Mood Lighting

By Sarah Van Arsdale

In addition to functionality, lighting can also have a tremendous influence on the mood of a room. With lighting, you can achieve dramatic effects, create a romantic atmosphere or set up a home office that is extremely professional.

First, the general illumination can strongly influence the mood of a room. A brightly lit room projects a positive, upbeat mood. A darker room is more intimate and romantic. One mistake many people make in lighting their homes is to have only one extreme or the other: so much light that you need sunglasses, or just a dim candle.

• Tip: Remember that there is an important middle range in lighting, and you should try playing with this range to see what works best for different situations. When giving a dinner party, for example, you want light that is bright enough so that your guests can see what's on the dinner plate, but soft enough so they don't feel they're about to perform surgery on their roast beef. Often a combination of candlelight and lamps is good in this situation.

Second, the lighting fixtures themselves express a mood. Some fixtures are traditional, some contemporary. Some are lavish and ornate, some are starkly simple. As with the furniture you select, the style of the lighting fixtures should be suitable in mood to the rest of the decor.

Third, you can provide accents of light in specific parts of a room for no functional reason, but simply because they will add a dramatic touch. For example, you might shine light up through the foliage of a tropical plant, producing an interesting interplay of lights and shadows.

Mood Lighting Part 2 - Mood Lighting Q & A

Reprinted with permission from the Sheffield School of Design

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