk 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 relaxing patterns. By contrast, bold graphic statements in a wallpaper 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 big secret: pattern is created not only by fabric 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 abstract forms.

Patterns of light fall 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 may 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.

About the Author

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

Article by Interior Design London

Interior design consultancies understand 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 bathing an attractive 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 everyday 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 completely 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.

About the Author

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

Article by Interior Design London

Interior design consultancies understand light in all its forms. In London, lighting is crucial to interior design consultancies that need to create stunning results. In this, the eighth and final 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.

When most schoolchildren are asked to think of the countryside, they often imagine the hot, shimmering flicker of a bonfire on a crisp autumn evening or the comforting flare of a scented candle. But how is an interior design consultancy to re-interpret these fabulously earthy and atmospheric scenes for, say, an elegant central London flat? The answer is artificial light.

Interior design consultancies recognise that artificial light is available in many different shades. It is similar to the situation with paint, where buckets that are labelled “white” can actually contain a multitude of different tones. Interior design consultancies employ colour professionals who know that the cool white light of an energy-efficient bulb creates an entirely different effect from the warm yellow-orange tones of a tungsten filament. In London, low-voltage halogen options are often used in darker flats where there is a need to add light during the daytime. Interior design consultancies will install dimmer switches that allow homeowners to reduce the brightness of halogens at night, causing them to adopt a more husky yellow-red glow that is akin to an ancient lantern or oil lamp. By contrast, lamplight is too yellow for most interior design consultancies to include for daytime use, and indeed it can lead to sleepiness or lethargy at work (one of the reasons it is almost never seen in London offices). But at night, tungsten lamps become much more warm and welcoming.

Some interior design consultancies have a love-hate relationship with fluorescent lighting options. These fixtures often emit various shades of white, ranging from a very cool, almost daylight tone, which can be quite crisp, to a warm, rosy streetlight glow. Some interior design consultancies love fluorescent lights for London kitchens, where they illuminate workspaces but save on electricity bills. However, other interior design consultancies stay well away from fluorescent options because their colour does not change as they are dimmed. Fluorescents merely become less bright under such conditions, which can contribute to an unattractively dull, and almost grey, lighting effect.

That brings me to the end of my series “DeLIGHTed by Design.” Thank you for letting me share with you about how London interior design consultancies create fabulous lighting schemes!

About the Author

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

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