Perfect lighting

Lighting is one of the most important factors in making a room a welcoming and pleasant place to spend time. It was my first priority when decorating my kitchen and living room to get the lighting sorted and until it was I didn’t want to be in either of those rooms even though they were newly decorated.

When choosing lighting I focus on creating warm yellow light rather than cold white light and I far prefer up-lighting rather than downlighting or spot lighting as it is much softer and doesn’t cast unpleasant shadows. Therefore, I like ceramic or glass lamp shades as these emit the light evenly (you need to choose soft filament bulbs) and adjustable heads are perfect as you can rotate them to become up-lights. I always try to have at least three separate light sources per room.

In my sitting room I have tried to create a calm, simple and minimal interior so these lights were on my shortlist after selling a couple of my old lamps; I needed one to hang over my dining table, one to sit next to the sofa and one to clamp onto the open shelves in our kitchen because I love having soft light in the kitchen rather than harsh spot lights.

1. Original BTC Hector Ceiling Light, The White Company 2. Anglepoise Original 1227 Brass Wall Mounted Lamp, Houseology 3. Twiitter Floor lamp, Heal’s (currently 50% off)  4. Melrose Glass Hanging lamp, One.World 5. Hector Medium Dome Clip Light, Original BTC

I was really excited to find the new wall mounted Anglepoise lamp from Houseology. I really wanted a lamp next to the sofa but there isn’t room for a table or enough space for a floor lamp so the wall mounted Anglepoise is completely perfect because there is no need to mess with wiring it into the wall. It is beautifully engineered so that I can pull it over the sofa for reading or rotate it to face upwards, which illuminates the whole corner of the room in a lovely soft light. I bought both Original BTC lamps; one to hang over the dining table (I LOVE it) and one to clip on to the shelves, which emits a lovely soft light so we are all sorted now.

Do you need to improve the lighting in any of the rooms in your house?

Katy x