Some general pointers
Think of lighting as the 'statement jewellery' to a house. If you wear high street and set it off with amazing earrings, the whole outfit will look fantastic. Spend money on lights and be bold. - Maddux Creative's Jo leGleud and Scott Maddux
Electrical lighting has so many approaches that it’s essential to consider rooms individually. Think about the natural light they receive, the purpose of the space and the decorative style of the room. Varied and layered lighting – a mix of lamps, wall lights and pendants – is often the best plan, but in a kitchen overhead lighting is essential. Think about where you need light specifically, for example do you want to highlight an artwork or architectural features? - Clare Gaskin
Always light a room from the ground up. We rarely use spot lights and ALWAYS allow for candles, particularly in bathrooms. - Adam Bray
Take the time to find interesting light fittings. There are lots of vintage and antique lights for sale in the UK. Do a bit of digging and you’ll find some styles you like. I find it so much more interesting than having a house full of newly made fittings. - Brandon Schubert
I would recommend investing a bit of time in finding someone who can fix up any lamps you have or find. It will relax you to know that there isn’t any reason for you not to make that spontaneous antique shop purchase or repurpose what you already have, and you may be surprised by how satisfying rifling through treasures in your local thrift shop will become. - Rosi de Ruig
Ceiling lights (and the great spotlight debate)
Don’t use ceiling lights. I don’t even like chandeliers. They often look ropey unless they're in a stately home. A chandelier in the middle of the room is all well and good if it's over a lovely table, but when you move the table, it looks odd hanging over nothing. Little ones are ghastly too. Eye level lighting is much nicer and makes people look pretty. The whole point of decorating is to make you look prettier and feel more comfortable. - Nicky Haslam
“Don’t use recessed ceiling lights unless absolutely necessary. No one needs a house that looks like an airport landing strip – mid-level lighting from wall lights and lamps is much more flattering and flexible in that you can place a lamp where you need the light most and a 5amp circuit so that they all turn on with one switch feels very grown up.” - Joanna Plant
“No one looks great under spotlights. Place lamps that give off a gold bounce near where people will be sitting to give their skin a warm glow in the evening.” - Peter Mikic
For larger kitchens, it helps to think in terms of three distinct zones – where you cook, where you eat and where you sit. Each zone invites a different lighting response. For the cooking area, the ubiquitous ‘spot’, much as I dislike them, is extremely practical. Whether they were there when you moved into your home or you put them in yourself, strive towards the goal of switching them all off – probably at that magical moment that is nightfall – with the flick of an off-switch, transforming your functional kitchen into a warm and alluring space. - Rosi de Ruig
Don’t use overhead lighting, except for in kitchens and bathrooms where necessary and decorative pendants in larger areas like halls and staircases. When we do use overhead or recessed lights, we use them sparingly in addition to low level lights. We might put a recessed light in each corner of the room, or we’ll use directional spots that can be used above vanity units to discreetly light art. And always install them with dimmers! - Sarah Vanrenen
Please, for ceiling lights, make sure you always use woven, 3-ply flexes. I usually source mine from here. Lamp fittings look so much prettier hanging from a smart mossy green or earthy brown flex. - Rosi de Ruig
Wall lights
Wall-light selection can feel like a daunting prospect at the beginning of a project. When your contractor is chasing the wires into the walls, it is important to know what furniture and pictures will be beside them and what type and size of wall light you are using so that you get the height of the back plate right. This happens early on and so there is a risk it is before you may have finalised the actual lights. If you want to have wall lights by your bed, make it a priority so that you do not find yourself rushing into something with the electrician breathing down your neck. -Rita Konig
Don’t put wall lights too high.It is the same as hanging pictures too high. Both should roughly be at around eye level. - Sarah Vanrenen
I love seeing lights on the face of bookcases, either at the top or on the fronts with swing arms. -Rita Konig
