Part II: Natural Lighting Effects

Natural light is responsible for everything we see in the world around us. At interior design companies, light informs the designers’ perception of colour, it determines how we read, shape and texture, and it animates our surroundings with patterns of light and shadow. Yet despite its importance, light is often taken for granted – even by some of London’s better-known interior design companies. An increasingly urban lifestyle does not lend itself to making the most of daylight and often many of our waking hours are spent indoors in semi-darkness. Interior Design Companies are out to change this, and in this second article of my two-part series on “How Interior Design Companies Work with Lighting” I will reveal the secrets of natural light and its influence on design, drawing from my experience in London working with some of the capital’s most prestigious interior design companies.

By observing natural light, we can start to appreciate how light actually works. Interior design companies often talk of principles such as downlighting, where afternoon sunshine grazes a wall of illuminated foliage; backlighting, where a leaf is revealed in silhouette during a fresh London dawn; crosslighting, where the surface texture of brickwork or gnarled wood is emphasised; and spotlighting where a narrow shaft of light catches an object in its path, perhaps as a train turns a corner in a London Underground tunnel. Interior design companies rely on their experience in harnessing the ability of shadows to conceal. Some of the most adventurous clients demand special effects – I have seen interior design companies being asked to recreate the “drama of a rainbow as it paints a coloured arc across the sky.” Definitely not a straightforward project! Nonetheless, each light effect has its own character and contributes to a harmonious balance.

I once saw top professionals from a famous London interior design company actually sitting down with graph paper to chart the passage of the sun during a twenty-four hour period for a prestigious residential project. The client was a feng shui practitioner, and he had asked the interior design company to guarantee a positive orientation for his living spaces. After plotting out the sun’s pathway, the interior design company used CAD to project how the sun would appear during different seasons – taking into account how little daylight there can be during London winters. The result was breathtaking and a stunning example of how natural lighting can be used to “make a house a home.”

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By observing natural light, we can start to appreciate how light actually works. Interior design companies often talk of principles such as downlighting, where afternoon sunshine grazes a wall of illuminated foliage; backlighting, where a leaf is revealed in silhouette during a fresh London dawn; crosslighting, where the surface texture of brickwork or gnarled wood is emphasised; and spotlighting where a narrow shaft of light catches an object in its path, perhaps as a train turns a corner in a London Underground tunnel. Interior design companies rely on their experience in harnessing the ability of shadows to conceal. Some of the most adventurous clients demand special effects – I have seen interior design companies being asked to recreate the “drama of a rainbow as it paints a coloured arc across the sky.” Definitely not a straightforward project! Nonetheless, each light effect has its own character and contributes to a harmonious balance.

I once saw top professionals from a famous London interior design company actually sitting down with graph paper to chart the passage of the sun during a twenty-four hour period for a prestigious residential project. The client was a feng shui practitioner, and he had asked the interior design company to guarantee a positive orientation for his living spaces. After plotting out the sun’s pathway, the interior design company used CAD to project how the sun would appear during different seasons – taking into account how little daylight there can be during London winters. The result was breathtaking and a stunning example of how natural lighting can be used to “make a house a home.”

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The aim of the bedroom is usually to be the room inside the house that promotes rest, relaxation and romance. This is meant for being an area that brings out calmness and tranquility. As a way to do that, colors play a necessary role. Loud colors are the very last thing we wish to use, because they are too much of a distraction and actually promotes restlessness. Furniture placement is also a key factor. The bed should be the main feature of a room and has to be displayed at a commanding position, which is diagonal with the door. There are many other techniques you should utilize to optimize the bedroom, many of which are associated with love. The love corner is another central part of a bedroom, make good use of this area to attract love or maintain good relationships.

The purpose of the living room is to be the room in the house for get togethers. It is usually meant for family gatherings and entertaining guests. Because of this, the living room must be an area that promotes conversation and should be optimized for family bonding. To be able to do this, the main focus is on how the seating of this room is arranged. Sofas and chairs are supposed to be placed in a semi circular shape to accomplish this purpose. Family photographs also needs to be a feature of this room. Other great additions include artwork and live plants.

