Indy Total Construction

This is lighting for doing a specific job of work which requires you to be able to see clearly. It applies just as much to reading a book in a comfortable armchair as working at a desk or sewing table, or the kitchen worktop.

In the kitchen, it is important that clear, shadow less light should fall on the worktop where intricate operations with knives and measuring scales are going on all the time. Spot lamps and eyeball lights can be good here, and so can small strip lights fitted under the cupboards or shelves above the worktop. These give a good working light but are also soft and user-friendly because the light source is concealed and they are low.

Among the most useful task lights are angled lamps which can be directed at will. You can alter them to light up a book or sewing machine, or to move the light from one part of your desk to another.

Floor lamps, or standard lamps, which direct the light downwards, make good reading lights, particularly if placed behind an armchair where they give a pleasant ‘mood’ light in a corner at the same time.

Low-voltage lighting, which came onto the market comparatively, recently, can be effective for task lighting. The bulb itself is tiny and the reflectors round it give far more precise optical control than ordinary bulbs. Low-voltage lights operate on a supply of only 12 or 14 volts, much less than the mains voltage supply, and they are a fraction of the size of conventional bulbs.

If you want a low-voltage system installed throughout your home, get it done before you do any decorating and remember you will need space for a transformer (probably about the size of a gas or electricity meter).

Make sure such a system is on dimmer switches because, small though the bulbs are they can be very bright; if they are over a dining table, say, you may not want them to be too brilliant.

Task lighting in the bathroom or bedroom, for makeup and hairdressing, can be produced either by strips of small incandescent bulbs, which are practical but cruel, or by small fluorescent strips behind a baffle. Bathroom lights should be specially designed to conform to safety regulations and should either be switched on from outside the bathroom door or operated by a pull cord.

It’s one thing to know that good lighting is important in a home but quite another to achieve it. Lighting can be a very technical subject beset with jargon of lumen and wattage, up lighters and down lighters, the confusion of the innumerable types of light bulbs available and the difficulty of finding light fittings which please and do the right job.

But good lighting without the jargon is perfectly possible if you identify what you need it to do and then go and find lamps which do it. There is a short glossary to help you understand the most commonly used lighting terms.

Basically you need three types of lighting in the home. The first is ‘general’ lighting, which enables you to see your way around safely and comfortably; the second is ‘task’ lighting, for reading and working by, and that includes cooking, sewing, homework, paperwork, woodwork, model making and so on; the third is ‘highlighting’, which is used to light up sculptures, paintings, flower arrangements or any other aspect of your home you wish to make a feature of.

There is a fourth category and that is ‘mood’ lighting, whose purpose is to create pools of soft light which help provide an atmosphere of comfort and encourage relaxation and a feeling of calm. Lighting has much more influence psychologically than many people realize, but if you choose the first three types of lighting carefully they should in themselves be able to provide mood lighting at the same time as doing their other specific jobs.

There are various different ways in which to achieve these kinds of lighting and a tour of the home will demonstrate them.