Artfully selected lighting has the power to change and manipulate all the surface textures of an interior environment. It can seem to absorb into softly contoured materials, or bounce and reflect off others. It’s one more reason why your interior design team needs to know a lot about the mood, feeling and character you envision for your project.
Today’s range of selections in all categories of materials and surface finishes is virtually huge! It can amaze, overwhelm and confuse; and, it is smart to explore the affects and interplay of Light and Textures with your professional designer when making choices that may be difficult to reverse.
Your design team must look at the “overall picture” when considering each element of your interior environment. Because Color and Light produce critical interplay, the partnership of Light and Textures presents the next close connection to overall balance. For instance, Light on a bright red element in smooth silk or a high-gloss paint behaves quite differently than on reds that present in soft, deeply textured upholstery or drapery materials.
It is quite easy to envision such contrasts on flooring materials. Tiles receive Light differently than carpet or natural stone. While carpet and natural stone tend to absorb Light, tiles tend to reflect and deflect Light in ways that may affect other elements in that specific interior area.
Chances are you have experienced interiors where the first impression feels harsh or cold or unwelcoming. Perhaps the overhead glare is so distracting as to be really unpleasant. Chances are, part of that impression is connected to the interplay of Light on Textures. Then, there are other interiors that seem to welcome, embrace, “reach out” and feel comfortable – like stepping out to a deck at twilight, on a summer evening. Balance.
The fact is, that inappropriate management of important design partnerships, such as Light and Textures, can defeat the desired goals for an interior vision. As with Color and Light, Light and Textures connect powerfully in producing intended results. I call them partnerships because they need to not only balance between themselves, but must be compatible with the other critical partnerships.
Just as there is no one, universal “red,” there is no one, universal “light” or “texture.” Selection of the right combinations can be a surprising and enlightening experience. (No pun intended…) Space prohibits a litany of the many, many kinds of light and lighting techniques. Selecting the correct kind of light is half the battle. How that lighting is implemented, controlled, directed and applied is the next important tactic.
Light and lighting in conjunction with Color and Textures has pivotal power – ask anyone in theatre! Everything from make-up to costuming to props is influenced, if not driven, by the considerations of the affects of lighting. It is different, but by no means has less impact, in your business or home environment.
Exploring the important element “partnerships” for interior design success will help you and your design team to achieve the vision you have for your project. From complex new construction all the way to a simple “refresh” of an existing environment, Color, Light and Texture help is on the way!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
