Dollhouse Decorating – Lighting Design Lighting a space is always a challenge for an interior designer. I have to deal with natural light banging through picture windows. Or total darkness where artificial light is king. The worst can be somewhere in between. Balancing the quantity and color of light in one space creates its own headaches. Dollhouse and room box lighting can be even more difficult, if you want a natural look. Most of the light in a room box is one directional, coming from the front. The trick is to elevate the light level in the back corners of the room without being obvious. I didnt worry about it too much in my “George Washington Slept Here” room box, because light levels in bedrooms during the period were low. I did build a false back on the box and attached a night-light in the space to give the effect of daylight coming through the windows. To give a higher natural light level in my great grand fathers general store, I put a slide-out plexiglass sheet on the top. The light is diffuse, no shadows. Contrast is often desirable to separate objects, but in this case, there is sufficient light that the multitude of colors make each item stand out. (Click on my picture in the left column to watch a minute and a half YouTube video about Will Hunts General Store. Saving this memory got me hooked on miniatures). If you Google “dollhouse lighting,” a mind-boggling hit-list of items for sale comes up, but very little guidance on the aesthetics of their use. Besides getting ideas from pictures of rooms you want to recreate, keep these two points in mind: Avoid single overhead lighting in small spaces as it has a tendency to draw in the walls. Increase the number of your light sources, placing them near walls to add a “bounce lighting” glow in the space. Also, avoid glare common in smaller spaces by concealing light sources with lampshades, directed spotlights or recessed lighting, The picture of Bill Revandelos 5 Star Restaurant room box is a good example. Creative, too. Bill used a string of Christmas lights for the table lamps. Way to go, Bill! Susan Downing
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 20:02:55 +0000
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