Friday, November 5, 2010

Lighting - it can make it or break it!

Lighting intrigues me. You ever wonder why some rooms you enter just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, while others make you want to turn and run the other way? Have you ever noticed the quality of light in these rooms? I'm pretty sure the rooms lit with natural, skin complimenting incandescent light - aka yellow light - made you feel good. While the rooms lit with that ubiquitous fluorescent light - aka known as a tubelight - made everything look garish. True, one can see much better in white light, it bathes the entire room in a bright white glow...perfect for those dhabas on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, but NOT for our homes. There have been hundreds of studies to prove that fluorescent light can make people sick. It emanates a sort of hum that can drive people crazy, and the imperceptible flickering can cause migraines. It also contains more green, blue and violet light than natural daylight does, the wavelenghts of this are not natural for reading or detailed tasks and can cause eyestrain.  Cases of melanoma and skin cancer have also been attributed to fluorescent light.

The best kind of lighting for rooms is incandescent. The effect is very appealing in a room. It makes our skin tones and wall colors look good. The drawback is they are fragile, use a lot of electricity, have a short lifespan and produce a lot of heat. So voila - now we have compact fluorescents (CFL's) which imitate natural or full spectrum lighting, they are a bit more expensive but last longer.

In addition to CFL's, mood lighting by way of table lamps really makes a home look warm and inviting. I have table lamps with CFL's in every room and at least one burning all day long - drives my husband crazy!!!!

Anyways, I could go on and on about lighting and lumens and wattage and footcandles, but really I want to share with you images from my friend Rajini's home, sent to me by her photographer brother Param. It shows what an incredible effect good lighting can have in a home. I have featured her home before - gorgeous rooms bathed in light, color and space, but look at these pics of her home all lit up at night. A little bit of ambient lighting, some romantic mood lighting, task lighting for reading, uplighting for plants, festive floating diyas in urlis...all combine to make one warm and cozy space, perfect for a relaxing evening, quiet solitary contemplation or prolonged conversation.







Thanks Rajini for sharing these pics, or rather thank you Param! Gorgeous!

10 comments:

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

awesome house ...thanks for featuring this Kamini.

Vineeta said...

Lovely home! And a brilliant example of great lighting. I loved the different kinds of light sources, the art on the walls and the red Buddha wall. so much impact. Thanx for sharing this Kamini.

Anonymous said...

Oh lovely!! What a gorgeous, warm and inviting home.. So much of positive energy .. just in the pics!! I'm inspired by the different types of lighting.. and the art work on the wall.. I simply love the way things are placed around the house.. the spacing between the areas.. and the virtual division of space..

Lovely Kamini!! Hope you are having a fabulous Diwali celebration..

GB said...

Kamini, I love how she's brought in the blues. You know my hankering for turquoise and blue---well she's just shown how easy it is to remain "Indian" and have blues in the home. Love it. All of it. the artwork, the lighting, those vases, the red wall. Gorgeous!

Emreen said...

Love the artwork...and the artifacts....esp I have my eyes on the blue lantern... such a beautiful home... lovely feature.. kamini....

Lakshmi -Celebrations said...

lovely house.beautiful and thanks for sharing it.looks like a boutique hotel.

Vinita said...

This certainly comes under "Amazing spaces". As Patricia has said I like her division of spaces. There is so much eye candy yet the home does not feel like a show room or furniture store. It still has that warmth and homely feel, where one feels invited to sit on the sofa, put their feet up and relax and have a cup of tea.

You could interview her and ask how she did all this, and even though a house is always evolving and decoration is never complete, how long did it take her to achieve this look?

Some of her artefacts look as though they have been purchased from pier 1 or other such store in US.. so where all does she shop?

A beautiful home.

Kamini said...

Vinita....Rajini lives in Bangalore so I think a lot of her stuff is probably from India, but I will ask her or better still, have her comment here and answer all the questions. She comes from a family of designers and artists - her parents, brothers and sisters are all truly amazing - so the stuff just runs thru her veins!!!

Sudha said...

such a beautiful home and loved the way you did it up for the festival...:)..next time in hyd...i am going to invite myself over :)

Sound Horn Please said...

Wow! Your friend has such a gorgeous home! I am off to check your post on her home