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Shabby Chic Lighting From The Orchard
Often an afterthought, lighting sets the mood and tone of a room and can actually be the make or break when it comes to setting off your style of decor, giving the wow factor or simply making the room a cosy place to be.
No matter how many hours are spent painting and thinking about the style of furniture that goes into a room it really is the lighting that will show a space off to its true potential.
Natural Light
Natural light has to be one of the most impactful lights in any home but the quality will depend entirely on the aspect of the room.
Here we look at the four different types of natural light which you can expect to find in your home depending on the aspect in which your home is situated.
North Facing – North facing light tends to be cold, harsh and direct but gives truer colour rendition so these rooms are often chosen for use as offices or studios where a need to see the true detail of things is required.
South Facing – South facing light offers warm light all day, however the interesting thing about this type of light is that it changes as the year progresses through the seasons creating different tones and strengths of light at different times of the year.
East Facing – East facing light is bright in a morning followed by shadows, with little to no sun later in the day. To counteract this, the use of artificial lighting can help to control glare and maximise any available natural light.
West Facing – West facing rooms experience hard sunlight during the hottest part of the day followed by long shadows and softer light.
Why Shabby Chic Lighting?
When it comes to lighting you can’t beat natural light and you never will light a room as efficiently as the sun can, so the best way to view electric generated light is as atmospheric shabby chic lighting, something to create the backdrop for your room, making it very cosy or extremely dramatic.
So how do you choose?
- Go for lighting that is versatile, choose something more than just a single bulb hanging in the centre of the ceiling. Use lights that can be moved to highlight feature pieces within your favourite room.
- Layer your shabby chic lighting so you have a mix of lights to meet different needs, such as ceiling lights, shabby chic style table lamps and up-lighters.
- Control each individual light so you can alter the level of strength to avoid your room looking like Blackpool Illuminations.
Lighting Tricks – Using Lighting To Your Advantage
Make your room feel bigger
- Use wall washers (lights that sit flush to the wall and provide uplighting) onto a large expanse of light coloured ceiling.
- Use uplighters to bounce light onto the ceiling and walls.
- Use oblong lights that create long panels of light at one end of the room, it will draw the eye and make the space appear longer.
- Light all four corners of the room, to give the feeling of a larger space.
Make your room appear taller
- Use vertical light beams.
- Hang pendant lights low.
Make your room appear cosier
- Use table lamps, singularly or in clusters, to create lots of smaller pools of light in a large, high room.
- Don’t allow light to reflect off the ceiling creating brighter light, stick to down lighters or directional light.
Have A Plan – Ask Yourself When Planning The Lighting In Your Home….
- What is the space used for? For instance does your lounge need to double up as a study or office area? Do you use part of the room as a studio to knit, sew or do arts and crafts? Do you eat in the lounge on your knee or in the kitchen?
- What’s displayed in each room? Do you have a specific picture or piece of art or an ornament that you want to make a feature of? It’s important to know this so you can layer your lighting and add in accent lighting.
- Who uses the room? Take into account that as you get older you will require stronger lighting for reading, etc.
- What time of the day will you most use the room? This will help determine whether natural light to an extent will suffice or if you need to introduce layered lighting for different times of day.
- Where does the natural light come into the room?
Which Shabby Chic Lighting Style Will You Choose?
Armed with all this information there’s only one more question to ask, which style of shabby chic lighting will you choose? Here at The Orchard we have a range of products so take your pick!
