USING RETRO AND VINTAGE INFLUENCES ON CONTEMPORARY INTERIOR DESIGN LIGHTING
Retro and vintage influences are becoming a common fixture in contemporary interior design lighting projects. These influences can be blended with more modern styles in bespoke lighting and interior design projects to balance nostalgia with innovation.
Whether you’re looking to spruce up your office building or if you’ve moved into a new residential space and want to encapsulate the feel of your new home with retro and vintage influences, this guide covers everything you need to know from using different light fixtures and ambience to bold colours and LED lighting.
No Grey Area offer a selection of bespoke lighting options for lighting designers or lighting beginners looking to combine nostalgia with their space.
Bulbs
Including the warm, amber glow of vintage bulbs can give your space the most vintage element possible, with their exposed filaments and soft light transporting you back to the early 20th century. Regardless of what the space is used for – a bedroom or a hospitality space like a restaurant – using bulbs in pendant lights, table lamps or hanging them bare from cords to really maximise that vintage feeling, you can add warmth and comfort to your rooms.
Vintage Sconces
With their brass, bronze and other antique finishes, vintage sconces can add depth, character and elegance to your space. They can be added to the walls of any space, whether it’s residential at home or in a commercial office, to position the light in several paths, like upward-facing, downward-facing, front-facing and multi-directional. Vintage sconces come in various designs, including candles and lanterns, so you can select the fixture that works best for your space.
Metal Pendant Lights and Crystal Chandeliers
Metal pendant lights can add a classy but vintage look to your space. They can be used as ceiling fixtures, cable lighting, dome fixtures, hanging boxes or mesh spheres and similarly to bulbs, their warm glow can bring warmth to a space, like a living room or bedroom. Metal pendant lights are also eco-friendly, meaning you can choose any fixture you prefer for your space and fill it with light whilst reducing your carbon footprint.
Crystal chandeliers can be used as a centrepiece in your rooms with antique or vintage elements, like brown and gold warm-toned lighting or textured fabrics to add a luxurious touch. If you are using a specific colour palette for a room, these brown and gold tones in a chandelier can match perfectly with chairs, tables and flooring.
Floor Lamps
Floor lamps are a staple vintage addition for any space. Both modern floor lamps and vintage floor lamps can help transform a space, serving as statement pieces to complement decor and reflect your style. Modern floor lamps have a sleek, contemporary aesthetic but can be versatile and adapt to different locations, which may be beneficial if you are using lighting design to enhance your workspace, whilst vintage floor lamps have a timeless appeal with a unique design. Together, by following either a vintage colour palette of golds and browns, combined with the warm hues of a bulb behind a fabric lampshade, you can use floor lamps to bring a retro and vintage vibe to your space.
Spotlights
By highlighting the retro elements of your space that could otherwise go unnoticed, like artwork on the walls or shelves boasting antiques you’ve collected over the years, spotlights can help create focal points around your interior space. Through either their gold, bronze or brass metal fixtures to their soft gold or warm yellowish hues, spotlights are a unique addition to bring the vintage vibes to your space.
Bold Colours and LED Lighting
Retro colour palettes are inspired by past eras including the bold and bright hues of the 1960s to the more earthy tones of the 1970s, and these bold block colours can help evoke feelings of nostalgia and warmth. An especially good idea if you are working in a commercial or retail space, like a vintage clothing store, implementing bold but retro colours, including neon colours for vibrancy, can bring your space to life with added nostalgia.
All of these bespoke lighting fixtures can be combined with LED lighting to experience with the retro and vintage vibes mixed with more of a modern touch. Modern LED lights, like the LED strip, are becoming increasingly popular to highlight retro fixtures with a pop of colour.
Why Retro and Vintage?
Retro and vintage influences are a unique way for lighting designers to fulfil a range projects. By using bespoke lighting solutions from No Grey Area, from vintage bulbs, pendant lights and spotlights to retro colour palettes and LED lighting, you can bring new waves of life to your space.
From providing a modern solution for historical buildings to using retro and vintage style lighting to brighten up your business, No Grey Area offers bespoke lighting solutions for your project. We can work together to fulfil your project’s needs.
