Lighting design is a critical component of home design and needs to be planned and integrated into the overall process very early in the development phase. Lighting design cannot be an afterthought.
Gineico Lighting offers a few suggestions on planning your ceiling lighting and what you need to consider to get your lighting right for your space.
To properly select ceiling lights for a room, consider the aesthetic of the building, the function and scale of each room, entry point for natural light, the areas that need artificial light, energy efficiencies, furniture placement, and reflections from surfaces such as mirrors or glazing that will impact light quality.
A room should ideally have four types or layers of lighting – ambient, accent, decorative and task – to accomplish these objectives.
Ambient continuous lighting
Also known as general continuous lighting, ambient lighting is the soft, even light – natural or artificial – enveloping a room. The starting point for lighting designers, ambient lighting begins with selecting ceiling lights for the room. Natural ambient light streams through windows during the day; at night, a similar effect is recreated using artificial light sources to keep it as natural as possible. Ambient lighting is functional and can be decorative but it is not appropriate for highlighting areas or doing any work.
Italian lighting master Luciferos offers a trimless, fully-retracting flush recessed modular lighting system with housing profiles in Minifile, File System, File2 Complementi, Leva and Faretèn. These are examples of custom sized modules of continuous light or where light modules alternate into voids, plasterboard false ceilings, false walls, concrete walls or brick walls. These light fittings are finished in paint or come anodised with an extruded aluminium body.
Exclusively distributed in Australia by Gineico Interiors, Luciferos has also created a recessed light NYX, which if arrayed correctly, covers the entire room. These trimless fittings illuminate a room without the fuss of frames.
Image: NYX Tube
The Genius recessed light developed by Buzzi & Buzzi can be installed on timber feature ceilings, plasterboard and brick surfaces, and emits an incredible light intensity in just a 20mm emission hole. The hole is so tiny that it disappears when the light is turned off. Genius recessed lights shrink into the ceiling, completely concealing the wiring from view.
Genius is perfect for low ceilings, and achieves a contemporary clean line because there are no light fixtures. Genius is a totally recessed indoor luminaire made of AirCoral.
Image: Genius
The Roots Chandelier suspension lamp created by VeniceM is a spectacular ambient light that provides chandelier lighting over the dining table and seating area.
Image: Roots Chandelier
Accent lighting
When you have to highlight paintings, art objects, book displays, bay windows, brick textures or furniture, you need accent lighting. Popular types of accent lights include track lights, spotlights, wall sconces, floodlights and recessed lights. Accent lighting effectively adds style and drama to the home, helping illuminate objects you want to showcase while shadowing dull areas.
Luciferos’ Guide System is a fully-retractable flush recessed modular lighting system designed for seamless installation into plasterboard false ceilings. The track system is configurable into an L-shape or installed straight. The spotlights are fully directional and dynamic, and can add an edge to boring spots.
Manine, also from Luciferos, is an accent wall light that can be installed in an L-shape to wrap around a wall corner or applied to a flat wall. The indoor or outdoor direct light is available in vertical or horizontal configurations and single or double emission options.
Mond by Buzzi & Buzzi made of DurCoral is an outdoor accent light that highlights parts of a home, feature plants and trees or pathways. The fixtures can be finished in the colour scheme of the property, simultaneously creating a sophisticated atmosphere.
Image: Mond
Decorative lighting
Lighting design for a home is a creative exercise, more so when it comes to decorative lighting. As architectural features, these lights emit minor amounts of light. The following decorative lights will add the desired sparkle and shine to your bedroom or lounge room.
Carmen by Melograno Blu is a range of decorative lights featuring glittering hand-blown glass and long fringes of colourful silk.
Image: Carmen
The LBS System by Luciferos is entirely modular, available in any colour and watertight too for outdoor use.
Fontana Arte Amax Suspension hanging lamp in white polyethylene is also made for outdoor lighting installations.
Alpha created by Melograno Blu, features four hand-blown clear or frosted glass pendant lamps with a custom cord. Suitable for both commercial and residential settings, the light from these lamps enhances the atmosphere of a room.
Image: Alpha
Task lighting
Described as a functional light suitable for working, task lighting provides the concentrated illumination required for activities such as cooking, reading, sewing, using a computer or sitting at a desk. Task lights sufficiently illuminate a targeted area for a person to accomplish specific tasks without causing eye fatigue.
Contact Pendant is a very popular range of pendant lights used in commercial as well as residential architectural settings. The Antonangeli light fixtures are round spotlights, which are magnetic and move along the profile extrusion for flexible illumination that can be directed at specific spots. Featuring integrated electrics and wiring, the lighting system comes in brush black, white and brass finishes.
Minifile Suspension by Luciferos is a suspended pendant for direct task lighting and features an extruded aluminium body with painted or anodised finish. Ideally, pendant lighting would work well above work surfaces with a shade to focus the light down and hung just above head height.
Image: Minifile Suspension
Flûte Magnum by Fontana Arte is a concentrated light suitable for both the dining room as well as the kitchen. Pendant lights in the kitchen need to be placed correctly so that the light is where you need it most when cooking or reading.
Image: Flute Magnum
Best places to use recessed lights
Recessed lights are recommended for low ceiling rooms, kitchen perimeters where they work well as kitchen task lights, home movie rooms that will benefit from the clear sightlines when looking at a screen, and wet areas where they can withstand water splashes.
Best places to use pendant lights
Pendant lights are ideal for the lounge room, over a kitchen breakfast bar or dining table, over a bath or a basin in the bathroom as well as over bedside tables in the bedroom.
Consult with Gineico Lighting on the lighting design for your space. Gineico aims to improve the overall aesthetics of an interior space with their wide range of lights while taking into consideration the intended use, impact, budget and functionality of the lighting scheme.
