Choosing Lighting: Dimmables, Accents, Moods

302

Japandi
HDB (BTO)
~700 sqft
2 br
Couple Living

よ！ Once again, we'll be taking a break from our usual house tours to talk about lighting. Don't overlook lighting! Whilst having a bright home means having a lower chance of stepping on your kid's lego bricks, there is such a thing as "too bright". We'll be showing you around as to how we positioned light and shadow to create our desired mood whilst illuminating space. Hitotema.home is a Modern Japanese (not japandi) cozy 3 room BTO, designed to bring traditional elements of Japanese houses into the modern era.
Let's start at the front. By the way, if you wanna see what the whole house looks like, check out our profile. The lighting at the entryway are all controlled by a motion sensor. This helps eliminate switches on the wall, but at the same time, makes it super convenient when leaving the house or coming home. The entryway comprises of a single ceiling light, a cove light for some subtle diffused light and...
...additional LED strips under the engawa, along with these little Slit V2s for entryway accenting. By the way, in case my camera is telling you otherwise, all our lights are warm to warm white.
Otherwise, a single light draws the eyes towards the tokonoma, highlighting the tenugui on display as you remove your shoes. This light is separately controlled from the rest. I think this accent light is a perfect example of how a balance of light and shadow can be beautiful.
For the chigaidana, our designers sourced for LED strips that're mounted at a 45° angle. This allows the light to shine not into the eyes, but at the objects on display.
This is the effect of the LED strips from afar.
From within the kitchen, you can see the single corridor light illuminating the wall and a portion of the window. This light is controlled by a motion sensor too. It's great for 2 reasons. First, no stumbling around in the dark at all. Secondly, when we have guests that wanna use the bathroom, they don't need to hunt for a corridor light switch. You know that feeling. The cove light above is created by splitting the ceiling where the kitchen begins. In a way, the cove lighting denotes subtly where the corridor path is and where the kitchen path begins.
On to the common bathroom. Two sets of lights here. A Halo Mini Exposed Twin above provides the general warm brightness to the bathroom. I chose to install an additional accent light on the right of the long countertop, to draw your attention towards the vanity space. This additional light gives visual interest to the counter-top, adds a touch more light for our guests who need to touch up their make-up, and, uhh, OOTD mirror selfies? I really love working with these little lights. They can really add drama to a space whilst being super practical.
So, on to the walk-in wardrobes and master bathroom. As far as ceiling lights go, dimmables are a fantastic option to go for when it comes to creating the right mood. We have dimmers installed on all our overhead lights sans those controlled by motion sensors, and the kitchen. In the day, we keep them bright to match the daylight sunny feel, but at night... Ooh, at night, having dimmed, warm rooms create such a cosy ambience to wind down in. In the photo, that's the overhead lights dimmed down. Notice how your eyes peel towards the master bathroom sink? That's because of the accent light and LED strip in the corner, creating some focus to the space and highlighting the lines and interest points to an otherwise pretty open space of just wardrobes.
Just a close-up of the LED strip below. Just enough light to use the sink, but not too much.
Also, if you haven't thought about this already, you totally gotta get wardrobe interior lights. Ours are controlled by a really subtle sensor built into the shelf above the hangers. When the door swings open, these lights pop-on. Also, the same 45° angle on these LED lights here, just to illuminate your clothes without also illuminating your face.
On to the bedroom, two sets of lights to choose from. Away from the head of the bed, 2 lights illuminate the platforms and steps, and because the light's throw isn't too wide, it creates a nice spot-ish effect highlighting the warmth of the wood flooring whilst keeping the head of the bed in the shadows. These are dimmable too.
At the head of the bed, a long LED strip adds to the cosy feel. I swear, it wasn't my intention when taking this photo to make it look like some brutalist batcave.
Just wanted to show you guys this - with both lights on, the head of the bed still remains in the shadows. It sounds kinda dramatic, but there's a good reason for it. Keeping the head of your bed unlit means there's not gonna be glaring lights dazzling your eyes if you're in bed and the lights are on.
Thanks for sticking around to the end! If you wanna get a better idea of the design and layout of our home, check out our profile and give us a like and follow!