furniture and decor blog

A Interior illumination comes from three different sources. Natural light (or daylight) floods into a room through windows and skylights. Depending on the orientation of these and the time of day, the season, the color of your furniture and the weather-natural light can have either a gentle or harsh effect.

The other two kinds of light are artificial. When artificial light from a central source is diffused throughout a room and provides a uniform level of illumination, the effect is called ambient lighting. Artificial light that is concentrated and directed on a particular area is called task lighting. Whether or not an office has good natural light, it will need both types of artificial light.

Natural lighting. Windows, skylights, and French or sliding patio doors bring light, air, and views to your home office. The trick is to provide adequate natural light, but not too much.

Windows may be double-hung, casement, sliding, awning, hopper, or fixed in style. If in doubt, follow the styles used elsewhere in your house or neighborhood. What matters most is exposure: south windows let in bright, direct sun, while north windows provide soft, diffuse light. High clerestory windows and skylights draw light deeper into the room while maintaining privacy. Also consider glass block, which is making another comeback.
Think of French and sliding doors as windows, too: today they share the same solid construction and energy-efficient glazing. While hinged French doors mark the traditional indoor-outdoor transition, today’s sliders seal better and can look great, too.

Ambient lighting. Creating soft ambient lighting for a home office requires careful planning. It’s important to avoid high contrast between your work area and its surroundings. If you’re working at a computer screen, for example, too little or too much background light will require your eyes to adjust frequently. A dimmer switch can control ambient lighting and add flexibility. Having several light sources is preferable to having just one.

Task lighting. Whether emitted from individual desk lamps or from track lights mounted on the ceiling or a wall, task lighting focuses illumination on areas where vision will be concentrated. Insufficient lighting can quickly lead to eyestrain.

If you’re right-handed, task lighting should shine over your left shoulder so that your writing won’t cast shadows on your work. If you’re left-handed, it should shine over your right shoulder. Keep in mind, too, that a desk lamp with a fluorescent tube will not cast a shadow like that of a lamp with an incandescent or halogen bulb.

Beware of glare. Besides inadequate lighting, glare must also be assiduously avoided. Office lighting designs evolved for paper-related tasks, but the computer has changed all that. In general, computer environments require lower levels of well-shielded ambient light than traditional offices plus flexible task lighting that can be tailored to the job at hand. If possible, place both ambient and task fixtures on dimmer switches.

Computer users know how glare detracts from the visibility of a monitor screen. Glare is commonly produced in three ways:

• 1) light bulbs are reflected on the screen from above and behind the computer operator;
• 2) bright windows are situated behind the screen;
• 3) shiny surfaces within the user’s field of vision compete with the screen.

Window coverings can help; so can a screen shade or glare guard for your monitor.

A dream bed is yours for life. Buy it to fit your dramatic, romantic fantasies, not to suit a modest bedroom. After all, you may move—but the bed is yours forever.

Indeed, the only reason not to invest in a splendid bed is because you can’t afford it yet. In that case, don’t settle for second best. Consider a more moderate splurge on linens, mosquito netting, or a flea-market headboard you can transform with paint. The upgrade will instantly show, the bed will look richer, and the room will beckon like a private sanctuary.

Many people are understandably anxious about planting an oversize bed (like a huge four-poster, or an opium bed with its red lacquer “roof”) in a small bedroom. But there’s a trick to making these marriages flourish: just avoid bed hangings or canopies that obstruct your view, if you crave a canopy, be restrained—drape sheer fabric across the top of the frame. It won’t block your view, and the magnificent bed could make the room around it look larger.

Finally, remember that quality is something you can feel, not just see. Spend money on a good mattress. Buy a down-filled duvet (watch the catalogs for sales). Replace your pillows if the goosedown inside them has flattened, and encase them in pillow protectors. These things are as important as pretty sheets, and they can make your bed the most restorative place in your home.

Most electricians will automatically install a centre point in the ceiling but try to avoid this if you can unless you are going to use it for track lighting. The sun does not stay still in the middle of the sky all day, so why, if artificial light is meant to emulate daylight, should we always have this often harsh central light?

Evenly spaced wall lights are a much better solution; or recessed ceiling lights set all around the perimeter of the room. Track lighting may not fit your romantic idea of nursery lighting but architects often specify it if used with a dimmer switch. The different components can be fixed to shine in whichever directions they are most needed.

Ideally, different types of lighting should be chosen to suit the many functions of the room. Low-hanging, wide-brimmed shades over the desk area (left) are ideal for study and play, with individual spotlights clipped to handy cubby-hole storage on the wall for bed-time reading. Foldaway Murphy beds provide extra play space during the day.

Always trust your eye to detect subtle differences in measurement, because there is a range of ideal proportion depending on location, composition, material, and other circumstances. For example, I wanted the longest and deepest counter possible for our small master bathroom. I lined the ledge up with the tub and made it as deep is the space allowed, ensuring enough space to sit on the toilet on the opposite wall and have access to the bathtub. The dimensions of the counter, 23 1/2 X 66 1/4 inches, are not ideal, but with mirrors placed along the entire back wall, the proportions changed character and became harmonious.
If you are going to tile a bathroom counter, the dimensions of the counter and tiles should be taken into consideration in determining how the tiles will look laid out with grouting. Ideally, you don’t want to cut tiles to fit. Even if your counter has ideal proportions, if you haven’t worked out the execution of the material, the harmony you are seeking will be diminished. When using tiles or when painting a checkerboard pattern on a wooden surface, plan your layout on grid paper, taking into account the dimensions of the area to be tiled and the measurement of the tiles themselves. Whenever possible, try not to use half tiles on the floor or other surfaces. If your tiles don’t lay out ideally, you can probably get a border tile that will work out mathematically for a finished look. If you need to use half square tiles, use them on all four sides as a border.

I found our bedroom hallway extremely cramped. The walls are only 39 1/2 inches apart. To make matters worse, the floorboards are laid parallel to the walls, running with the narrowness of the space and making it appear even narrower than it is. We hung botanical watercolors on the walls as well as antique porcelain plates to give the walls vitality and energy. The glass over the watercolors and the surface of the porcelain glow with light.

What else can you do to visually widen a narrow hall without reverting to mirrors? One solution is to install wall-to-wall carpeting over the floorboards, in effect covering up the directional lines that further narrow the space. But in the case of our bedroom hall, because I love wood, I chose to solve the problem by staining and bleaching the floor in a folk art manner—a chevron pattern from east to west—disrupting the north-south direction of the floorboards. The eye is relieved by the feeling of expanded space.
Another option is to place area rugs of different shapes and sizes to break up the linear appearance. A hall runner will do the opposite; it will further narrow the space. But a rug that contrasts with the floor looks like an island in the ocean. The eye is drawn to the pattern and color of the rug, making the space around it appear smaller, more broken up. Select rugs with a background color similar to that of the floor.
Square tiles laid on the diagonal widen a space. This principle also applies to squares of sisal carpeting or, ceramic tiles.