A Unique Blend: Concrete and Light

We all have seen a lamp and pondered upon its beauty. Lamps have to be beautiful because they have the onus of making a place beautiful. They have the responsibility of creating light effects, lighting up those dull corners and on the contrary be made and placed in such a way that it is the soul of the space.

Have you ever wondered what goes into the making of one single lamp?

Have you ever wondered what a lamp is made of?

Have you asked your shopkeeper about the material of lamp?

Ever wondered which hands were lucky to have made those marvels of interior decor?

A buyer does not generally dive deep into the making of any product. Sometimes Fast Food chains are exposed of its brutality towards animals and you realize of being so unaware of things which are so close to you but still unknown. The shampoo that you use to clean your hair, the clothes that you use to protect your body, are all these a product of a good noble thought or are these just another consumer fraud? Well, it is a fraud only if you care, its not if you dont care. But we are humans and we CARE.

Out there in the city of high-tech industry nesting almost 9 million people, the State capital of Karnataka, Bangalore, a lady is breaking myths of consumerism and showing us how to CARE.

With the banana fibre lamps she rocks homes, residential and commercial spaces. She is known to make unique range of beautiful, translucent and textured paper from agriculture and craft waste fibres like banana, sisal, mulberry and many other things. She uses this paper to make lamps, accessories and stationary.

Her latest product is launched this January. And this product will baffle you for sure.

WABI SABI

It represents a Japanese world view that accepts simplicity, imperfection and transience. These characteristics have inspired our designer and a product of beauty has been formed. 

The Simplicity of exposed CEMENT without the burden of weight and permanence cleverly Blended with various other materials gives us "LIGHT as CONCRETE"

www.kiaralighting.in

Just touch it, feel it, pick it up.

And keep wondering about the secret formula!

Take a look at the various designs!

Make your home beautiful with these unique lamps. The benefit of these lamps as a buyer is that here you do not have to wonder where and how these lamps were made. We take CARE of that part. All you have to do is Admire!

5 Tips to Design Your New Home

Hello folks,

We all love to have our own home and more than that we love to design it with our own imagination. You do assign an interior designer for your new found home but we want to inculcate our own ideas. When we do this we often suggest an idea which we have seen in someone else's house or we have our own set of demands and image of how the house would look like. All of us have vivid images of a perfect looking home; after all we want to impress our neighbours, relatives and friends and some of us just want it to be comfortable to just breathe. But before these dreamy images of a perfect house we often fail to consider some basic know-how of how we should proceed with the work.

Here are some tips for you to keep in mind when you request your interior designer the idea that you want to incorporate for your beloved home.

1)     Do not overload with a lot of furniture

It is always advised not to overload the room with a lot of furniture. Minimum required furniture of high quality is a very good way to have a beautiful home. Your room should have just enough furniture for your things to fit in well.

You might be moving from an old home to a new one, so you might carry furniture gifted by close relatives, and you must be in no mood to discard them, in this case you take the antique and design everything else around it. Well, a little bit of discarding of a few things that you don’t need is a very good attempt on having a less crowded home.

NOTE: Less the clutter, more the beauty!

2) Draw a picture

Always make use of your imagination on a paper. What you suggest to your designer might not be very well understood. It happens a lot of times that the final result of your idea comes out to be something different than what you had imagined. All designers first draw a rough design and then make alterations in it. You should do the same. You can explain your design in layman terms with a drawing, your designer will understand better, trust me!

This helps when we have some furniture which we want the house to have and we try to build the overall interior around it. The best way is to draw it on a paper fitting it in the room and then surround it with other things you might want to have. This helps you visualize the design and also gives the interior designer a clear view of your demands.

NOTE: Visualize on paper!

