Painting With Light
Lighting is so important and also more fun than most people realize. There are so many ways to design using light. My first rule is to start with the “wow” and fill in with the useful. I also think about the lighting design at the beginning of a job instead of at the end. Here’s an example of what I mean.
This is a room I did for a show house. I turned a dressing room/coat closet/powder room on the first floor into a “gentleman’s club.” And I started with the lighting. There were no windows, so I created a warm, cozy masculine nook and used the lighting for the drama. First, I took the doors off one of the closets and turned it into an bar with under lighting. I bought some rope light and tucked it into a groove around a sort of box. The box was covered with sanded plexi to create the look of frosted glass. That became the top of the bar.
Then, I painted the ceiling red and hung a crystal chandelier. The low light allowed the crystals to create a beautiful pattern on the ceiling, thus “painting with light.” It looked very elegant and dramatic.
I filled the black and white walls with lots of art, and added a geometric patterned carpet from Interface. The room was designed to create a sense of movement. The movement would keep the space from seeming claustrophobic, since there weren’t any windows. It came off really well and was a big hit (if that’s okay for me to say). And it all started with the lighting.
