Seeing the light
A look at how ambient lighting and task lighting can be combined to create the perfect balance in a home
New-construction projects tend to see one type of lighting installed i n each room — utilitarian fixtures, such as overhead pot lights, that provide an even lighting scheme throughout the space.
But it’s the homeowner’s individual tastes in ambient lighting — table and floor lamps, spotlights and sconces, for example — that create the real “feel” of a home.
“Ambience is very important, especially when you’re decorating, and you want to have both types of lighting,” said Cendrella Abi Abdallah, manager at Multi Luminaire Pointe-Claire, adding: “It’s more practical to have several lighting moods because a lot of rooms can be used for more than one thing.
“There was a time when the dining room was very formal and no one went in there except on special occasions, but today it can be used for different things.
“Task lighting is important in kitchens and bathrooms, but in other rooms you want to have a bit of both.”
One way to achieve both ambient and task lighting is by installing a dimmer.
“Nowadays, dimmers are installed in every room of a new home or condo,” said Darren Naimer, vice-president and coowner of Union Lighting. “People are really looking for dimmers in every room, bathrooms included.
“You want to create atmosphere.”
If you’re planning to install dimmers yourself, however, Naimer recommends consulting a lighting expert because new LED fixtures may have certain features that aren’t conducive to the use of a dimmer.
Overall lighting trends tend to vary according to region, said Cendrella Abi Abdallah.
“Nowadays, dimmers are installed in every room of a new home or condo ... bathrooms
included.”
Darren Naimer
“When it comes to new construction, each sector has their own style that people tend to go with.”
In the West Island region, for example, a lot of new homeowners continue to gravitate toward a classic look.
“Even still,” she said, “more and more people are trying to contemporize everything so they’re turning to other trends, including the crystal trend and more contemporary fixtures. But downtown, they’ve been modern long before the West Island.
“We’ve noticed this because each year we go to the lighting show in Dallas where they introduce new lighting and you can clearly define which sector has a particular clientele with a specific style.”
An element of subtlety is key in today’s new lightscapes, Naimer said, pointing out the popularity of technologically-advanced designs in fixtures.
“You can have indirect light sources such as a tiny pendant no larger than a pencil that are in a cluster or a row over an island in the kitchen,” he said.
“Or you could have something where you don’t actually see the light source.
“Imagine a U-shaped channel built into a round circle that is suspended over a table, and in that channel there’s an LED tape; this creates a great effect that can only be achieved today and couldn’t be (done) before.”
In general, lighting today is designed to offer the best of both worlds: efficient well-lit options for busier areas of a home, along with fixtures that offer a softer light to evoke a sense of relaxation or showcase a particular aspect of the space.
“Quite often, you achieve a general light level and then you give attention to a focal point — be it the table in the middle of the room or the kitchen island,” Naimer said. “It’s all about drama in a home — creating beautiful pockets of light and shadow.”