Design Details: Let There Be Light
Lighting lowdown. Where to put them, what to do with them and why you NEVER switch on the overhead light. Plus my foray into dark and the most AMAZING discount code exclusive to my paid subscribers.
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Many years ago, in the annals of Instagram time, I went on a Masterclass day at the home of Abigail Ahern. This was 2016, when social media was booming and people were starting to look at their homes in a different way thanks to the increasing use of Instagram as an inspirational home platform. Prior to this, it had mostly been the domain of fashion and beauty but this was changing, bringing new ideas and confidence to the interior loving masses and democratising design for all. It truly was the MOST exciting time to have been on social media, before the advent of video (no Stories! No Reels! Imagine!) when one beautiful photo of a room was considered enough and no one gave a flying f**k about whether the music was trending or the transitions were cool enough. The only thing that mattered was the decor and the styling. Ah, the good old days. Sob.
But, I digress. Abigail Ahern was a bit of a revelation at the time, bringing her love of the dark into homes across the country and inspiring people to create ‘cocooning’ rooms by painting the whole lot in Farrow & Ball Downpipe, from floor to fireplace to ceiling and shutters. It was a brave new decorating world and homes across Instagram embraced this look, our feeds filled with dark walls, cacti, sheepskin and star shaped cushions. Abigails home was, as predicted, beautiful and very inspiring. The back of the house had been fully opened on two levels and fronted by glass. Everything was Downpipe, but it didn’t feel dark or suffocating as there was a significant amount of natural light streaming into the spaces. In order to combat the gloom of wholly darks walls and surfaces, Abigail advised that every room in your home should have eight different types of lighting. Eight! This was the quantity of lighting that you needed - akin to a branch of Pooky - if you decided that the world of darkness was for you.
My living room didn’t have enough surfaces to be able to plonk eight lights, not to mention the cost implications of investment for such extensive amounts of glow. As Abigail announced that the day was now over and ushered/threw us out of the door to the street below, I left feeling slightly perplexed by the extent of work involved in subscribing to this decor lifestyle. Was it for me?
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