Interior Design Firms Los Angeles: Tips on Lighting Your Home

Gentle Reader, as we scamper down the path of history and look quickly at the evolution of dining, two things stand out. One: we have forgone the quaint expectation of using our hands as dining instruments (praise be!), and Two: we have evolved our technical capacity for illumination far beyond the tar dripping torches and quivering chandeliers found in the dining halls of 16th century Europe.

Not to say that we cannot learn from our early (and by certain standards crude) ancestors in the area of illumine: so let’s place two concepts on the table for consideration:

1. General Lighting. Think giant hammered iron spectacles suspended high above the dining hall (circa 1507) with hundreds of knobby candles plopped down on its sturdy steel arms casting uneven light around the great hall.

Unsteady light was cast from high above, coating the room with a blanket of
dappled honey colored light. Fine for avoiding a walk into the side of the dining table, but less successful when trying to find the eye-hook on your chain-mail frockcoat.

2. Task lighting. With specific tasks at hand specific solutions where needed. Seeing what was set before them on long banqueting tables required a light source much closer to the user. Candelabra (torches on stands) came into being.

Moving from one location in the fortress/castle to another required halls and passages be lit, so torches were slung from wall brackets and placed at helpful increments down those long, dank, dark hallways. Inviting, maybe not, but at least you weren’t running into walls, knights or the wrong end of someone’s sword.

Feeling very much the scholarly sleuth I will now suggest to you, Dear Receiver of Illumination, some practical suggestions to light your way:

1. As a rule hang your chandelier 36” above the top of your dining table. Generally this allows for a successful relationship between the elements. You look good as you want to be seen in the best light possible. Your guests should glow beautifully, though they should never look as good as you.

The table (your creative masterpiece) should be washed in enough light to make Caravaggio weep. Yes, selecting a perfectly sublime chandelier helps. Finding one with the proper number of candles for the room size is important.

Shearing over the chain a beautiful cord sleeve continues to help the cause but, at the end of the day if you’ve hung the chandelier so high that your guests have to strain to catch a glimpse, don’t be surprised when they topple over in their chairs as they try to appreciate your great antique acquisition. You might as well have bought that lacquered brass number form Guido’s Lighting and Appliance Store and called it a day. SHREEK!

2. One word on candles; yes. Use them often and everywhere. Pertinent to this conversation use them on your table. Combined with dimmed light from your marvelously hung chandelier the light from candles on your table make for the most beautiful dining experiences. Have you ever wondered why everyone in Merchant Ivory films looks so damn great? It’s the candlelight.

An ugly mud fence looks remarkable in candlelight. Imagine the compliments your sour old Aunt Gertrude will land (not to mention her unwavering gratitude and, no doubt a prominent spot in the will) when her ugly old puss is washed in the loving and forgiving light of candles; all part of your magnificent entertaining tour de force.