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Less is More: Simple Lighting Ideas for Minimalist Home Design

Less is More: Simple Lighting Ideas for Minimalist Home Design

Minimalism has become extremely popular over the past decade or so. While there is undoubtedly a market for dressing up properties in artwork and lots of colours, less can mean more. What you may not realise about minimalist home design is that light can play a crucial part.

We’re proud to offer a huge range of different lighting options at Arrow Electrical. In fact, many of our bulbs and fittings work wonderfully as part of a low-key design. Of course, not everyone wants to go total minimalist, and not everyone wants to dress everything up. That’s why we believe a flexible, comprehensive collection is vital.

That said, there are plenty of different ways to make minimalism work for you based on your lighting. We also don’t expect you to have all the answers! That’s why we are digging deep to look into what you can do to create a functional, inspiring minimalist space.

Our guide will take you through everything you need to know about using lighting properly in a minimalist fashion.

You Don’t Have to Keep Living in The Dark

Minimalism is, contrary to popular belief, all about maximising light. There’s a strong misconception that minimalist homes have to be dull or shaded. However, it’s how you apply this light that matters.

In many cases, a minimalist home design can and will benefit from washes of natural light. However, when the sun goes down, you will need a healthy interior light source. One that’s neither too strong nor too intrusive. After all, even if you don’t want to look for a minimalist design, a bulb that’s too focal is never a good idea.

That’s why it’s worth looking for simple lighting that’s neither too shaded nor too expressive. Table lamps such as the Astro Martello 180, for example, are great for blending in with the existing design. This lamp is demure yet expressive enough – but never too much to demand complete focus. What’s more, it offers a low wattage and an enclosed design to allow for a slight glow top and bottom.

Martello 180 in Plaster

You shouldn’t be afraid to add light to a minimalist space. Where it is required, look for lighting designs that blend rather than stand out. For example, our above pick – the Astro Martello – is brilliant for blending with gentle, white curves. It’s also ideal to line up with surfaces and furnishings that stand out a little more.

Essentially, you need to be aware that the key to great minimalist design is an abundance of light. Too little, and your rooms can feel enclosed or shut off. Allow your light to spread around, though not at an intensity to create glare or intrusiveness. During the day, you should ideally focus on allowing large windows to bring in natural illumination.

There is such a thing as going ‘too bright’. However, you can easily flood a space if you use mild lighting intensity alongside glass and delicate metal tones.

Go For a Balance

When it comes to effectively lighting a minimalist space, you need to make sure to strike a balance in quality. Focus less on decorative lighting and more on the quality of the light itself, the illumination you create. As they say, less is more.

decorative lighting Well, balanced light is an absolute must, and to this end, you need to look for top-quality manufacture. This is not always something people know to look for as a priority. In which case, consider the bulb quality you invest in. Consider choosing a light fitting and bulb that provide incredible, balanced illumination without going overboard.

A balance in quality lighting is crucial as you cannot fill a minimalist space with lots of bulbs. It rather defeats the object! Therefore, you will need one or two units designed to carry the load. This means you should ideally look for a high-performance LED.

Arrow Electrical offers LEDs as standard across the board, as long-lasting, high-performance bulbs. These bulbs and the fittings they arrive with are great for minimalism as they are built to light up a space with minimal power. You can easily illuminate a smaller, minimalistic area with one or two high-quality lights and not ‘cause a scene’.

Many people make a common error when lighting up rooms by adding more and more lights to a space. While it’s tempting to make things brighter with extra bulbs, you are risking cluttering the atmosphere. You may be able to set up multiple lights or bulbs if they are recessed. However, it doesn’t make any sense to have multiple bulbs when one great quality option will do the trick.

The Astro Mashiko 400 Square is a fantastic option if you wish to maximise light and not rely on clunky or clumsy fittings. That’s because light emits gently from all sides of its cube panelling. It also looks great on its own without being distracting.

Mashiko 400 Square Ceiling Flush Light


Pair with Open Planning

For light to really travel across your interior spaces, you need to strip things down. One way to go minimalist is, of course, to install furniture and fixtures that blend in. However, the fewer walls and physical blockades you have in place, the further light will travel. This doesn’t just work for artificial lighting, but for natural light, too.

Open plan lounges, kitchens and dining areas are trendy in the modern age. That’s mainly because the interior design can feel cluttered with too many walls and vertices. The same applies to light and its relationship with said walls. Any light will bounce off walls regardless of intensity, create shadows, and box in space.

You can maximise your light if you pair a top-quality bulb and manufacture it with open planning. If you let your light travel further, you essentially make it work harder for you. This is an ideal alternative to using additional lights and lamps to illuminate specific spaces in your home.

