Lighting a modern home can be a very delicate task, but it can give you great satisfaction and help you to optimally improve the perception that the house in question can offer.
Just pay attention to some shrewdness to give a new light to furnishing accessories and strategically put in the background the points you prefer not to make visible the various rooms.
Let’s see how to illuminate each of the rooms that make up a modern home.
Lighting for modern homes: the ideal lamps for every room
Whatever the style of the houses you are responsible for lighting, each room needs specific lighting. The difference between the styles lies precisely in the fact that each of them has some very specific features that you must take into account to create a lighting project consistent with the style of the house.
These features are important for you to know them, not only to understand which lighting is best for each room both functionally and aesthetically, but perhaps above all to know exactly what mistakes to avoid in your lighting design project for modern homes.
Having said that, let’s see which lamp models to choose to give light to every room and thus realize a lighting project for modern houses with an impact.
The kitchen of the modern home
The kitchen certainly represents one of the most familiar places in the collective imagination of our culture.
Often this room is used for fleeting meals, but it also represents a space in which the family meets, for example in the morning for breakfast or in the evening for dinner, when everyone returns home after a full day of their respective commitments.
The light that this space must enjoy, therefore, is divided into two main areas, both very important:
- The hob
- The dining area
As far as the hob is concerned, the idea of lighting that is more functional to its use is the use of a system of directional spotlights, to be used to choose which areas of the worktop to concentrate the light on.
You can often install these spotlights embedded in a kitchen cabinet, or retractable inside a plasterboard added to the ceiling, even if, in this case, you should direct the various spotlights so that they remain to illuminate fixed points permanently , since it would be inconvenient to modify the ceiling spotlights from time to time.
If you use an array of spotlights aimed at striking various areas of the hob with their light, then the idea of applying them in the plaster false ceiling is functional in the same way as the use of spotlights built into the kitchen cabinet, for example, where you can install a smaller number since it will be easier to maneuver the direction whenever you want.
For the dining area, on the other hand, it would be better to focus on wider but decisive lighting, which allows diners to clearly see the content of their dishes. Make sure that this light is not positioned so high that you can strain your eyes or cause discomfort, which would negatively affect the functionality of the lighting.
To make the best of these guidelines, use suspension lamps, which go to invest the table top with direct light.
You can find various models of design suspension lamps that can be perfectly adapted to the style of the modern home you intend to illuminate.
Regarding the adaptation of the lamp with the style of the house, you may also want to create a certain kind of contrast.
In this case it is very careful not to overdo it and not install a lamp whose contrast can be a real detachment with the style of the house, which would nullify your lighting design efforts, creating a visual gap that will certainly not be perceived attractively.
The living room of the modern home
The rules that are generally adopted for the living room, may seem similar to those used for the kitchen, but are slightly modified.
In both rooms two types of lighting are needed, one diffused and one more specific, but this only if the living room provides for the presence of a table.
Many modern living rooms, unlike the classic living rooms, include a table that is used for special dinners, evenings with friends, candlelight dinner with your partner while watching a film and other unconventional functions for which the kitchen is not used.
Here, then, that in modern homes the living room also serves as a dining room when necessary. For this reason, the lighting in this room requires rules similar to those used for the kitchen, with the same canons of luminous alternation.
Therefore, we can say that it is advisable to insert adjustable light points, scattered in various points of the living room, which allow to recreate both an atmosphere of soft light and a well-lit environment with well-defined light.
You can entrust these tasks to two different installations, giving the wall lamps the task of reproducing a soft atmosphere and the suspension lamps to give more vigor to the environment, or you can decide to install wall lamps of adjustable intensity, so as to be able to have both effects through the use of the same installation.
Of course, you may encounter the problem of not being able to illuminate the two parts of the living room separately, but you can easily avoid this by choosing one of the following two methods:
- You can install higher intensity wall lamps in the area where the table is, with strong and direct light, while in the remaining area of the living room you can install wall lamps with less intense light, more dim, suitable for a soft atmosphere.
- You can use sparse-intensity wall lamps throughout the living room area, but install 2 dimmers to control 2 different light points, which is a more intense light section and a softer light section.
This solution can be very creative, because you can install the spotlights in a sparse way, not ordered according to the intensity of the light, always keeping in mind the boundaries of the areas where each light point is intended to be functional.
The bedroom of the modern house
The bedroom is notoriously the most personal and private area of the home, the intimate retreat from daily activities. Precisely because of its highly personal character, all the design of this room will depend on how your client understands rest and intimacy.
For this room we advise you to always use a lighting divided into 2 parts in order to create 2 different atmospheres.
One that knows how to give the right lighting for your client’s moments of relaxation and rest, and one that is able to recreate an atmosphere that your client finds functional for his most intimate moments.
As for the space dedicated to bedside tables, it would be useful if you were using lamps that can take up as little space as possible, that manage to illuminate with soft light but not so much as not to allow, for example, the comfortable reading of a good book.
You can opt for a bedside lamp in a modern style, perhaps with a rigid base and flexible tubular body so that your client can direct it where he sees fit, or you can rely on wall lamps.
You can choose from a multitude of modern style sconces that emit a light whose intensity is suited to its function, thus leaving the surface of the bedside table clear, which your client can use for the mobile phone, a book and so on is necessary.
The bathroom of the modern house
The bathroom is generally the smallest room, very full and in which different functions are performed. For these reasons, it needs different light areas.
For general lighting in the bathroom, it will be sufficient to install a chandelier on the ceiling or a ceiling light, as well as spotlights set into the false ceiling that can offer an ambient light that creates a diffused glow throughout the room, pushing the light from above downward.
Another area to which you have to dedicate a specific lighting is that dedicated to the bathroom mirror. Here you will have to be very careful to position the lights at eye level: in this way your client and his family will be able to carry out all the precision activities, such as the application of make-up or shaving, in a functionally optimal way.
This type of task lends itself very well to installations such as design suspension lamps, because they know how to illuminate perfectly and give that character which increases the aesthetic rendering of the room.
In the presence of large bathrooms, it never turns out to be a bad idea to illuminate the area where no actions are performed that require specific lighting, with an atmospheric light represented by spotlights or LED bars, in order to recreating a meditative atmosphere.
These lights can be ideal, for example, if there is a bathtub, maybe a hydromassage, or an important shower room, where a lighting designed in this way will surely support and emphasize the moments of relaxation.
Lighting for modern homes: how to add a touch of style and personality to your project
Certainly lighting a home is never an easy task, as you find yourself having to combine a number of factors, including the space available, the types of installations most popular and the personal taste of your client.
To draw up a suitable lighting project for modern homes, you must first examine and apply the guidelines that we have analyzed in this article, and then go on to know what your client’s personal tastes are, present him with a range of valid options that you have already selected. , and that they know how to combine their tastes with the feasibility of the project.
It is clear, therefore, how important it is for you to learn to identify which style of tent your personal taste of your client, so as to be able to strategically mediate between your requests and the guides you need to keep in mind to carry out your project.
Now all you have to do is memorize the analyzed tips for proper lighting for modern homes, keep in mind which models to choose for each room and structure your lighting design ad hoc, meeting the full satisfaction of your customers.