One of the most important aspects of any home or office remodel or construction is lighting. dental office design is an art in its own right. Light can turn a beautiful room into a space with the ambience of a warehouse or an operating room. It’s the same if the project is a rustic log cabin retreat or a interior lighting design. Lighting can enhance or destroy all the efforts of a good interior design plan.

One of the first decisions an interior designer needs to make concerns source lighting. Where does the light come from, how does it fall, and how does it change. The first problem of designing a room is determining what the major source of light will be. If it is a room used primarily during the daylight hours and has adequate windows, then the designer may work with the light source in choosing colors and even the shape of the area. If the room has no windows, or is mostly used at night then other considerations would dominate. A room with some windows, and 24 hour accessibility offers up another set of challenges.

Sunlight has a color hue to it that is different from other light sources. Sunlight is blue during the day with warmer tones at sunrise and sunset. In addition, the tone will change with the seasons depending on location. Selecting paint, floor material and furniture can all be enhanced with this knowledge. The bluish tint of a midday sun can bring out the blues in the wall. The warm tones of evening and morning can bring out the red hues in paint. A couple important considerations concerning a room lit primarily by sunlight include the time of day the room is most likely to be used, the nature of the use, the colors of the floor and whether or not there will be supplemental lighting.

A room lit primarily by artificial light has several other issues to take into account. Artificial light varies in color temperature as well. Fluorescent light has a blue green hue, tungsten light a yellow orange hue. If the room is illuminated by fluorescent lights a color should be selected that will best work with the greenish cast. Everyone has been in a room where fluorescent light has turned the walls into unpleasant garish colors. Thoughtful choice of paint color can minimize this effect and help produce a spance with a daylight feel.

Selecting a color using a sample card is usually a risky venture. First, a bit of paint may be very different then an entire space using the same tint. Second, consider the source of light under which the paint chip is being viewed. Many paint departments are situated in the middle of a store and lit by fluorescent lights. Grab the chip, walk it to the window and look at the color in the sunlight. Next, take the chip home and try it on the wall. Examine it during the day and also at night. Change the wall the sample is on. Different walls reflect different light sources or the same source in a a unique way. Knowing the light is a major part of the design battle.

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