Layering light: 3 lamps, 1 room
The single light in the middle of the ceiling is the most common lamp in the world and the worst one. A room that feels good after dark has 3 lights at 3 heights, and none of them is that one.
By Mara Esposito2 min read
Lighting / Evening
The ceiling light lights the floor, flattens every face, and is either on or off. Everything below is about replacing it with 3 lamps that each light 1 thing.
Height 1: the pendant
A pendant hangs where something happens underneath it: a dining table, a kitchen counter, a reading corner. Over a table, its lowest point should be about 70 cm above the top, low enough to light the food and high enough to see the person across. The Orb pendant’s opal glass softens the bulb so nobody squints; the Weave, in rattan, throws a pattern on the ceiling instead.
Height 2: the floor lamp
A floor lamp lights the place you sit. Put it beside the chair, not behind it, and slightly in front of your shoulder, so the light falls on the page and not on the back of your head. The Mika floor lamp has a linen shade on an oak tripod, and the shade is wide enough that the pool reaches the whole chair.
Height 3: the table lamp
The table lamp is the one you leave on. Low, warm, and on a surface at about seat height, it is what makes a room look occupied from the street and calm from the sofa. The Lune on a sideboard, the Bolla on a bedside table. 2 of them, on opposite sides of a room, do more than 1 big one.
Bulbs
- 2700 K for the evening. Anything cooler reads as an office.
- A dimmer on the pendant at least. Dinner and homework want different light from the same lamp.
- The same bulb color in every lamp in the room. 1 cold bulb spoils the other 2.
Switch the ceiling light off for a week. If you do not miss it, take the bulb out.
