Lighting For Special Occasions – Illuminating Water Features at Night
Interior designers today are highly-qualified multitasking professionals – it’s not just about pretty fabrics and gorgeous furniture any more – design professionals need to understand flooring, structures, plumbing constraints, heating systems, security features, electrical outlets and much more besides. One of the most important parts of an interior designer’s job is lighting, and this can one of the most technically challenging and complex elements of the profession. In this four-part collection of articles which I call “Notes from a London Interior Designer,” I draw on my substantial experience from working alongside some of London’s most celebrated interior designers to reveal the secrets of this fascinating field.
Water brings texture, sound and magic to an exterior space – even the most plain dripping garden tap has certain design aesthetics – but interior designers know that only light can truly bring water into its own. London’s top designers will use a variety of vessels or modern contraptions to contain and channel water, many with links to history. For example, the Upper Lodge Water Gardens of Bushy Park, near Hampton Court and not far from Central London, were originally commissioned in 1710. The Earl of Halifax was no interior designer, but he did appreciate fabulous pools, cascades, basins and canals – all of which were featured prominently in the Water Gardens. Of course, some of us live in rather more modest London dwellings today, but even if you only have a small garden, an interior designer can help you create beautiful tumbling chutes or conduits, textured to glint in the morning sunshine and to beautifully project the noise of moving water.
Gardens like those of Bushy Park are perfect sources of inspiration for interior designers. Novel structures and accessories let us move and channel water in so many different ways, whether in formal shapes or as random, flowing chaotic forms. Top interior designers may recommend structures that cause water to race across pebbles or stones, shimmering with texture in the sunshine. Some London Interior Designers specialise in introducing water into urban garden spaces, where its reflective, expressive quality can refreshingly balance the overwhelming closed hems of tall concrete or vertical brick surrounds. The delightful sound of tinkling water can also quickly dampen out the sounds of cars and lorries in your neighbourhood.
In the next and final article in this collection which I call “Notes from a London Interior Designer,” I will get a little technical and explain how light fittings can illuminate water.
Lily Candice is regular article writer for Interior Design London – Global Interior Design Consultancy Company in London, UK for interior design services.
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