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Light as a Statement: How Crafted Decorative Lighting Is Shaping Modern Luxury Interiors
- Style Essentials Edit Team
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By Kunal Rohatgi, Director, Fos Lighting
For a long time, lighting occupied a secondary role in interior design. It was expected to perform a function, illuminate a room, disappear into the background. Today, that hierarchy has changed. Across modern homes, boutique hotels, and luxury hospitality spaces, lighting has moved to the forefront, shaping how spaces feel, function, and are remembered.
Lighting is no longer just about visibility. It has become one of the most expressive tools in design, capable of defining mood, articulating texture, and giving identity to a space. Increasingly, it is light itself that anchors an interior, guiding the eye and setting the emotional tone before furniture or finishes are even noticed.
This shift has brought decorative lighting into sharp focus. Chandeliers, pendants, and wall lights are no longer treated as accessories. They are being chosen as intentional design elements, often acting as the central visual language of a room. A carefully placed lantern above a dining table or a sculptural sconce in a living area invites pause and attention. It changes how a space is experienced, encouraging a more conscious engagement with the environment.
At the heart of this change is a renewed respect for craftsmanship. In a world increasingly shaped by speed and standardisation, handcrafted lighting carries a presence that mass-produced fixtures simply cannot replicate. Each piece bears the imprint of human hands, subtle irregularities, material memory, and artistic intent. These are not imperfections, but markers of authenticity.
The difference between a light that merely illuminates and one that truly belongs to a space lies in these nuances. The warmth of aged brass, the slight asymmetry of hand-blown glass, the depth of hand-worked metal — these details bring texture and soul into an interior. They allow lighting to feel lived-in rather than installed.
In luxury interiors today, handcrafted lighting often becomes a narrative thread. A fixture’s finish may echo the patina of an old surface, its proportions may respond to a vaulted ceiling, or its form may align with the natural horizon outside a window. When lighting is crafted with intent, it does not compete with architecture; it completes it.
Personalisation plays a critical role in this evolution. Much like bespoke tailoring distinguishes the individual from the generic, customised lighting distinguishes a space from the template. Modern design increasingly rejects one-size-fits-all solutions in favour of pieces that respond to both architectural context and personal taste. At Fos Lighting, this philosophy has guided our work for decades, allowing patrons to adapt, rework, and refine lighting to suit their spaces rather than forcing interiors to conform to fixtures.
This renewed focus on craft also reflects a broader cultural shift. Incorporating handcrafted lighting into contemporary interiors supports artisan communities and preserves skills that risk being overshadowed by industrial production. It connects global design sensibilities with local heritage, resulting in spaces that feel worldly yet grounded, refined yet human.
The emotional impact of lighting is equally significant. Designers have long acknowledged its ability to transform interiors. Figures such as Gauri Khan have often spoken about the importance of layered lighting, not just to illuminate, but to create atmosphere, enhance materiality, and subtly alter how a space feels throughout the day. Light has the power to soften, energise, calm, or dramatise, depending on how it is composed.
Today, decorative lighting has firmly claimed its place as a central design element. It bridges function and beauty, necessity and expression, heritage and innovation. More than ever, it is being used to tell stories, reflect identity, and bring emotional depth into interiors.
For those of us working closely with crafted lighting, this moment feels significant. It marks a return to intention, to slower design decisions, and to objects that carry meaning beyond utility. As lighting continues to evolve, its role is clear: not just to illuminate spaces, but to shape how they are lived in and remembered.
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