Lighting Knowledge Centre - Lunares Blog

There are lamps that light an interior, and there are lamps that are its jewellery. The Tiffany lamp belongs to the second category twice over: by day it’s a colourful sculpture in glass, by night – a glowing stained-glass window that turns an ordinary corner of the room into the cosiest spot in the house. Though the technique is more than a hundred and twenty years old, the dragonflies, wisteria and geometric mosaics are returning to classic and modern interiors with equal force. We explain how a real Tiffany shade is made, how it differs from an ordinary stained glass lamp, where it fits best and how to care for coloured glass so it pleases the eye for generations.

Rechargeable lamps put light where there is no socket: on a table, a balcony, a shelf or a terrace. But the convenience depends on far more than a fashionable shape. What counts is brightness at a realistic runtime, how it charges, how stable the base is, its IP rating and whether the battery can be replaced. Here is how to choose a cordless lamp that will not go dark halfway through the evening.

The living room is the hardest room in the house to light, because it’s the only one that does everything at once: this is where you read and watch films, host guests and doze on the sofa. One ceiling lamp – however beautiful – won’t handle all those roles; at full power it makes a “waiting room”, dimmed down it leaves dark corners. The solution designers use is layers of light: general, task and mood, each on its own switch. In this guide we build a complete plan out of them – from the ceiling lights, through the floor lamp by the sofa, to the light behind the TV – with concrete numbers, lamp by lamp.

A gold, copper or brass wall light can warm a wall without an overdecorated effect. The key lies in proportion, finish quality and light colour. Brushed metal looks calmer than a mirror polish, and a warm coating does not always mean solid gold, copper or brass. Here is how to choose a brass light above a mirror, when a copper fitting works and how to combine warm metals with a modern interior.

A bare bulb with glowing “wires” hanging over the table is one of the most durable trends of the past decade – the trouble is that three completely different products are sold today under the name “Edison bulb”: the classic incandescent, its power-hungry lookalike, and the modern LED filament that merely impersonates the other two. The differences in power consumption are tenfold, in lifespan – up to twentyfold, and in the look once lit – surprisingly small. We explain how an LED filament differs from an ordinary LED bulb, what the 2200 K mood really costs, and when it’s worth paying extra for looks – and when it’s money wasted.

A summer evening has one flaw: it ends. When dusk falls after nine, the patio turns into a dark stage with no actors, and the balcony into a concrete niche nobody steps out onto any more. Yet it is precisely after dark, when the heat lets go, that sitting outside is at its loveliest. The difference between a terrace you flee back indoors from and one where conversations run past midnight usually comes down to two or three points of warm light. In this post we show how to build patio and balcony lighting out of ready-made blocks – string lights, rechargeable lamps, glowing spheres and solar lanterns – with no renovation or chiselling, and quite often without a socket.

Black lamps work like a graphic frame: they define zones, repeat the lines of windows and furniture and add contrast without introducing another colour. Yet black can dominate a small room, while an opaque shade may direct almost all light downwards. A black pendant, ceiling light or wall lamp should therefore be selected for function, beam and scale as well as style.

An LED illuminated mirror may light the face evenly, provide a soft night light or merely draw a decorative halo on the wall. These effects are not interchangeable. Diode position, colour rendering, brightness, moisture protection and the power connection all matter. This guide explains how to choose a bathroom mirror with lights, when a demister is useful and which features genuinely help with shaving and make-up.

A new lampshade is the cheapest makeover a lamp can get: the base and the wiring stay, yet the lamp changes character completely – from office-grade to cosy, from grandma’s parlour to modern. The trouble is that a shade bought by eye tends to droop like an oversized hat or expose the socket like trousers that are too short. In this guide we explain how to choose a lampshade: which size proportions always work, how a cone differs from a cylinder and the empire form, how the material – fabric, linen, paper, glass or wickerwork – transforms the light, and how to check the fitting so the new shade actually fits your lamp.