Although a new lighting scheme has ultimately to be planned for the whole house, it can be tackled gradually. One of the easiest, cheapest and most effective experiments you can try is to purchase and place a spotlight. Theatrical designers and shop window dressers have realized-and exploited- the dramatic potential of spots for many years. A figure on the stage, or a garment in a shop window, can be made arresting and dominating by the simple expedient of focusing spotlight on to it. Spotlights are now supplied specifically for the home and, used with a little imagination, they can do much to enliven a room. Because they are fully adjustable, both vertically and horizontally, even one lamp, carefully placed, can be used to illuminate a favourite painting, for example, and then turned to throw intense local light on a work surface such as a desk.
Apart from wall fittings, they can be placed on the floor as elegant uplighters, flitted to standing frames or ceiling tracks, or clamped to a bedside fitment for a reading lamp. Domestic spotlights are mostly small, neat and unobtrusive. The light and not the lamp catches the eye or should if it is properly placed. As well as ensuring that they do not give a blinding light, spots must also be positioned away from fabrics or any inflammable materials as they produce a considerable heat.
Normally, spotlights are fitted with special, internally silvered reflector lamps, but you can also buy general service lamps adapted with clip-on auxiliary reflectors. Versatility is the great merit of spotlights. Installation is simple: they screw into place, and are wired like any other wall or pendant light. Some have push button switches, so they can be wired into an unswitched circuit, without the need to run new cables back into the switch for other lights in the room. If you want to flt them to the ceiling, spotlights should be sited one to two feet from the wall. Placing them depends on what you want to illuminate. Spotlights should ‘spot’ something-be planned to pick out one area or object. Installed at random, much of their effect is lost.