For every room and every decor element, a creative lighting strategy can enhance the effect. Artfully planned lighting can create "the setting for the setting" that you build with furniture, floors and walls.

People need light. Light doesn't simply enable us to see, it enhances our surroundings and affects our mood. In the wintertime when the days become short, many people find themselves becoming inexplicably moody and listless. The phenomenon is "seasonal affective disorder" (SAD) and therapists treat it by prescribing - what else - light! Half an hour a day of strong light, whether artificial or sun light makes a world of difference.

Your home is your refuge and your place of personal re-creation. Home is the place where you retreat from the world and relax quietly alone, where you reconnect with your family and where you invite friends to share the personal environment you have created. Lighting can either enhance all that or detract from it. Artfully planned lighting can create "the setting for the setting" that you build with furniture, floors and walls.

Bright Workspaces and Softly Romantic Spaces

For every room and every decor element, a creative lighting strategy can enhance the effect. For example, a spacious living room can be layered with light to open up some spaces while creating intimate nooks in others. Try placing light sources at different heights within the room to vary the effect and avoid a "flat" feeling. A sconce can wash a section of textured wall in a pool of light, emphasizing the texture. If the wall is more gently illuminated by overall lighting, the sconce can create a layering of light and texture for visual interest. In another spot a silk-shaded table lamp can be beautiful in itself, while throwing a pool of light downward over the end of a couch to create an inviting spot to curl up with a good book. An upward-directed spotlight behind and at the base of a large plant can call attention to the beauty of the branch and leaf structure while making interesting shadows on the wall, adding to the layering of light and shadow.

In the family room, a soft light source near the television will reduce eyestrain. To avoid glare and reflections, the light should not shine directly at the viewer's eyes or the screen.

Under cabinet light fixtures in the kitchen will provide shadow-free workspaces on the counters, while a suspended decorative pendant light adds beauty to a kitchen table or breakfast counter setting. Recessed lights in the ceiling will fill the requirements for overall lighting. Here is a spot where you may want to consider halogen or the newer fluorescents for extra brightness in the kitchen.

A chandelier over the dining table will cast light downward for lighting directly on the table. Decorators recommend the overhead fixture be at least one foot smaller than the diameter of the table and about 30 inches above it to avoid casting glare in diners' eyes.

Chandelier styles, updated from the classic, crystal-laden extravaganza of the past, include more metalwork and less crystal. Typical of the new chandeliers are some wonderful pieces in wrought iron, with candle-style lights and perhaps just a few crystal pendants dangling from them to catch a sparkle of light. They make an elegant statement of light, strength and grace.

Small halogen bulbs placed inside the china cabinet will highlight beautiful pieces of crystal and china. The small spotlights of natural, white light dramatize the beauty of the pieces. In the dining room, wall sconces can fill all this out and create a dramatic effect.

Dimmers offer a world of options. They allow you to adjust the lighting to support and enhance changing needs and moods in any room. They can make the environment suit the activity of the moment, from a brightly lit workspace to a relaxing spot to dream.

From Highlights to Low Lights

In the bedroom, on the other hand, overhead lights shining downward directly over the bed should be avoided, as they create glare for someone in bed. A soft light from a table lamp placed next to and slightly behind your head will create a relaxing effect and good lighting if you like to read in bed.

In the bathroom, lights on both sides of a mirror will be much more flattering than downward lights above the mirror, which create unflattering shadows on your face. Clear glass for uncovered globes can be too bright here. If that is your lighting arrangement, try frosted bulbs. You'll want bright light at least sometimes, and here, too, halogen lights - recessed into the ceiling - may be just the right thing. If you love long, relaxing baths, place a beautiful wall sconce or two by the bathtub and turn off the halogens.

There's no need for your home office to look like the office you travel to in the city. You need good, bright lighting, but a combination of incandescent lights, halogens and the new fluorescent bulbs can create a bright, welcoming, glare-free light nothing like the flickering, noisy, harsh lights of most commercial offices.

You've got every conceivable choice out there in decor and function. Taking the time to choose, with thought to your needs and taste, allows you to exercise your personal creativity in brightening your living space, and, in turn, brightening your life.

Your architect can help you define your lighting needs and guide you through the myriad of choices to arrive at a quality design that meets your goals. For lighting ideas, take a look at Nova Scotia's premier supplier of quality lighting fixtures at www.atlanticlightingstudio.com

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