What is Stylish Lighting?

So what is Stylish Lighting? Let's start with light itself. Light is everything. It's the colors of a sunset, the thin hues of a pale winter sun, the brooding tones of storm clouds. And lighting is in a sense an attempt to capture particular moods, to create a vibrant or restful or clinical theme for a space so as to match its intended purpose.

With appropriate lighting you can create any effect you want. If you've ever been to a theatre you will know how dramatically a set can be brought to life to enhance different elements in the production, simply by throwing light of varying colors and intensity at an otherwise blank and drab backdrop.

There's nothing mystical or mysterious about this and it's a technique that can be easily applied at work, at home and in public spaces.

Yet it is astonishing how many examples of poor lighting there are when it costs so little to create stylish lighting instead. Going off at a tangent, it puts me in mind of the old adage that it costs nothing to be pleasant; the flip side to that is the real and significant cost of being selfish, rude and generally unpleasant.

Think about it - if all you care about is me, me, me there is little chance that others will look out for you and lend you a hand. One of the many delightful ironies of life - those who take invariably end up with much less than those who give.

But back to the point; the difference in cost between horrid lighting and stylish lighting is typically very little. The main difference between the two lies not in financial outlay but in the simple application of a bit of thought first. Deciding what effect you are after and considering what elements might be applied to achieve it. That's it in a nutshell really.

Yes, there are a few technical aspects such as different types of light source and how they interact with different materials, but other than that there are few rules as such. Everyone knows the difference between the kind of dingy lighting so prevalent in government buildings especially and the kind of stylish lighting that enhances the purpose of a given space and attracts people towards it.

Even mundane workaday lighting can benefit from a moment's thought - which would you rather: strong, sharp lighting such as can easily be found with for example dazor lamps or cheap desk lighting that doesn't really "save" money and can cause eye-strain?

Lighting is not unlike art, where a tiny (one might say insignificant) minority would have you believe that a turd nailed to a breeze block represents the way forward, but for the overwhelming majority its not that hard to figure out what might actually look good hung on a wall.

Quite often in fact, lighting and art can combine and become a single artifact. A great example of this is easily found in the beautiful, timeless, classic and ultra-stylish Tiffany lamps that are simply gorgeous as works of glass sculpture. Granted, they're not cheap, but should you ever have a few hundred dollars to spare and want something that will stay with you for ever, buy one. Speaking as something of a serial offender where Tiffany is concerned, I guarantee it won't be the last you buy either!

Personal taste, judgment and common sense are the key elements to creating stylish lighting. In other words, stylish lighting is accessible to everyone. Find out more and how these concepts apply to stylish kitchen lighting in particular.