The Outdoor Room: How Interior Design Companies Illuminate Gardens - Part III

Some prestigious London Interior Design companies refer to urban garden concepts as "outdoor rooms.” If you are considering employing an interior design company to renovate both your indoor and your outdoor spaces, this four-part series of articles will help you understand how lighting can be used to create a sense of garden drama. I draw on my experience working with some of London's best interior design companies to reveal the secrets of this fascinating speciality design area.


Gentle but appropriate focus lighting can make even a small and cramped central London garden look spectacular. At the very least, your interior design company may recommend lighting for a few specially-selected features in order to provide optical cues that mark a pathway through your nighttime garden. In a very tiny space - such as an urban garden at the back of a set of London row houses - your interior design company may simply elect to uplight a garden gnome at the furthest point in order to create a feeling of classy theatricals.


Your London interior design company will explain to you that outdoor focus lighting includes both soft features, such as a small topiary or bush, and structural elements, such as a well or fountain. It is critical to first select which elements or zones are to be lit and then to hide the illuminator such that only the effect but not the hardware remain visible. Your interior design company will think carefully about the preferred viewing angle - whether that be from indoors, through a window, or from the garden itself. London interior design companies will select different illumination approaches for either soft or structural features.


With soft features, your interior design company will evaluate the dimensions of the plants and the colours of the foliage. London's seasonal changes are important. Deciduous plants look very different from winter to summer, while gnarled bark offers a firm vertical accent that can be uplit any month of the year with excellent results. London interior design companies tend to recommend tungsten halogen bulbs to focus on flowers as they come into bloom - the white illumination from these bulbs will showcase the true colours of the petals. Small trees, perhaps clipped for ornamental purposes, will create striking silhouettes when the wall behind is lit. Your interior design company can offer advice as to whether uplighting or downlighting is best for your particular wall and foliage configuration.



Interior Design London - Global Interior Design Consultancy Company in London, UK for interior design services.