Lighting for people who hate overhead lights
The big light is not your friend. Here’s how to light a room in layers, the way restaurants do.
Kill the big light
Overhead lighting flattens everything. It puts shadows under eyes, removes the depth from a room and makes a cosy evening feel like a dentist appointment. Restaurants figured this out decades ago: light low, light in pools, light where people actually are.
Start with three sources at three heights. A pendant over the table, a floor lamp beside the sofa, a small table lamp somewhere unexpected — on a bookshelf, a sideboard, the floor.
Warm, dim, and pointed down
Choose bulbs around 2,700 K, put everything on dimmers, and favor shades that push light downwards. The Dome and the Moon were designed for this: they glow, they don’t glare.
Do it right and nobody will notice the lighting at all. They’ll just say your place feels nice, and stay for another glass.
