- Sep 20, 2024
- 3 min read
Our ramblings on lighting.
Last week, at the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour, I sat and listened to one of the masters of the industry, David Mlinaric. It was an hour-long conversation between Emily Tobin, Deputy Editor of The World of Interiors and Mlinaric. It was a thrill to listen to his stories and advice. Although he didn't talk about lighting in particular, his tips to the audience certainly can be applied to the idea of lighting, 'Sit and look'. I know that seems obvious, but I think it is anything but. When I first moved into my home, I concentrated on the aesthetic layout, where I thought things should go. Now, two years in, I have only just started to understand the lighting. It has taken me sitting in rooms in near darkness, watching how the light passes through our house throughout the days and months. Only now do I feel I know the house and how it moves through year. This is all a privilege. I have been in no rush to finish our place. We don't have children, we don't have people staying, and both my husband and I are pretty laid back (& tight), so it takes us a while to come to make a firm decision. But as Mlinaric puts it, 'Part of the Job is how long interiors take.' It's not a lot of use if you need some ideas now, but it does let us off the hook always to feel our homes should be box-fresh and magazine-ready - the best homes take time.
That being said, as I was asked to tackle the world of lighting by a kind subscriber, I did want to find a host of advice that would be useful when it came to your own home. So, after digging through the internet archives, we locked down some solid tip bits.
Rita Konig is one of the most helpful sources when it comes to interiors. No surprises there as she wrote an advice column for House & Garden for years, a favourite feature of many. She also has a course on Creavte Academy, which I believe is a bible to those starting their design journey. She was an obvious starting point to mine for lighting information. The first thing we learnt on this exploration is that Konig opts for lamps, when talking to Pooky in 2021, she exalts the virtues of a lamp, 'I think good lighting makes all the difference to a room - in fact, it is one of the things that makes the biggest difference to a space - much more than wall colour. I like a warm light, and I much prefer using lamps in a room than ceiling lights.' This is not her only tip for the lamps. She tells the House & Garden reader that mixing a cheap lamp with an expensive shade or vice versa will happily elevate the lower-grade item. I attest to this: I buy costly lamps with quite shoddy shades, but they always look chic, although they don't look too closely.
One thing I've always battled with is my distaste for spotlights. But this dogmatic feeling took a turn when we moved from our spotlight-filled new build to our Victorian home, which had one hanging bulb. While the nights drew in and I tried to do my makeup, or chop an onion, I thought lovingly of those spotlight-filled evenings. I was pleased to see that although many designers like Rita Konig lean towards lamp light, it is necessary to have a mixture. In an article in World of Interiors, designer Fabrizio Casiraghi expresses the importance of an assortment of lighting options, 'You shouldn't be extreme in either way: you can't only have indirect lighting or only spots, you have to understand how to mix both.' Nina Campbell, doyen of interiors and mother to Rita Konig, also perscribes a mixture, as she told the Telegraph in 2016, 'All rooms need a variety of lighting: ambient or background lighting, task lighting for close-up work or accent lighting to highlight special features. You can always update a room and improve the atmosphere with good lighting'.
So, all in all, I have learnt that a centurist position is the best way forward (as per). Cutting out one in favour of another will lead to headaches or squinting, neither of which we want in our homes. I want my onions chopped in bright light, my meals by candlelight, and my reading by lamplight.
Below are my go-to lighting brands -
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