Overcoming A Dark Apartment With Ingenious Lighting Schemes

An ingenious interior design was required to please the bright outlook of a young couple located in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine. Their 115 square metre apartment was lacking in natural light due to its long layout, plunging the back of the home into shade. Designers at Dezest met the challenge with a range of lighting solutions, including a kitchen backsplash of LED lit panels, recessed perimeter lighting that throws a bright glow down each wall, and a borrowed light arrangement via french doors to a guest room. Despite the dark disposition of the home, the team hasn’t shied away from deliciously deep blue colour inserts or the utility of living greens.

In rebellion of the lack of light, the design team implemented a royal blue living room scheme. Upholstered blue panels make up the tv wall decor, opposite a wall of blue geometric pattern. A feeling of cleanliness comes from smooth white walls around the cosy colour inserts. Blue scatter cushions bridge the gap in the middle, dressing a light grey L-shaped sofa and a matching footstool. The lounge furniture arrangement is pulled together by a plush grey area rug. Modern ceiling lights are poised for switch-on in a square track above.

A hanging bubble chair is suspended by the sofa, its acrylic case allows daylight from the windows to pass through via sheer white drapes. It’s blue seat cushions complement the colour theme in the rest of the room.

The open plan living room runs straight into a U-shaped kitchen diner, which is predominantly pure white with just a few base notes of rich stained wood. In the early stages of the interior design process, the design team faced the problem of a long wall without any window openings. As the rear of the room presented itself as the best option for situating the kitchen, a set of French doors were installed to the adjacent guest room to facilitate an exchange of borrowed light.

An Eames style lounge chair is nestled by the edge of the kitchen installation, beneath a black swing arm wall lamp. If you’d like to create your own little reading corner like this, take a look at these comfortable reading chairs for inspiration.

The kitchen peninsula stops short of the width of the room to allow space for a full sized dining table. The wood table seats six diners between the kitchen layout and the lounge area. A row of five dining room pendant lights dangle from a wood clad soffit overhead. The soffit design descends as an open shelving unit at the end of the room, to display a small selection of glasses and items of crockery.

A decorative vase is set on a table runner as a simple yet elegant table centrepiece. The mid century modern style chairs are replicas of the Eames Eiffel chair.

Black tiles form a border around the edge of the kitchen diner space. The rest of the floor is a grey micro cement.

A run of LED lit panels make up the backsplash to dispel all shadows in the white kitchen. A set of open kitchen shelves have been given a blue finish to tie in with the colour story in the rest of the open plan room.

The French doors to the guest room can be left open to extend the area of open plan living space.

The guest room also contains the home office, which is equipped with a built-in desk and attached shelving unit. Two beautiful geometric pendant lights dangle over the worktop.

Bespoke white storage cabinets line one side of the entry hallway, with a comfortable seat recessed in the middle. The hall seat is upholstered in plush blue fabric, and lit by spotlights in its upper frame.

An illuminated mirror covers an angled wall in the hallway, mounted flush from edge to edge, making the narrow space feel larger.

The bedroom is a super cosy scheme of dynamic lighting solutions. Strip lights run around the edge of the bedframe to cast a glow over the entire base and attached bedside units. The dreamy golden light shines through a knitted throw draped across the end of the bed. Bespoke window seats follow the same illuminated edge design. More LEDs have been installed inside the border of a recessed wooden headboard feature, which reaches all the way up to and over the ceiling.

The neat black bedroom pendant light that is suspended over each bedside storage unit is the Panton VP6.

A second study desk resides in the corner of the bedroom, backed in wood to match the towering headboard.

The desk design is part of the all encompassing bedroom furniture installation that runs as one continuous piece around the entire room.

The cushioned window seats serve as a perfect reading nook.

Diamond pattern tiles lead into a luxurious bathroom scheme of gloss white and wood furniture and living greens.

A living wall ascends behind the double sink bathroom vanity, illuminated from either side by white LEDs. Two bathroom pendant lights hang in front.

A separate WC has a floor of plain white tiles at the foot of powder blue-grey walls. A bespoke corner cut vanity unit is wedged into the small space, topped with a vessel sink. A lighting strip slices up the wall and across the ceiling space, where a hanging terrarium drops into view.