[ Source: http://artsmerized.com/interior-design-sketches-living-room/ ]

3) BE yourself

The look of the jewellery store just amazes you and you dream of a similar design in your house too. The chandelier in a TV series catches your attention and you wish you would have it for your home. Remember, that shops and big showrooms have a very different objective of interior decoration, they want to attract customers with shiny objects, they can be loud and off-beat but still gather appraise, they can be subtle with the intention of giving a calming effect. Homes have to be comfortable to your eyes; houses are meant to be cosy, liveable and breathable. Similarly the design of your friend’s house might interest you and you might want a similar design. But even in this case you must know that your friend might have a very different concept of comfort than what you have. Thus, knowing what you want is very important your wants should be according to what you think you need first and what you can have. One aspect deals with aspirational things and other with logic of what is possible and the best fit for you and your family.

On the other hand we also suggest making your own style statement when it comes to designing your own house. Be daring and ask your interior designer to implement that crazy idea of yours to adore a corner of your house. It may be a very cool bar counter themed like your favourite movie or it may be a huge leopard print carpet in the living room. It may also dominate your whole house, a very uncommon colour combination might work really well, like I said before communicate it with your interior designer and ask him/her to picturize it.

NOTE: Make a balance between aspirational and logically possible designs and don’t afraid to be yourself!

 4)     Lighting with a purpose

Lighting should be dealt with seriousness; it should be a separate task for every room. The major colours that we implement are yellow and white. These should be put in tandem, in such a way that they complement each other. Do not overdo with a lot of lights where some might become redundant and might not even create an effect. The best way to avoid it is to have light for a purpose!

- Use different kind of lights for different corners to make a warm effect

- Use dimmers to adjust light according to the situation, a brighter light for a party at home and calmer light effect for sleeping time

- LED lights are in very much trend because they are energy efficient and they reduce your light bills

- Accentuate the best features of the house using lights. Use small focus lights to highlight a painting, reading light on the top of reading chair. A dressing table lamp is a must in all the bedrooms. You can also do a combination of ground level lights to have a different effect altogether

- You must have a portable lamp to have a flexibility of lighting effect according to the situation required

- The ceiling lights and chandeliers should be well consulted with light suppliers and interior designers

NOTE: Take lighting seriously, it can give you flexibility to change the mood of the house from party ambience to warm and cosy ambience

                                  

5)     Keep track of size of the furniture you want to buy

You might go to a shop to find the best lampshade of your dreams; it has similar theme as your whole house and is very beautiful and subtle, you might even buy and bring it home. Oops! It doesn’t look so good!

You wonder why it does not match the whole room. The reason is its size. Yes, if you overestimate or even underestimate the size of your room vs the size of the furniture, you are making a mistake. Now, you cannot carry all your home dimensions with you and you are not an expert with such things. So, let your designer know that you want a size of furniture to match the size of the room. Sometimes a big chandelier might not look good in the hall but it might look very good in the alley. A big painting might not bring as much feel in the dining room as it brings in the bedroom.

NOTE: Furniture matters and so does its size!

Some general tips:

1) Try installing a lot of plants around the house, gives fresh look and also keeps atmosphere of the house clean and fresh

2) Keep furniture which is easy to clean and maintain

3) Choose the star accesory of the house and highlight it with lights

4) Plan lighting of the house along with all the furniture and decoration

5) Minimal is best because it helps keep design in budget and gives more space

Hope these tips help you. Comment if you want more advice or you want to give your valuable suggestions. We will appreciate it.

Love,

TEAM KIARA

How to choose lights for interiors?

Ever wondered what kind of lights will look perfect for your home, office or any space that you have? We buy a home of our dreams to live a life of dreams in it and we put all our energy to build/buy a house. We call it a home and not just a flat or a bungalow because we possess it to keep our family safe and comfortable.

How often do you buy lamps for your home? It is only when you complete the final touches of interiors you think about lights. These lights are installed not because you want illumination but because lamps look good, everybody has one or two lamps as a show-piece and they hardly help illuminating the house. Sometimes they just fit perfect and sometimes they do not even serve the purpose of lighting but they just throw light.

