Night Magic

Good lighting can change the look and feel of a room for a pittance — particularly at night. Find out how one designer lights up his exciting life.

By Mark McCauley
Special to HGTV.com
PHOTO

No matter the room, lighting can have a huge impact. In this Shelly Riehl David dining room, a coved ceiling is uplighted while spots focus on artwork and a decorative chandelier adds light for eating and lots of style.
I have a confession: I have over 26 lighting sources in my living room.

Why, you may ask, would anyone in his or her right mind want 26 lights in their living room? I can tell you why in one word: Control. Most of the advice you get on lighting is that you need two sources, task and ambient. But no one says how many task or ambient light sources you can have in a space, do they? Or how to place them?

In my living room you can see only three of my 26 lights. The rest are hidden. And with those lights, I can change the ambiance in my room in an exponential amount of ways, depending on which set of lights I want to turn on of a given evening. I could turn on two; I could turn on 14, perhaps six. It ultimately depends on what I am doing that night, or if guests are dropping over, or maybe I decide to read there. If it’s book time, enter the task lights, the three fixtures that are on public view, for reading.

I can make my living room look like a sexy piano bar. I can make it look it like I am about to do surgery. I can change the combinations per evening depending on how I feel, thereby creating an entirely different look, ad infinitum, in my living room just by flipping a switch(es). See how exciting my life is?

Now, did I break the bank at Monte Carlo purchasing all these multifarious light sources? No, I did not. I estimate that I spent a whopping $300 for about 23 of them; some were as inexpensive as $10.

The other three, the task lights, were for show, so they were a tad more expensive. But with my relatively small investment, not only can I combine all these light sources at night, some of them work to enhance natural light during the day.

So, why am I making such a fuss about lighting? It’s about giving yourself relatively inexpensive ways to "redecorate" your space by merely adding light sources. These differing light sources will impact the color in the space in terms of artwork and fabric, as well. A red sofa in natural light turns deep burgundy under an amber light at night. Voila! I have redecorated my space, changed all the colors and not spent a penny. Every night, no less. It’s easy with these quickie tricks:

Spot it
Let’s not forget, all lighting need not shine upwards. Get some clip-on spot lights (maybe $15 or so each) and throw some light pools downward onto the floor or sideways along a wall. The advantage of these little lights is that they have bendable necks, so you can twist and turn them to your heart’s content. See, it really is all about controlling the light sources.

Party on
Hey, while we are at it, why not try out some colored "party" bulbs. No need to be shy. Throw some gold glow from the aforementioned amber bulb; blue light creates a slick, cool atmosphere, and green is soft and relaxing. Turn on one at a time, or mix all the colors in various areas of the room.