While the overarching theme of home design focuses on timeless neutrality, 2022’s home trends are all about making a visual splash. We see this in the celebration of modern interpretations of Spanish revival design themes and the bolder colors making their appearance in trending paint palettes.
Home Trends & Lighting: Bold Illuminations
Lighting is another arena in which bolder is considered better these days. So, if you’re planning an upcoming custom home build or remodel, get ready to have some fun and hunt for lighting fixtures that catch the eye and make a statement.
5 Lighting Design Trends
Here are five lighting design trends that can help guide your selections as you meet with your design/build team and local lighting vendors.
1. Smart home automation includes lighting
If you’re building a custom home, the odds are smart automation is already part of the design. If, however, you’re planning a remodel, renovation, or addition, you have an ideal opportunity to update home systems to include automation.
Automated lighting has multiple benefits, including energy efficiency, scene-setting/ambiance, and enhanced safety and security. So, as long as contractors are demoing, opening walls, and updating existing electrical/plumbing work, installing equipment and wiring to support a home lighting design makes sense. Then, you can operate lighting, sound, window coverings, and home security features from anywhere – anytime – using your phone or tablet.
2. Oversized fixtures
As we mentioned in the intro, bigger and bolder lighting fixtures are a focal point of lighting showrooms these days. While the general themes of simplicity and minimalism haven’t disappeared, they are taking a back seat from the previous decades’ emphasis on hidden or recessed lighting.
Keep your eye out for fixtures that make statements of their own. When you find the right combination of big, beautiful, and balanced, you benefit from a functional art piece that’s as much of an illuminated sculpture as it is a practical lighting fixture.
For example, large glass orbs in a transitional kitchen design are a fun take on the more modern “hanging bare bulb” look. They have a gallery-esque appeal, and nighttime lighting is reminiscent of full moons. The design is contemporary in its overall appearance, and look at how the fixtures over the islands echo the metal sculpture effect of the fixture suspended over the dining room table.
3. Contemporary interpretations of elegance
Chandeliers have been a staple standard of lighting elegance for hundreds of years. While we’re huge fans of gorgeous chandeliers, particularly in unexpected locations likes over a soaking tub, we’re also enjoying new and contemporary takes on the design.
For example, this kitchen and dining room remodel showcases a wood beaded chandelier, in lieu of traditional crystals. It’s a whole new twist on a historically elegant look. Contemporary chandelier designs can also aim for a more bold than natural look like this colorful glass chandelier guaranteed to add eclectic fun to the lighting design mix.
4. Raw and natural textures
We saw an element of this in the above chandelier’s use of strings of wood beads to replicate strands of crystal versions. The emphasis on organic, raw, and natural design elements work well in Volusia county homes, where seamless indoor/outdoor design and flow are popular.
Here we see how a woven hanging light fixture in a master bedroom. The hanging rattan shade adds both textural interest as well as warmth to an otherwise neutral design. The circular spirals and pattern are also a nice contrast to the bedroom’s mostly-linear dimensions.
And here is another example of woven, wicker pendants, used as textural and visual accents in a contemporary dining room. Why choose one style when you can have them all?
5. Create light layers
In the 60s, it was all the rage to ditch overhead lighting and focus on lamp designs. Then we realized that wasn’t ideal, so overhead lighting returned, but then minimalism trends often eliminated lamps. Today’s lighting trends return the focus back to layers of light, using a combination of stylish overhead lighting, pendants, or recessed cans for task lighting, and wall sconces and lamps for area-specific and ambient lighting options.
And, of course, with the addition of smart home automation mentioned in #1, individual fixtures and layers should be switchable and dimmable on timed programs, in response to outdoor light sources, or with the tap of a phone or tablet app.
Light Up Your Home With Personalized Design
Are you ready to light up your home with personalized home trends and a lighting design that suits your lifestyle and style preferences? Schedule a consultation with Fogle Constructors. Our clients benefit from personalized, individual attention, and our completed projects are proof of how our custom design-build approach allows a household’s culture and personality to shine.
