Retractable Lighting, A Great Way to Create a Special Environment

Retractable lighting is an important decorative resource, because it offers an attractive aesthetic effect and affects emotions.
Retractable Lighting, A Great Way to Create a Special Environment

Last update: 29 May, 2020

We all like to feel calm and at ease at home. The great thing is that the decoration and the effects that you give to your rooms can help create these sensations. For this reason, we’re going to explain to you what retractable lighting is.

The feeling of comfort is essential in interiors. When you know that a place adapts to your needs and has the resources to make you feel good, that’s when you’ve achieved harmony.

Lighting is a principle you have to coherently work on. You shouldn’t limit yourself to adding a few functional lights. Consider lighting a decorative element that allows you to create a specific environment.

What’s retractable lighting?

A living room with retractable lights.
Image: pinterest.es

Retractable lighting could be defined as how you position the lighting to create a certain environment. It’s considered the opposite of spotlights and ceiling lamps, both due to the format and the way of lighting.

Further breaking down the concept of “retractable”, we should specify that its appearance is pretty much hidden, without losing the ability to radiate light into the space where it’s located.

This doesn’t mean that your rooms are going to look dark, but it’s another way of working the decoration. The hospitality world often uses this formula to create more sophisticated, distinguished, and unique environments, especially in bathrooms and entrance halls.

It’s time to innovate and discover other decorative formulas for your home.

4 types of retractable lighting

Led retractable lighting in the bathroom.
Image: pinterest.es

You can apply this lighting to all areas of your home. However, you must know where to place it correctly and be clear about your goals. Here are the types of retractable lighting that exist:

  1. People usually install a mirror above the sink in their bathroom. To better see your face, you can arrange a halo of light around it without directly affecting your eyes. Also, it radiates towards the surroundings.
  2. If you want to create a peaceful and simple sensation in your living room, you can install a small pendant lamp from your ceiling at a specific point. It obviously won’t light up the whole room but it will attract attention. This is why its distribution is so important.
  3. Table lamps also belong to this group. They create a calm and peaceful sensation which is very appropriate for a reading corner. Your goal should be to focus the lamp only on one sector of the room.
  4. Also, you can use small portable lights anywhere in your house. They’re useful for reading in bed or to create a certain intimacy.

Retractable garden lighting

Retractable lighting in the exterior of a home.

If you want to use this lighting on the exterior of your home, you must use lamps powered by solar panels, electricity, or batteries.

You can place them at ground level and direct the light, for example, towards a path. Also, you can use lights higher up, similar to interior lamps. These can illuminate a path or a certain area.

Without a doubt, the most popular retractable lights nowadays are those that are embedded in the walls. They direct the light towards the wall itself and the floor, which is something very similar to lighting up monuments. They generate visual comfort due to their placement.

The aesthetic effect of retractable lighting is eye-catching.

The type of light you should use

Generally, warm light works best, mainly because it’s more welcoming and promotes concentration and personal calm, two characteristics that are associated with this aesthetic concept. It’s perfect for the living room, bedrooms, or entrances.

You can also use cool lights, especially in the bathroom, taking into account that this room will require a little more lighting, due to the functional actions people carry out there.

 


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  • Sudjic, Deyan: La luz y el color en la decoración, Folio, 1992.