Well-planned lighting prevents eyestrain and accidents, particularly in working areas like the kitchen and the study. In older house lighting sockets are usually in the ceiling or higher up in the walls with little aesthetics.

Lighting design is a lot about what pleases the eye, but aesthetics should be backed up by functionality. Here are some handy hints to help you get through most lighting tasks easily.

* The type of moods created depends on the fittings and the bulbs used for lighting. It is necessary to have a balance between light and shadows. Heavy shadows can look dull and morbid while uniformly bright lighting can look too stark.

* It is best to provide for a modest backdrop of light throughout the room and use strategically placed lights for extra illumination. You can also have special lighting points placed to highlight an attractive area of the room, for instance, a painting on the wall, a set of curios or a reading corner.

* While working out lighting schemes and the technicalities of electrical fittings, make sure that naked light bulbs are not visible to people sitting or standing in the room. This is not only bad design, but dazzles the eyes. Low-level lights should have shades to hide the bulb. For the dining table, rise and fall pendant lights work well.

* While designing lighting, it is best to draw the layout of the room on a graph paper to decide where you want lighting in relation to the sitting arrangements and other features in the room. This will give you a fairly good idea of the lighting requirements and how the room might look lit.

Living room