glass and oak staircase

How to choose the right lighting for your staircase

Guest Blog by Sian Parsons, Senior Designer at John Cullen Lighting

As we’re sure you’re aware, the staircase is the central pod of your home. It links spaces and people together, giving it a very important function. It should be a practical piece of the home as well as being sculptural, with lighting being able to make a big difference to this.

When considering lighting, the design of the staircase, construction and desired effects are the key elements to consider, along with finish and texture. In most cases, lighting on staircases isn’t purely a decorative theme, it also serves a very real purpose in terms of the safety of the staircase itself and the surrounding areas. Glare should be avoided, and maintenance considered, whilst enhancing the form can add beauty and softness to the look.

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Maximising small staircases

Playing on a small staircase
The best things come in small packages. Not true of bank balances, but often true of many staircases. While we’ve installed some grand staircases over the years, the majority of us are slightly less well-endowed when it comes to our stairs. Many of the family homes we visit may only consist of two and a half newel posts – but size, after all, isn’t everything.

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Tiny tips for making a homely hallway

It doesn’t have to be a New Year’s resolution or part of the annual spring clean – decluttering is said to be ‘good for the home and good for the soul’ and now is the time to start! Let’s begin with your hallway, it is after all the first room in your home which your guests will see. We visit lots of homes all over the country and we learn a few things alone the way. We see what people do well and what they don’t. We’ve come up with our 6 favourite tips we’ve picked up on our travels for making the most of what you’ve got. They may be obvious, but they’re important.

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Margaret Dabbs - Beauticians

A treat for the toes: Margaret Dabbs, Cheltenham

If anyone understands style, beauty and luxury, it’s the Margaret Dabbs brand.

Since opening her pioneering series of Foot Clinics in 1998, Margaret also created a range of foot products to fuse both the health and beauty of her customers’ feet. From London to Dubai, Margaret’s clinics have gone from strength to strength. Discerning clients from the beautiful Spa Town of Cheltenham now have the opportunity to experience the Margaret Dabbs treatment in their recently opened fifth clinic.

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Add style to your hallway

A hallway is more than just a means of accessing other rooms in your home, it is, and should be regarded as a room in it’s own right, especially as it probably the first room to receive visitors and usually receives the most traffic and wear and tear. It therefore sounds obvious to identify that it should be kept clean and tidy with shoes tidied away and skirting boards touched up after scuffs.
oak and glass staircase

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Catching up with old friends

Catching up with old friends

Catching up with old friendsIt’s a couple of years since we first met our friends at Smart Furnishings.

The staircase in the center of their store was in need of a renovation and we were glad to be of service. Since this time, the lovely people at Smart Furnishings have been happy to invite people into their store to see the quality of the installation for themselves before taking the plunge with a staircase of their own and even pointing their own customers in our direction.

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