In a bathroom, wall lights on either side of a mirror provide the most shadow-free light to the face (add a downlight over the basin if you require additional lumens). There are some very good mirrors with integrated lighting but be careful of the colour temperature, often they are a very cold white that ruins the ambiance. - Jo Mann, founder and design director at Light House Designs
Lamps and lampshades
Layering your lighting scheme ultimately involves using lamps of different kinds, positioned in a variety of areas - lighting dark corners, or providing practical use over a reading chair. - Clare Gaskin
Always spend money on good lamps. You don’t want these to be an afterthought – a good lamp and shade can make a room. - Gavin Houghton
Think of your daytime ‘off’ lamps as an integral part of the decoration of the room and don’t underestimate how much visual pleasure they can give. - Rosi de Ruig
When choosing a lampshade, try drawing the shape of it on paper with the lamp base before buying it or, if in doubt, buy a cheap paper shade that is the same size first to check the scale. - Douglas Mackie
I like to use shades that subtly tie in with other colours in the room. Drawing a particular hue from a carpet or painting, or cross-referencing other fabrics is a great way to link schemes together and create harmony. In a traditional bedroom with a four-poster, a shade pleated in the same lining as the interior drapery shows great attention to detail. - Philip Hooper
Don't use knife pleated lampshades, ever. They’re so ghastly and common and ordinary and dainty and I hate them. Go for a card one instead. Paint the inside pink and everyone will look prettier. The the most flattering colour is the pinky-brown colour of a fabric Elastoplast. One of the most famous rooms I designed was the sitting room at The Hunting Lodge. Everybody thought it was pink, but it was more brown than that - if you put Elastoplast on the wall you couldn’t see it. - Nicky Haslam
Do buy tall lamps for your side tables. There is nothing worse than a crouched down little lamp where the light from the shade is crunched into the table and doesn’t actually serve any purpose. I always start with lamp bases that are around 45cm high. It also makes your room feel bigger as it pulls your eyeline up in the room. Lots of the more ‘affordable’ lamps seen on the high street are weirdly small. Check the dimensions before you click ‘buy’. - Lucinda Griffith
Although a generous size table lamp is always desirable, remember to keep proportions in mind to suit the furniture they are on and the rest of the room or you’ll end up with a lighthouse inside your home. - Carlos Garcia
Invest in a smallish lamp that you can deploy to different spaces. For dinner parties, I started putting away my oversized toaster and filling the space with a little lamp and was surprised by how much pleasure it gave me. - Rosi de Ruig
Always use silk flex on table lamps, never plastic! Get an electrician to fit torpedo switches on the flex, this is by far the easiest way to turn lamps on and off. - Philip Hooper
For a lighting scheme that uses a lot of lamps a 5-amp circuit is vital. Having one wall switch to control all your table and floor lamps gives the option to adjust the mood. - Clare Gaskin
Don’t be afraid to break up the symmetry a little. Symmetry has its place in a room, but so does asymmetry. A large lamp placed next to a smaller lamp and lampshade in a completely different style on a chest of drawers can produce a very pleasing effect indeed. - Rosi de Ruig
It is also critical to hide the light source from view, so always ensure that a shade is low enough to cover a bulb. Shade carriers in different heights are invaluable in allowing you to adjust the way in which a shade sits on its base in order to achieve this. - Philip Hooper
Light levels
Think about changing your light bulbs according to your season. This can make a huge difference. Energy efficient higher wattage bulbs should be used for overhead pendant lighting, while lower wattage bulbs in lamps will provide atmosphere in winter. Consider the colour of the light too. The colour temperature is read in kelvins – the higher the number, the cooler (bluer) the light and the lower, the warmer (and more orange). You want the latter for a cosy winter ambience. Just remember to keep the kelvin colour within a room the same. - Clare Gaskin
With all the effort you’re putting into attractive lamps and shades, if you use cold, white light bulbs you will never generate any feeling of warmth in the room. So wherever possible, use long-life, soft-light bulbs of no more than 40 watts. - Rosi de Ruig
Candles are wonderful, after all we all look much better by candlelight, but remember to keep them spaced out throughout the room rather than grouped to avoid looking like a shrine. - Carlos Garcia
