Light as a material

When we plan a showroom room, the first thing we do is sit on the floor at four in the afternoon and watch where the light lands. Then we put a chair there. Everything else follows.

Find the afternoon

Morning light is cool and busy. Afternoon light is warm and slow, and it is the one worth designing for. Find the corner it reaches last and put the reading chair there.

Let walls be warm

A plaster or limewash wall does something a painted one cannot: it holds the light for a moment after it has moved on. If you are choosing a finish, choose the one with texture.

Then switch the lamps on

Artificial light should continue the story, not interrupt it. Warm white, always dimmable, and low. A floor lamp behind the chair, a table lamp at elbow height. Nothing overhead until it is genuinely dark.