Tees Life Tees Life Issue 10 | Page 35

INTERIORS Trip the light fantastic I Peter Turner, managing director of Teesside-based interior design studio Cocoon and Bauer, has designed Michelin-star restaurants, five-star hotels and some of the most exclusive addresses in the country. Now he shares his secrets with Tees Life readers… n the last issue of Tees Life, we focused on the kitchen but also touched on how daylight and sunlight can affect the home. So, following on from natural light, I thought it would be best to concentrate on artificial lighting, feature lighting and direct lighting. My absolute bugbear when driving through towns and villages on an evening is living rooms illuminated with a ceiling light – and often with no shade! The harsh light makes everything look and feel uncomfortable and it can’t be an enjoyable space to relax in. In my opinion, the ceiling light needs to perform two functions – first of all, to be used when needing to see or find something, so the brightness is welcome. And, secondly, for the fitting to be decorative and add some aesthetic value to the interior. The lighting within your living room needs to create a soft, relaxing and warm atmosphere, one which supplements the look of your interior design, but also changes your mood when you enter it. Use a mixture of fittings at different heights, and shades with different linings (such as copper and gold) to create different effects when the light is cast out. I tend to try to incorporate lamps on side tables, floor lamps, perimeter ceiling lighting and feature lighting to any cabinetry. In one of our recent projects we were tasked with bringing a new build living room to life. With new builds – as with any property – there is provision for a ceiling fitting centrally located in the room and several power sockets around the perimeter. This gives us plenty of scope for the table and floor lamps along with the ceiling fitting, but we wanted to add even more depth. We widened the chimney breast to house a linear modern fire with the flames giving a simple, warm glow. To one side of the chimney, we built in a bespoke bookcase with recessed LED lighting to the rear of each shelf, which cast a stunning light onto the floor and softened the modern linear lines. Bespoke bookcase with recessed LED lighting Finally, we added two wall lights to either end of the client’s existing sofas, which flank a central piece of artwork. This frames the artwork Wall lights flank a and again casts a light central piece of artwork from behind, which wouldn’t otherwise be provided Check out the video our client sent us on our Instagram page. Within the next month look out for this and another of our finished projects on our Instagram @cocoonandbauer - a beautiful living room which features a fantastic coffered ceiling detail with perimeter lighting! tees-life.co.uk 35