What is Accent Lighting in Interior Design?

The right lighting can improve your mood and the mood of your space. While it can be easy to think of lighting as simply a tool that helps us function, the design of your lights can drastically change the look and feel of your home. Arguably the best way to add interesting light to your home without overspending on architectural changes is through the art of accent lighting.

Gantri offers accent lights in the form of Floor, Table and Wall Lights made with sustainable materials for any surface in your home that will look beautiful, perform perfectly, and have minimal impact on both the environment and your wallet. Follow below for more information on which accent light suits each space in your home.

Why pick accent lighting in interior design?

Task and display lighting

Of the 3 different types of lighting, accent lighting is most typically used to illuminate a certain object or area and emphasize its importance or use. However, accent lighting can also bring drama by creating a spotlight effect or a soft halo. This is a great way to place emphasis on special art pieces or architectural elements you love. You can add a Table Light to your bookshelf to subtly point out awards and trinkets or tilt a Floor Light at the perfect angle to curl up with your favorite book.

You can also use shelf accent lighting to leave some objects in the dark. While your prized possessions and favorite furniture shine, that plant that has seen better days can keep to the shadows. Accent lighting offers the opportunity to change a space and its mood without built-in overhead lighting.

Illusion lighting

A good accent lighting layout can just as easily be used to create illusions of space and separation. Use accent lights (Floor Lights and Table Lights) to zone a freeform or open space without creating harsh lines or interrupting the flow and function of the room. If your living room doubles as an entertainment area and a workspace, placing floor accent lighting near your couch on one side of the room and a Table Light atop the desk on the other side will create two zones, each illuminated by their own circle of light. You can strategically place accent lights around your home to draw the eye upward with Wall Lights or to bounce light around the room and make it feel bigger. Placing an accent light by a mirror will achieve this effect without changing too much of your decor.

The issue with traditional accent lighting

Though the colors, styles, materials, softness of light and locations of accent lighting all work together to create the perfect ambience for each room of your home, accent lights often come and go with the changing tide of interior trends. Accent lights are frequently the first elements to be discarded when making the move to a new apartment or buying a new house due to their easily broken shades and period-specific designs. Our approach to creating unique, made to order lights protects you from the pitfalls presented by traditional lighting design. With our Gantri Plant Polymers and 3D printing process, we are able to offer contemporary and streamlined pieces with timeless aesthetics that will transition with you from home to home and from style to style.

What are accent lights and how to use them?

Wall Lights

Wall Lights are controlled by their own switch rather than a switch set into the wall. Once made for candles and torches and set into niches carved away from the wall, Wall Lights are unique amongst accent lights for their near-architectural function. Wall Lights can add warmth to any dim part of a room, helping the entire room appear bigger.
For small apartments, try adding an outward facing Wall Light like the Signal Wall Light directly across from a mirror. Designers commonly use this trick to visually expand a tiny bathroom or a cramped guest bedroom. Need to free up nightstand space? Consider mounting the Gio Wall Light on either side of your bed. Available in colors like Sedona and Stone, the Gio offers a contemporary spin on ‘70s Italian lighting design, making it the perfect choice for both retro-inspired and contemporary homes.

Table Lights

As self-explanatory as they sound, Table Lights typically sit upon a desk, end table, or nightstand to offer extra light and decor. They sometimes lend a hand next to a television, within a bookshelf, or on a vanity or bar cart. Depending on the bulbs and shades chosen, Table Lights can either provide a soft light that offers ambiance or a bright light that illuminates a workspace. Table Lights often serve as task lights, placed on desks or work tables for reading, writing or drafting.

For a truly special Table Light designed with a seamless blend of retro and modern, consider the Dulce Table Light, created by award winning Swiss designer Filippo Mambretti. Available in three pastel shades, the Streamline Moderne-inspired minimalist Desk Lamp echoes the aesthetic of 20th century designs while still managing to offer an entirely new silhouette at a much more affordable price. Place the Dulce Table Light atop your entryway credenza for a soft light to read your mail.

For your workspace, look no further than the PyraSphere Table Light, designed by Louis Filosa, an industrial designer “living and practicing in San Francisco who believes in designing without boundaries.” A frosted moon-like sphere atop a pyramidal base, the PyraSphere Table Light evokes timeless styles while providing a wholly contemporary shape and color scheme.

Floor Lights

Floor Lights offer the same glow and function as Table Lights, without taking up much needed space on your surfaces. However, floor accent lighting is more commonly used in communal spaces and is perfect for a game of cards with friends in your living room or an early morning cup of coffee on the sofa. Due to their adjustable height and direction, Floor Lights offer semi-overhead light that cannot be achieved with Table Lights. Try Ammunition’s Signal Floor Light by your kitchen table to switch up the mood of those late-night dinners.