Designed your room beautifully, but still feel there’s something missing? The answer might be a little interiors misbehaviour…
The colours work, the furniture is nicely proportioned, the rug ties everything together, nothing jars… Everything seems right with the room… And yet! Somehow, and you can’t quite put your finger on why, something feels missing.
If that’s familiar, the surprising reason may be that you’ve actually done too good a job of designing things. For the truth is that a home needs more than harmony…It needs a little bit of friction.
In other words, it may need a little interiors misbehaviour.
The problem with being too sensible
A room can be tasteful and calm, yet still have a sort of ‘I’ve passed all my exams’ vibe. But if everything in a room is too obedient, the whole thing can start to feel oddly flat… not quite human, not really you.
The most glorious homes usually have at least one thing that does not behave perfectly, be it an unexpected colour or an object with a surprising shape. Eye-popping patterns and improbable materials are good, too. But of course, the simplest and best way to break the rules is through lighting…
Lighting is the easiest place to be brave
One of the great things about lighting is that it lets you be brave without recklessness or too much effort or cost. Painting and papering are rather effortful and buying, for example, a yellow sofa, is a risky business.
But a lamp or shade is the perfect medium for expression: you can give all sorts of colours, patterns, textures and materials a whirl in absolute safety.
And think about the ways a single lamp can make such a big difference… from adding height with a floor lamp to using a rechargeable lamp to bring a pop of colour to a corner.
And if you change your mind? Just pair it differently, re-shade it or pop it somewhere else! Lamps are very forgiving creatures.
Rage, rage, rage against the tyranny of the big light
It’s worth taking note of another reason rooms can feel too well-behaved, which is being lit too evenly.
The big ceiling light has its uses but as the main source of atmosphere is rarely your best friend. It has a tendency to remove shadows and mystery and those flattering softnesses.
So if you’re feeling like the room is a little flat, step one is often to notably increase the number of small light sources dotted around the room. It really makes an extraordinary difference when you have a few more pools of light and gentle shadows. (Soft light also makes you and everyone else look nicer, which is no small thing.)
A little oddness goes a long way
Of course, a home does not need to be wildly eccentric to have character, but even the most understated room can benefit from a little zing here and there, a flicker of pattern or a smile-inducing colour.
Don’t make everything shout at everything else, but let a couple of things speak up. For example, a very simple room might use a shade with a complex pattern, or a traditional room might enjoy a contemporary lamp.
Little touches like that give the eye somewhere to go and they suggest that the designer has made a real personal choice rather than followed a formula.
How does the room change when the sun goes down?
Perhaps the real test of a home is what happens to it after dark... Some rooms look lovely in daylight and then at dusk it turns out all the beauty was being carried by the windows.
Others become better at night, when the lamp comes on by the sofa and the hallway glows and the kitchen island is bathed in a warm light. A room that feels perfectly pleasant by day can become really quite enchanting by evening.
Permission to misbehave
So, if your home is looking good but still feels as though it needs something, lighting is a very good place to start.
Put light somewhere unexpected and let a dark corner join in the fun. Choose the object with a little more wit or warmth or swagger. Good lighting can help with all of that. It can make a sensible space feel less stiff and give a beautifully behaved home just enough mischief to make it interesting.
And really, isn’t that a much better, more Pookyish way to live?
Browse all our gloriously misbehaved lamps and shades here.