In office interiors the lights have only one purpose i.e. to lighten up all corners, so that its a bright light and keeps everyone awake. Have you ever wondered that good lighting with well thought design can increase productivity of your employees??

Ever wondered that illumination technology can actually make you healthier mentally and eventually physically?

 There is the whole world of illumination technology out there and you just install lights for your space without even giving it a thought.

Open your eyes to the light that will make you happier, healthier and productive.

Here are some tips on how to choose lights?

Lighting design is a growing field of consultancy in abroad and now in India. People have started realising the importance of lighting and light fixtures, and the importance of a methodology to use it at right places at right proportions, to make spaces function properly and for the users to perform efficiently in whatever task they are up to. Ideally, we should choose, lighting and not just light fixtures or lights. For choosing right lighting, we need to think if lighting at the very start of concept. If we need wall washing lights or floor embedded lights or even ceiling embedded lights, same needed to be installed during the civil construction itself. Buying light fixtures for given points will be a last choice. There can be different ways of lighting depending on the concept of interiors and tasks, including direct lighting, indirect lighting, ambient lighting, task lighting, focus lighting etc. All these should be well planned ahead in conjunction with interiors and a lighting designer’s role becomes very important for achieving the best of results.

Need of coordination

What we require to build a space with ideal interiors and ideal lighting, is a very high amount of coordination between the architect, interior designer, electrical consultant and lighting consultant. At KIARA, we execute interiors as well along with lighting, with customised furniture solutions, to ensure proper coordination of all aspects. Even otherwise, it's always better to discuss the options at very first stage of the project to ensure meaningful amalgamation.

(Interiors done by Kiara)

Magic of lights

A space can behave totally different in a day and night. A formal space in the morning can suddenly change to an informal setting during late evenings. A busy space can well be a meditation space. A loud space can well be a romantic space. All this can be achieved by the magic of ambient lighting, using right concept of fixtures. A great combination of direct and in direct lighting, combined with floor stands, table stands, hanging lamps, candle LEDs etc. can create moods that can enthral your souls.

(Interiors done by Kiara)

Energy efficient lighting

Apart from making the space look magical and unique, it is also important to ensure we don't waste energy. As we said earlier, lighting always doesn't mean bright lighting. It means right lighting, whether bright or dim depends on the space, mood, task and time. We also have energy efficient LED lamps, for all fixture choices including LED filaments to match traditional and rustic concepts. We can also depend on atomisation for saving the energy more.


It is very important to enquire about the energy your lamps will consume before installing them. In this home as per the image above, we decided to go ahead with energy efficient lamps. Using LED lamps gives you the liberty and it is very much in trend.



(Interiors by Kiara)

The ceiling hanging lamps in this house are just 8 watts each, they radiate good light and give good ambience.

Lights to match different concepts

The wide variety of choice helps us to match any interior concept. The choice of materials and style has to be made in accordance with the total design language. There are choices to match all concepts, whether classic or traditional or rustic or ethnic or contemporary or modern. If lighting is given the same importance as we give for furniture, flooring or painting, we end up creating unique and charming spaces, which are well knit together. Often, lighting becomes a last choice, and us left to pick and keep at the last moment, from whatever is available at the nearest shop. This leads to a complete collage of elements which will constantly challenge each other creating a tension in the space. Ideally, lighting should be thought of at the very conceptual level, and should be given same importance as any other interior element. For customisation of lights or for the production of locally made lights, sufficient time would be required before installation at the site.

(Note: this information is as per Vanthia Veedu magazine for 'Smart lighting'  article)

Interior Lighting Experts

Hello all,
We all know that proper lighting is a must in interiors. It is not just lighting of the corners but it is an art. We @ Kiara are interior lighting experts.

We start this blog to educate our viewers and to spread the knowledge of lights in interiors.

We are based in Calicut/ Kozhikode.
The image below is Coxswain which is a residential building near Kozhikode Beach. We used lights by Jenny Pinto, a famous artist who makes lamps using banana fibre.