Let there be light | Home interiors A/W 2024

Your guide to lighting trends to invest in this season

(*This article was originally written for and published on kartarandseibo.com)

As the sun descends in the sky and summer draws to a quiet close, we find ourselves enveloped by a biting but richly bejewelled landscape. Decadently warm shades of red, orange, and amber wrap around us, and we transition from the heady highs of the estival season into the winter, when the sleepy world rests her head.

And in this change, we navigate a subtle psychological shift, shirking our yearning for sun-soaked freedom and roaming open, expansive spaces. Instead, we exchange exploration for introspection as we seek sanctuary and crave comfort in our homes. Retreating indoors to shelter from the elements, we rely on our homes to provide us with the protection we need.

Under the weight of heavy skies and a sun that sets too soon, our bodies naturally crave the light so glaringly absent from the world. Often overlooked as an integral tool for moderating moods and enhancing wellbeing, the lighting we choose for our homes has big benefit and extra importance during the long, dark winter months.

Even when the lights go off, a visually appealing centrepiece is the perfect antidote to the brutal elements and lack of light. Carefully cut crystals and gilded frameworks offer an unbridled dose of luxury certain to stave off the winter blues. And lighting styles seldom change dramatically each season - resulting in a key investment with minimal installation interruption.

Curious to know what the key luxury lighting trends are? We list our ultimate need-to-know styles along with key pieces to invoke each style into your home interior this autumn – and beyond.

Heritage & legacy

With sensibilities of art deco augmented with other retro characteristics, Bella Figura creates a cosmopolitan approach to British heritage and legacy styling – meaning they’re perfectly appointed to present us with a definition of classic style this season.

A renowned institution of British elegance, their signature style incorporates chintz chic synonymous with the turn of twentieth century, seamlessly diffused with the architecture of mid-century and 1970’s resplendence, where luxe homes dripped with profound decadence.

Bella Figura’s latest collection ‘Anima’ encapsulates the best elements of each of these periods for a remarkably innovative collection. The Spectre Curved Chandelier offers a visually harmonious blend of Art Deco opulence with pared-back mid-century planes. A uniquely curved architectonic frame offers an alluring stage for crystal droplets spilling out in suspended animation.

We also rate the Monarch wall light for a subtler take on luxury. Perfectly formed glass encapsulates a singles light – with a fluttering expansion reminiscent of the majestic wings of the Monarch butterfly. Continuing to invite natural beauty into the home, the Starburst Wall Light invokes a sense of mystery and subjective experience. The radiating lines echo many natural forms – from molluscs to shooting stars – and perfectly represent the iconic stylistic qualities of Art Deco design.

Modern artistry

A heavy emphasis on investment continues to pervade the luxury sector. Once, objet d’art and collectibles were the primary focus of quantifying value. In 2024, investment has significantly shifted. Small world items, such as table lamps, and intricate, custom lighting installations have borrowed esteem and inflated both interest and worth to home interiors. For those looking to make modest investments and elevate the aesthetic appeal of their homes, British design tour de force Porta Romana are superfluous in modern artistic lighting pieces.

Centring around sculpted individualities, each hand-made piece is lovingly crafted by artisans across British shores. With a distinct focus on sustainability, they rely on earth-sourced materials, proving that true beauty originates from the world wrapped around us.

The Calder Lamp exhibits the allure of earth and the possibilities of connected imagination. Embodying the tenderness of the human form, the abstract base is a humble, yet intriguing, artistic addition to the home interior. Conversely, the Emile Willow Ceiling Lamp is gorgeously ostentatious, with surrealist suspension qualities that add depth and dimension to the home. Enchantingly encroaching, the gold-spun reticulation provides and immersive experience, serving to deepen the intrinsic connection to our homes.

For folly and frisson, the iconic Mussel Shell Uplighter is the antidote to dull interiors. Borrowing attenuated patina qualities from antiquated sculptures, clusters of variegated turquoise, dappled with sprays of sea salt white and surreptitious hints of bronze offer a visually stimulating, sensory experience. The seriousness of technique and meticulous attention to sculptural detail is mirthfully offset by ascending concentric clusters of mussel shells. Yet again, proving the wonders of the earth will always be the biggest inspiration.

Intricate installations

If subtle and discreet isn’t in your nature, a grander, more expansive art-based lighting installation is the trend for you. Adored by a legion of eminent interior designers across the globe, intricately formed, highly conceptual sculptural designs diffused with lights are major players in the décor leagues.

Celebrating roots in artistry and contemporary product design, these modern art installations are the perfect hybrid of form and function, offering art with a practical edge.

Rock and Soar are a name to note in this pocket of the interiors sector. Founders Monica and Alison and their dedicated cadre of UK-based skilled engineers, makers, and craftspeople create delicate lighting installations that serve to shake the luxury paradigm. Subverting overt glamour, their ethos favours thought, ideas, and process, creating individual, emotive, immersive pieces.

Working in sympathy with the environment, their core collections carry distinctly organic and biological themes. Fracture observes the state changes of water when influenced by physical and chemical reactions. Delineating biological concepts, Fracture evokes emotional connections through the articulations of molecular power, tension, solidity, and fluidity.

Movement of Matter manifests delicate floral forms in suspended animation, exhibiting the mesmeric twists and turns discarded petals take in the wind. Molten metallic smoked and clear glasses embellished with brass reticulations represent fragility of orphaned petals, ubiquitously delivering sensibilities of balance and delicacy throughout the collection.

Available upon enquiry only.

Engineered opulence

Navigating to the opposite side of the design path, engineered excellence has received a rapid resurgence. Trend defying perfectly formed components equate to seemingly effortless luxury lighting installations.

British engineering tour-de-force Bert Frank specialises in luxury subsumed by impeccable craft. Founding the company on a code of respect and honour for contemporary appeal and tradition function, they remain distinct in their directive unifying polarised principles, calibrating aesthetic appeal with practical performance.

Borrowing visual flair from street lamps at the turn of the twentieth century, the elongated proportions of the Arbor pendant light is accidentally surreal while remaining faithful to the engineered principles that underpinned past industrial periods.

While circular sibling Masina pendant light lends similar stylistic qualities in a futuristic orb package, the Colt Wall Flush is visually reminiscent of refined, executive mid-century lighting styles. Proving perfection in history and the value in recycling trends, Bert Frank tint each design with a signature style so effortlessly engineered, it has to be born and bred in England’s industrial epicentre - Birmingham.

Masters of luxury

Italian luxury exactly as it should be, our concluding trend taps into the founding principles of luxury, a doctrine unconsciously written in the home of grandeur – Italy. Officina Luce epitomise a classic approach to luxurious living, with a dose of distinctly contemporary sculpture.  

Available upon enquiry, our must-have pieces include the Saba Chandelier, rippled with classical, universally luxurious features, the Shade Chandelier for an edgy iteration of early twentieth century glamour, and the Eterea Ceiling Lamp combining Shade’s edginess with Saba’s classic qualities, for a uniquely architectonic lighting installation.