Trend Spotlight: Soft Minimalism & Glow

Takeaways:

• In the past, bright ambient light was the key to ensuring modern home lighting design delivered the illumination you needed for every task.
• Today’s trends lean more toward lighting that enhances comfort and relaxation in home and hospitality spaces.
• The key to a warm, relaxing lighting scheme is tiered, as bulb types, fixture materials, and the size and shape of a room all play a crucial role.
• Opt for earthy, natural tones, bulbs that feature 2700K–3000K, and shades that diffuse light to create that soothing glow.

Soft Glow Lighting

In today’s fast-paced, hectic world, it should come as no surprise that people are curating home spaces centered on relaxation, safety, and soothing comfort. Lighting plays a huge role in designing a space that helps you feel safe the moment you step in the door.

Instead of bright overhead lights, today’s lighting designs focus on soft minimalism, diffusing the brightness of traditional bulbs to better suit a space that prioritizes comfort. Learn more about why soft glow lighting matters and how you can achieve this style in your space.

Benefits of Soft Lighting

In many environments, bright lighting is not just desirable, it’s essential to daily function. Hospitals, office spaces, and other work environments can benefit from the invigorating effects of bright, concentrated lighting.

Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to that type of lighting can cause visual fatigue, eye strain, headaches, and disrupted sleep patterns. To mitigate these effects, you can use soft minimalism in living room spaces and sleeping areas. The benefits of soft glow lighting include:

• Calming your nervous system
• Reducing stress and tension
• Helping your eyes relax
• Creating human-centered design
• Harmonizing furniture, textiles, and other design elements

How to Create Soft Lighting

Soft minimalism in lighting centers on three main elements: the temperature and tint of your light bulbs, the shade materials you choose for your light fixtures, and lighting design appropriate to a room’s height, shape, and overall size. Learn more about each category to discover how you can customize soft minimalism to illuminate your space.

Bulb Specifications

The basis of soft glow lighting starts with your light bulbs. To choose the correct bulbs, you’ll need to understand two important terms, Lumens and Kelvin.

Lumens indicate the brightness of the light bulb, with lower numbers resulting in whiter, brighter lights (200-400 Lumens) and higher numbers creating warmer tones (1300+ Lumens).

Kelvin is the unit we use to measure the bulb's temperature. The higher the temperature, the closer the light will be to daylight. Soft minimalism requires a Kelvin measurement between 2700K and 3000K, which is similar to candle flames. Light bulbs that feature anything over 4000K will feel like bright moonlight or full daylight with cool color undertones like blue and white.

Which Bulb Is Best?

Light bulb shape, tint, and type can also affect soft minimalism, but are less of a factor than Kelvin and Lumens. We recommend a light bulb with similar specifications to the following list for the best warm glow effect.

• 1000+ Lumens
• 2700K-3000K
• LED Edison-Style Bulb
• Amber or Clear Glass

Shade Materials

The next most important element of soft minimalism is the material of your shade. The substance and transparency of a shade can diffuse or direct light. More opaque shades create a beam of directed light, while completely clear shades allow the light to project naturally from the fixture. Here are the best shades for creating a soft glow:

• Fabric: Woven fabrics, like linen, are masters of diffusion. They create an even, uniform light with soft gradients rather than sharp shadows. Fabric shades also offer a unique texture that can soften the feel of geometric light fixtures, like those from the Bend and Slim & Bold collections.

• Natural: These shades are made of jute or rattan woven into drum, teardrop, or basket shapes. There’s a lot more variation in the weaving of these materials, resulting in uneven spacing between the fronds that lets light through. The diffusion with this material isn’t as even, but it feels natural and organic due to the shapes of the shades.

• Glass: While these shades have a harder aesthetic than fabric shades, they offer the same type of even diffusion through smoky, opal, and milk glass finishes. We recommend exploring the glass shades from the Globe or Flux Studio collection to customize the finish.

Room Size & Ceiling Height

The final element of soft minimalism is layering your lighting to provide comprehensive coverage without resorting to bright overhead or recessed lighting. If you have high ceilings, consider oversized fixtures, like chandeliers and large flush mount fixtures, to fill the space. You can use wall sconces to complete the layered design. For wide rooms, consider multi-port fixtures or a series of pendant lights to fill the space.

Soft Lighting & Modern Aesthetics

The best way to integrate soft minimalism in lighting with your modern aesthetics is to prioritize natural colors, sculptural silhouettes, and organic textures throughout your interior design. Utilize beige shades and hardware in earthy hues, as well as neutral hues for wall colors, furniture, throw pillows, rugs, and other textiles.

Just as you layer lighting to create comprehensive illumination, utilize layers throughout the rest of your space to develop a complete design aesthetic that seamlessly interweaves lighting with decor.

Color Cord Company for Soft Minimalism

If you’d like to start redesigning your space with soft minimalism in mind, Color Cord Company is here to help. We feature handmade fixtures that can fit into an existing space, as well as the opportunity to design a fixture from the ground up. Reach out to our team to discuss your needs for home redesign, hospitality spaces, and commercial projects today!