Open planning with top quality light can create a freeing, airy atmosphere, giving you more room to think. Of course, knocking down walls and doors can be arduous! Therefore, a more straightforward option may be to rethink areas that are already somewhat open plan. Do you have multiple bulbs in place, and could you reduce them?

This ties in nicely to our above point regarding ‘less is more.’ A top-quality light fitting and bulb can effectively replace two boxed in, less efficient options. This is especially the case if the illumination has further to travel.

Beyond this, as mentioned, removing walls or replacing solid partitions with glass is excellent for all light. That applies to natural, flowing light, too. Move obstructive furniture and pieces out of the way and let that light travel carefully. Essentially, one of the best ways to create a minimalist space is to light as much elbow room as possible.

Go Indirect and Out of The Way

Of course, one of the key ways to work lighting properly in a minimalist space is to hide it. That is, not to squirrel bulbs or lamps away completely, but to carefully position them indirectly. Indirect lighting is all about gently illuminating areas of a room without washing you in light.

For example, you may wish to delicately light accents and alcoves. These may not be task or practical light options, but they create lovely touches. Used effectively, indirect accent lighting can draw out and accentuate lines and curves. Ergo, it may be a reasoned idea to consider shaping your interior design around this lighting.

Another idea may be to install lights that are hard to spot in daylight. In a minimal space, there is simply no room for furnishings or fixtures that have no purpose. Clutter can be as small as a light fitting that does nothing in the daylight. Therefore, you should consider setting up minimal LEDs that aren’t visible in waking hours.

These options effectively come alive at night, only really making themselves known when you need them. A similar option, of course, is recessed lighting or spotlights. Spotlighting doesn’t have to be completely recessed. However, it is still a minimalist choice. The alternative may be to have lights hanging down – and all the more obvious.

It’s all about not making things obvious. Minimalism thrives on a space devoid of the unnecessary. As mentioned earlier, all minimal spaces need a lot of light to thrive. However, it may be better to hide fixtures and fittings out of the way to stick to the minimalist ‘ideal’.

Consider using light fittings such as the up/down adjustable double beam, available from our catalogue. This option allows light to glow out the bottom and top of your fitting. This means that you effectively shield the bulb, emitting light away from the wider space. It’s an excellent choice for creating accents and adorning walls, inside and out.

Why Go Minimalist?

minimalist lighting

Minimalism is massively popular for a variety of reasons. From a style perspective, minimalist space is calming and simple. There’s no need to fret about distractions or clutter taking up too much of your eyeliner. What’s more, you don’t have to fall back on obstructive or pointless lampshades or fittings.

On top of this, minimalist lighting and spaces are straightforward to maintain. A lot of people choose minimalist rooms purely because they are easy to clean! It’s as good a reason as any. However, you’ll also find that with fewer lights, you’ll have fewer fittings to worry about.

Minimalism is also very easy on the budget. Rather than spending out on multiple bulbs and lighting spots, you can invest money in a top-quality glow. There is much mileage in paying for one high quality LED and fitting. As explained above, much of the success in minimalist lighting revolves around lighting quality, not quantity.

There’s also the fact that you can create extraordinary levels of space in small nooks and crannies. You don’t need huge rooms to create space, and you don’t always need to get rid of all your furniture. It’s a case of being careful with unnecessary items – once again, less is more.

The brightness created by lighting in minimal spaces is also very appealing. When used sparsely, it is not overpowering or intense. Instead, it can be inspiring or invigorating. You don’t even need to use expensive fittings to achieve this.

You could also consider using minimalist lighting to create feature zones and walls. You may wish to make a minimal space to bring out touches in the architecture. Ultimately, you can be sure that a minimalist room will do much more with less. Much of that, of course, is down to the lighting.

Conclusion

As mentioned, providing you focus on the light in your design, it’s relatively easy to set up minimalist interior design. You don’t need dressy or flamboyant fixtures and fittings. The less unnecessary fittings you have in place, the more effective your lighting can be. What’s more, that’s always going to allow you to pare down the clutter in a room.

There are no 100% right ways to set up a minimalist space. However, that’s providing you focus on doing more with less. We highly recommend you look into top-quality lighting products and bulbs as a priority. Let fewer bulbs and lights do more than an array of intrusive lamps.

Whether you choose to go fully recessive or indirect, or something entirely different, we can help. Arrow Electrical’s wide selection of brilliant fittings and bulbs work wonderfully in minimal and low-key rooms. We are never here to tell you how to design and decorate! However, we are here to make sure you have access to the best in lighting essentials.

Do take a look at the fittings we’ve picked and linked for you here. Don’t be afraid to look at additional options across our online catalogue, too!

8th Dec 2021

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