Dear Fiona,
I’m in the process of renovating a house I’ve bought, post-divorce, which I plan to live in for ever more. I was with my sister, discussing which ceiling pendants I might buy, and she looked surprised, then horrified, then told me I should not be planning on having ceiling pendants, for they are, to quote her, “over”. She showed me Nicky Haslam’s dos and don’ts of decorating, on your site, as proof. I’ve since spent significant time on the House & Garden site, and discovered that recessed spotlights are also a design no-no.
Quite frankly, I’m stunned. What is so wrong with ceiling lights that they’ve effectively been outlawed in every form? Aren’t they rather a basic requirement of any room? For isn’t the aim of lighting – maybe – to be able to ape daylight? Further confusing me is the fact that I looked at pictures of Nicky’s house in Gloucestershire, and he’s got ceiling lights – so is this a case of ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’? My house is wired for overhead lighting and I hadn’t been going to rewire, so it would be convenient if I could find some sort of solution – which also involves finding something beautiful to put there at some point. But then again, if I’m not using overhead lighting, then what am I using? Lighting suddenly seems really tricky – and I want to get it right.
Any pointers? (for I also discovered you, in my browsing!) Thanks!
Love,
Let There Be Light XX
Dear Let There Be Light,
Firstly, welcome! I’m delighted that you’ve discovered the House & Garden site, and hope that you’re enjoying your time here. But also–oh, the conundrum of ceiling lights. Actually, I’m rather thrilled to have received your letter, for I’m in a not dissimilar position to you, in that I too am renovating a house, and they’re something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Largely this is because I was so appalled by the lights that were in situ when we took possession of the house (elaborately twiddly multi-armed contraptions fashioned from plastic and faux gold, and a reproduction colonial-style bulb and fan combination which wasn’t even positioned centrally) that I removed them before I’d even unpacked the lamps, leaving me decidedly ill-lit. This sorry tale essentially tells you why it is that ceiling lights have been placed on the list of agreed designer no-nos; generally we go off something as soon as it starts being done really badly, to the point that it looks ugly. So yes, Nicky Haslam has briefed against them, saying “I don’t even like chandeliers. They often look ropey unless they’re in a stately home . . . Little ones are ghastly too.” And, “as much as possible, we don’t use overhead lighting,” says Sarah Vanrenen, who says that they make her feel “really unrelaxed.” Then, regarding spotlights, “don’t use recessed ceiling lights unless absolutely necessary. No one needs a house that looks like an airport landing strip,” says Joanna Plant – and I can tell you that Buchanan Studio, Suzy Hoodless and Peter Mikic all agree with her, which rather suggests that overhead lighting is not a basic requirement.
Let’s look at the idea of lighting in more detail, and try to establish how we’ve got to where we are. Going back a few millennia, the first light was provided by fire, allowing early man to light (and heat) the cave he lived in – and that was not overhead lighting. Around 4500 BC the oil lamp was invented – again, not overhead – and in 3500 BC, the candle. In fact, overhead lighting didn’t come in until the arrival of the gas lamp in the late 18th century and while yes, that tended to be placed either overhead or high up on a wall, one pretty major reason for that was because, if you accidentally knocked that gas lamp over, it could cause a fire (of the destructive rather than light-giving kind). In other words, the history of overhead lighting is comparatively short, and based more on practicality than aesthetics – practicality which then became habit.
I can hear you say, “but what about early candlelit chandeliers in stately homes,” and yes, that is overhead lighting, it’s true, and they’re beautiful. But those chandeliers weren’t a feature of every room, but a feature of the main reception rooms, which tended also to have rather exquisite ceilings, i.e. arguably, those chandeliers could be described as picture lights. And as for mimicking daylight, firstly, the sun isn’t always overhead (or even visible – I’m writing while looking out at a snow-laden sky), and secondly, is it really the point of indoor lighting? In a factory or studio setting (where ceiling lights continue to dominate) maybe, but “the point of decorating [a house] is to make you look prettier and feel more comfortable,” says Nicky Haslam. We all know that a bright glare can be unforgiving, especially once we reach a certain age, while nobody wants to be gazing directly into the sun. So, let’s agree that aping daylight is perhaps not the aim of lighting in a domestic setting, and that overhead lights aren’t necessarily a basic requirement, either (unless there’s something you’re not telling me and your new house is to double as a sweatshop).
