Light Of Heart

Expert Advice Can Help You Navigate Your Victorian Home’s Journey From Darkness To Light.

- Merrie Destefano

While every home requires careful attention on lighting in each room, the needs of a Victorian often go above and beyond basic lighting. Despite floor-to-ceiling windows, historic homes are infamous for their dark corners, shadowy hallways and poorly-lit stairways. Since this is a problem for nearly every owner of a century-old house, we decided to get some expert advice on how to solve the problem.

We asked for tips and suggestions from lighting experts in three different companies: Magnolia Hall, King’s Chandelier Company and the Louise Gaskill Company. Here’s what they have to say to help throw some light on the subject.

MAGNOLIA HALL

“Interior lighting, when chosen well, creates a big impact on the elegance and comfort of your home,” says Michelle Thomas, lighting specialist at Magnolia Hall. To simplify the process, she advises that homeowners think of lighting in the three following categories.

Ambient Lighting.

According to Michelle, ambient lighting is ideally soft and typically used in Victorian bedrooms and dining rooms for relaxation. “Beautiful fabric and heavily fringed table lamps in a bedroom would provide the soft illumination needed in this setting,” she says.

Task Lighting

“This is more intense light for reading, cooking or working and is typically brighter and more direct,” Michelle says. For example, a Tiffany glass lamp would work well on a writing desk as a task light.

Accent Lighting