We love…. lighting: lighting inspiration for garden rooms

Take a look at the top five lighting trends, to help inspire your garden room lighting.

Your brand new garden room will let light flood in throughout the day, making it a lovely place to spend time. But what about later in the day as dusk falls and through into the evening/night time? Your garden room will most likely be the place in which you spend most of your time, and entertain family and friends. Therefore lighting is crucial; it needs to highlight features, not overpower the room, and create a pleasurable ambiance fitting to the style of your garden room’s interior decor.

Here we take a look at the top five lighting trends for 2014, to help inspire your garden room lighting:

Centre Stage
In recent years lighting has increasingly become a focal point for many rooms, and this isn’t going to change in 2014. Suspended pendant lighting will be seen in many collections, designed to hang over a dining table or kitchen island, bringing focus to the centre of the room.

Colour Focus
Bold and contrasting colours for lighting shades have been popular, particularly for feature lighting. In 2014 however, the trend turns more towards more muted metallics, which will take centre stage as accent ‘colours’, with gold, brass and copper being popular thanks to the warming glow they shed when lit.

Darker and more neutral colours, including white, will also become more popular, tying in minimalist trends and the focus on creating neutral, calming spaces.

Back to Matte
2013 saw a lot of shiny finishes and gloss effects. This year, matte textures will be on the increase, making lighting more tactile and bringing a softer feel to the room. This is especially good if your kitchen/dining area extends into living space, bringing the otherwise separate areas together.

Sustainable Materials
Bamboo, wood and recycled metals will continue to be used to create lighting, in line with the increasing focus on sustainability and the environment. Glass will also continue to be used in lighting, not just for decorative purposes but as a functional part of the light – for example, forming the base of lamps.

Hidden Lighting
Alongside the trend for big, focal point lighting, hidden lighting is also popular. Often a huge light can be too overwhelming for an occasion where you would like to create a more intimate atmosphere. Hidden lighting can provide a much softer ambience, and also help distribute light evenly through a space, if positioned effectively. Placing small lights in the floor of the kitchen and carrying through to other areas helps bring rooms together. Similarly accent lighting (usually via downlighters, uplighters or spotlights) gives a softer feel to the room too, by highlighting particular pieces of furniture or accessories such as paintings and pictures.

Always plan ahead when thinking about lighting for a garden room as it’s much easier to factor in the appropriate wiring during the build process than it is to do it afterwards. Consider where you may require larger pendants, whether you want smaller spots built in to the flooring and where you’ll require electric sockets.