Instead, let’s acknowledge that we’ve come on in leaps and bounds since Edison’s invention of 1879, to the extent that Nina Campbell finds there are three different types of lighting: task lighting, ambient lighting, and decorative lighting. The first is straightforward; it’s the light you read by beside your bed, the Anglepoise on your desk, the light you chop vegetables by in your kitchen, and the light by which you brush your teeth. Ambient lighting is what you hope to find in reception rooms, and any other room you’d like to be able to relax in. It’s essentially what Nicky refers to as “eye level lighting” and what Sarah Vanrenen describes as a judicious use of lamps and wall lights “to create a softer, atmospheric light that can be controlled.” This means you want these lights to be on a dimmer, and probably on more than one circuit (they are also on a separate circuit to the task lighting, though some task lighting, for instance a reading light, doesn’t need to be on a circuit at all). Finally, decorative lighting is the pretty candle sconces that create a glow – but not much beyond that: picture lights (again, they need to be on a separate circuit, and it’s a bit of a grey area, since they can also count as ambient lighting) and candles on the dining room table.
To sum up, every room (except maybe the broom cupboard) needs more than one means of lighting it, for what you’re after is layers of lighting, which yes, can require rewiring. (Though it’s not essential; you can simply plug lamps in. But if you are going to be replastering any rooms during the course of the renovation, and as you are planning to live in this house for a long time, then it might be worth calling in an electrician, too.)
And now – plot twist – I’m going to come back to overhead lighting because, as you spotted, Nicky Haslam has indeed got them in his house, including a rather extraordinary chandelier that he fashioned out of a cake tin, a plant support and a tin star with pods of an Indian oak-apple tree painted green. Then – and let’s take this back to me for a moment – while my rampant overhead light removal didn’t cause much of an issue once I’d unpacked the lamps, aka the ambient lighting, there are certain situations that are less lamp-friendly – I’ve been bathing in near darkness for a year and a half now. The thing is that “a central light can be very useful,” says Nina, thereby identifying them as task lighting, at least in some situations. She has ceiling lights – and indeed spotlights (these can be task, ambient or decorative, depending on what they’re lighting) – in her house, and the overall beauty of that house proves that they can be well employed, and that like so many things in design and decoration, it’s about execution. I do wonder if the reason so many designers discourage their use is to save us from ourselves.
So in that spirit, let’s lay down some rules of use. First, to reiterate what I wrote above, overhead lighting is best as part of a larger scheme. “When we do use overhead or recessed lights, we use them sparingly in addition to low level lights,” says Sarah, adding that she’ll often put a spotlight “in each corner of the room, or we’ll use directional spots that can be used above vanity units to discreetly light art.” And, she says, she installs them with dimmers (I’m repeating myself again, but that’s because the dimmer thing really is vital). Location matters, and can be particularly important in a dining room; few things look more jarringly idiotic than a central light paired with a non-central table. Height matters in a dining room too, and type of table; if it’s a long slim table, it possibly needs a pendant light that will reflect that, or more than one pendant. And scale matters everywhere.
Basically, “deciding on whether they’ll complement an interior is the first step in deciding whether they will be useful and enhance an interior,” says Juliette Byrne. Nina reminds us that chandeliers and overhead lighting don’t have to be old-fashioned (there’s rather a good round-up here, and none could have that description levied at them) and Juliette reveals how, when employing a more traditional crystal or glass chandelier, she adds mini spotlights just above the pendant which shine through the crystals “giving a wonderfully subtle dramatic effect.” Speaking of subtle, if you’re using overhead lighting as ambient lighting more than task lighting it can be made more beautiful by diffusing it, either by using opaque or what is called ‘opal’ glass (see Beata Heuman’s Dodo Egg Light; you can find spotlights that are made up with it, too) or by way of fabric, alabaster, or what are called dish light chandeliers. Finally, if you’re putting a pendant light into your bedroom, Nina says that “you must put a baffle underneath it, otherwise you lie in bed looking at a naked lightbulb and that’s very uncomfortable.” (A baffle also lessens the harshness of a light source, as well as hiding the lightbulb.)
If all this sounds overly complicated, know that a lighting scheme can be as simple or as sophisticated as you wish, that individual taste plays a part, and so does your house and how much natural light permeates its rooms. I loathe indoor lights being on during the day and will always opt for straining my eyes in the half-light over improved visibility courtesy of something I am aesthetically offended by. Others want to flick a switch, however bright the weather outside, and mind less about what’s generating that light. What I would say is that, if you do jettison overhead lighting, it’s an idea to make sure that something is wired up to the switch by the door (I can’t tell you how often my children have knocked over things in the bathroom trying to find the lamp). It can, incidentally, be wise to err on the side of simplicity; Nina warns us that is possible to inadvertently over-lampshade a room, and I think we’ve all got experience of struggling with too many different circuits in a hotel room.
As you’ll have spotted, this is not a comprehensive guide, and I haven’t told you exactly what to do – because I can’t. Lighting is a huge subject; in terms of further ideas there’s some good stuff in our archive, and Nina’s chapter on lighting within her Create Academy course, A Definitive Guide to Decorating, is rather marvellous. Alternatively, you could employ a specialist lighting designer; the fact of their existence proves that lighting is a tricky subject. But I hope that this has helped a bit, at least in terms of clearing up the fact that there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with overhead lighting, if done well.
With love,
Fiona XX
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