Seeing the light a must for decorators

Before ... and after

'The idea is to hang your window treatments up as high as possible so they are closer to the ceiling than to the window frame, ' interior decorator Susan Keefe says. 'That makes the windows look bigger, it draws the eye up and it lets in as much light as possible.'

Keefe reworked this Oakland living room, strategically placing accent lights and using window treatments to take advantage of the natural light.

You've got an overhead light fixture. You add a few table lamps. Maybe a floor lamp. Flick on the switches and you're done, right?

Wrong. Bad lighting decisions and poor lighting layout can ruin a room, lighting designers and interior decorators say, making dining rooms gloomy, kitchens hard to work in, and living rooms hard to live with. But there are simple solutions that require a little time, planning, effort and money.

One of the most common lighting mistakes is to rely only on already-installed recessed downward-facing lights in the ceiling, said Darryl Tucker, a lighting designer and owner of Fort Lee-based Helicon Hall Design Associates. Installing dimmers on those types of lights is one way to fix the problem.

"You want to arrange the lighting in the room so you have light and dark areas," Tucker said. "The light should not be all the same, or else it has that cafeterial look."

If you can't install hanging ceiling lights to give a room lighting depth, another solution is to use sconces on the walls, Tucker said. Several years ago, Tucker worked with Tenafly homeowner Myra Genn on her living room.

"I don't want to say that it was gloomy, but ... it was gloomy," Genn said. "We had table lamps scattered around, but no overhead lights, and the lamp light was just not doing the trick to illuminate the entire area."

The solution was to add a series of nine spotlights in different sizes in the ceiling. One points toward a cherished piece of art above the fireplace. Another lights a favorite reading spot. All are on individual dimmers.

Read the original post:
Seeing the light a must for decorators