Lighting collections can be quite a tricky job! Like museum lighting, which is sometimes designed for a permanent exhibition and shaped around special displays that showcase distinguished objects, a private collection (even if a small one) can also be quite diverse, especially in terms of colours and materials.
Before starting the design, we usually begin with questions like those below, which help us define the way the lighting will be designed:
- What is the collection about? What are the materials displayed? Is there any object which is light-sensitive?
- How are the displays? Are the shelves made of a solid element or are they made of glass (as in the case presented here)?
- Where can the lighting equipment be positioned? Can it be integrated into the furniture? How much space is there for recess?
- How much light does the display need? How’s the surrounding, ambient lighting?
- What colour temperature is most suitable for the material and colours displayed?
A few weeks ago, we have been asked to design and install lighting within an old cupboard with a glass door and rounded glass sides. A very unique piece of furniture that would host the collection of a beer fan. The collection is quite diverse as it has ceramic as well as glass beer mugs, metal advert signage, ceramic plates, record books with leather covers, matt metal lids covering the mugs, etc. Both the materials and the colours displayed were very different from each other. The shelves inside the cupboard are made of glass, and give a certain lightness and transparency to the display.
Starting with the questions above and went carefully through each of them with the collection owner. It was obvious to us from the start that the cupboard has been carefully chosen, given the beautiful contours and lightness of the interior which can hold exhibits in different levels. It was also clear, that we wouldn’t be able to perforate the wooden structure a lot in order to completely recess any equipment. Therefore, we needed to find a strategic position for the lighting, so that we could highlight the objects in all the 3 levels.
We have excluded linear, diffuse lighting, as the collection was asking for light sparkle – most of the items displayed are of a glossy nature – glass, ceramic with enamel and the shiny metal signs. Instead, we knew we would have to go with spotlights of medium to wide beam, depending on the final position inside the cupboard.
As it turns out, the beautiful wavy frame around the door and sides, holding the glass, helped us with hiding the lighting equipment on top of the cupboard. Obviously, the equipment had to be small and adjustable in order to be “invisible” and allow for future arrangements of the collection.
Usually, depending on the materials and colours of the exhibits, we choose one specific light colour (or colour temperature) to be used throughout. For this specific collection, so many different materials were on display, that during the testing, we decided to go for an unusual lighting approach. The results of the different effects of light colours can be seen below.
 
We were testing with different colour temperatures to see which would be more appropriate for the collection. Cold light colours (>3500K) did not work, as the beautiful brown colour of the wood started to get too grey. Instead, a combination of 2700K and 3000K was the best. The 2700K brings the warmer wooden and red tones to life while 3000K was better for the blue tones. In the images above, on the left, we show the 3x 2700K spots and on the right the 2x 3000K. It is indeed a small difference in light colour, but that made all the difference for the display.
In the final installation, we had 5 mini spotlight heads (medium light beam angle), positioned on the top. These can be adjusted to highlight the exhibits on the shelves’ various levels. Each light colour is positioned alternately, as indicated below. Our suggestion for displaying the items was to keep the most transparent ones on top and the opaque ones at the bottom of the cupboard, so the light is “filtered and refracted” and reaches the bottom, without becoming too weak.
All the wiring was hidden between the “ceiling” of the cupboard and the top (luckily we had these two layers of wood to hide the cables). A small switch is installed on the top back side of the cupboard, so the owner can turn on the lighting easily.
We hope you have enjoyed the tips in this post. As you see, collections are really fun to light and we loved to play with the different light colours and the rather small scale of this project. Want to get some more tips for your collection? Get in touch!
See you in the next post.
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