The aim of the kitchen is to feed and nourish the entire family. It really is considered one of the primary rooms of the house, because it symbolizes growth and prosperity for each of the members of the family. The stove is the primary focus of the kitchen and its burners actually represent wealth. A stove situated within an island often is the ideal position, since the cook should manage to have a good view of the entire kitchen. It’s always important that one can see who comes through the door. If the stove is constructed against a wall, a very good feng shui remedy is always to add mirrors behind the stove so anything in back is still visible.

The aim of a home office is to be the part of the home that work is completed, it must be optimized in a way that promotes productivity and will help guarantee success. In this case the desk is the most important piece of furniture inside the room and has to be located in a commanding position with a clear view of the door. Using a map bagua, locate the wealth and career corners for further feng shui design. The home office is an ideal room to utilize live plants such as the money tree or lucky bamboo, both of which are used to attract wealth.

As you are able to see, there are many different feng shui interior design techniques for every room of a home. Creating the best balance between all these rooms is what makes everything come together. The different areas of your life is actually harmonized as a result of making this great balance within your home. With the bedroom working towards love, the living room promoting your relationships, the kitchen helping to generate wealth and the home office building success for your business, all these different areas of your life begins to fall in place.

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The Differences between Feng Shui and Interior Decorating

Interior decorating is designed to improve the appearance of a home. Whilst it can have a positive impact on your mind and well-being, its purpose is purely visual. Feng Shui is a Chinese practice that aims to bring balance, good luck and good energy into your life. Using the five elements of nature, it is possible to improve every aspect of your life by simply following Feng Shui arrangements.

For instance, an interior decorator might put a mirrored closet facing your bed and a wall fountain in the sitting area of your bedroom. But a Feng Shui practitioner would say that both these items would not allow you to have a restful sleep. Both water and mirrors move the energy in the area they’re located and what you need in the bedroom is a restful environment.

Overhead and exposed beams, although very fashionable and chic, should be avoided in a Feng Shui home. They are considered to bring oppressive chi and breed distrust and dishonesty.

The position of the bed can be tricky in Feng Shui. Your bed should be placed where you can easily see the entrance to the room, but never face the door directly. So you have to think outside the box in ways to position your bed for maximum Feng Shui effectiveness, and not only because it looks good.

Some decorators might position the bed under a window, but Feng Shui says you should have a solid wall behind you.

The main principle of Feng Shui is that every single thing in the world has an energy field. This energy can be positive or negative, but absolutely everything has energy. By arranging various objects that contain positive energy, we start to reap the benefits. The practice itself is followed using different methods.

When Feng Shui practitioners work on a home, they are basically aiming to get a good balance of energy throughout the space they are working on. They will usually try to balance the five different elements (water, fire, wood, earth, and metal) to give you the best results. Each element relates to a separate part of your life.

Feng Shui can be used not just at home but at work too. In fact, there are many major companies that incorporate Feng Shui into their working environments to improve the productiveness of their employees. These companies include Coca Cola, Proctor and Gamble and Ford Motors. Now you begin to understand why Feng Shui is completely different from interior decorating and they cannot be mixed up. Interior decorating can have a positive effect on your life but there is no deeper meaning behind it. There are also no limits as to what you can place in a room or where you should place it. With Feng Shui, the objects in your room will be arranged according to which aspect of your life you would like to improve.

Whether you consider Feng Shui a superstition or you believe it’s true meaning, give it a try. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. And although it is not considered Interior Decorating, it aims to find harmony in your space and the results can be beautiful. If you want to decorate your home and have no idea of where to start, you don’t need to pay a fortune to an interior decorator. Feng Shui can help you decide on colors and placement of objects, and you will find that the results are relaxing, energizing and all in all, harmonious.

If you want to learn more about Feng Shui and find more very useful information, please visit me at http://www. lifewithfengshui. com

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