Light has a great influence on us. The lighting (or lack of it) in an interior influences your mood, can make a room look bigger or smaller, and even has an effect on your health. For example, you might have experienced a headache because you were reading with not enough light. In a small house, it is perhaps even more important to think carefully about lighting, because you have fewer options, but also because lighting provides a lot of atmosphere in your Tiny House while taking up little space. Let me give you some pointers!
Picture by BlueMonque
It is a good idea to include lighting in the design of your Tiny House. Which type of lighting is the best choice depends very much on your taste and on the style of your interior. It is also useful to take into account the energy consumption of the lighting, especially if you are going to live off-grid. Due to its low energy consumption, LED lighting is a very good choice and fortunately the available range is increasing. There already are beautiful LED lamps on the market.
Picture by Noordwijk Klein
Recessed spotlights – sleek and minimalistic
Recessed spotlights take up by far the least space in the house and come in many shapes and sizes. They are nicely concealed in your ceiling and you can fit them in all kinds of places. They fit not only into the ceiling, but also into the floor of your loft so that they shine on the ceiling and thus spread indirect light. You can buy recessed spotlights that you can dim and tilt so that the light shines against the wall. Another bonus: you don’t have to dust them. In my Tiny House I have beautiful aluminium recessed spotlights. They fit very well in my interior and because they are dimmable and tiltable, I can also play with the light in the house. My spots look like this:
Picture by Marianka Pranger
Pendant lamps – in any desired style
You can also choose one or more hanging lamps. Nowadays I see very nice small hanging lamps in photos of Dutch Tiny Houses, such as the one below which is owned by Dierdre and her husband. They live in their Tiny House in Hengelo and came across these beautiful little Moroccan hanging lamps. Normally you will only find the larger sizes, but they are also available in small. You can also get creative yourself and make a nice rope lamp. This way you can fully adapt your lighting to your style.
Picture by Dierdre Klein Punte
Create a lighting plan
As I wrote at the beginning of this article, good lighting makes a world of difference. Light influences our mood and our productivity. With a good lighting plan, you bring atmosphere and warmth into your home. Making such a lighting plan is really an art. Wendy and Timothy van Noordwijk Klein created a lighting plan for their self-built Tiny House during the design phase of the house. Timothy is a professional lighting designer and that is reflected in the lighting plan. The result is remarkable; the space really looks bigger when the strategically placed LED strips turn on at night. When you light up the corners of your house, they look bigger. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Thanks in part to a well-thought-out lighting plan, their Tiny House is a very cozy and attractive home in the evening as well as during the day.
Pictures by Noordwijk Klein en BlueMonque As you can see, there is plenty of choice in a Tiny House when it comes to lighting. If you are currently in the process of designing your own Tiny House, then I hope I have provided you with some inspiration. Don’t forget about the lighting; that’s the big message here. Good luck! 
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