How To Guides How To Get The Best Home Lighting

Date Published:

10/06/2008

Whatever the style of your home - glam, minimal or family-friendly - it's worth working the lighting in your dining room (or dining area if you've got a kitchen-diner) so that it draws attention to the table. That said, wall lights and table lamps are an added bonus because they will prove subtle sources of extra light for a special candlelit dinner.

Deca shade and pendant, £104.07, Diffuse. Credit: Simon Whitmore

The Golden Rules

If you are hanging pendant shades over the table, bear in mind that they need to be low enough to create soft pools of light that will conjure up an intimate atmosphere. However, the lights must be set high enough off the table so that people sitting at the table can actually see each other. Dimmer switches are a must here, so you can easily adjust the lighting to suit the mood.

Dining rooms in particular benefit from lighting tricks. To make yours appear grander and taller, use floor or ceiling-recessed halogen bulbs to create vertical beams of light and, of course, hang those pendant lights as low as you dare.

To reverse the effect, grouping table lamps together on a sideboard, console or side table will create lots of little, low pools of light. A neat way to give your dining room a cosy atmosphere is to light downwards rather than upwards, making sure that no light spills onto the ceiling.

Kitchen

Kitchen lighting must be both practical and flexible - and will almost always be fixed. Of course, the best option is to plan your lighting when you design your kitchen, but if you've moved into a home with a badly lit kitchen, you can, with the help of a good electrician, add it later. So what are the must-haves and must-nots?

Glass bubble lamp, £295, The Conran Shop. Lykta table lamps in blue and red, £3.99 each, Ikea. Bubble vase, £10, Habitat; all others, from a selection, Ikea. Credit: Simon Whitmore

The Golden Rules

Under-wall unit lighting or, failing that, downlighters that sit directly above the centre of worksurfaces, particularly in areas where you prepare food, are vital because they will give you an uninterrupted source of light (unlike a central ceiling light directed at a worksurface, which you will block with your own body).

A central spotlight is a good source of ambient light. Ideally, choose one that has three, four or even five directable lights, which can be either on a track that extends the length of a longer kitchen or on a single unit in a smaller room.

Most built-in cooker hoods have a light included, but if you don't have a hood - perhaps your hob sits in a kitchen island - you will need to arrange to have downlighters or an uninterrupted spotlight installed above the hob to give you plenty of light while you cook.

Pendants are not ideal in small kitchens, as they will inevitably attract grease and dust over time, and don't generally give off enough light to make them practical. The only place they really work is in a large conversion kitchen as an extra, more decorative source of light.