The Effect You're After

Dear Lyfairs,

This is the project we'd been talking about. We're looking for some kind of fixture that could replace this ceiling, but give the same effect.

— a designer, on a project we'd been discussing

Dear friend,

I know the image you mean, and I understand exactly what you're after. You don't want us to copy that ceiling. You want the feeling it gives. That soft, flowing field of light moving overhead, like a current running the length of the space. That, we can make.

Here is the thing worth seeing first. In your reference, the effect looks like it's built into the ceiling. But the ceiling isn't what creates the feeling. The feeling comes from hundreds of small points of light, set at different heights, flowing together in a wave. And that is exactly the kind of thing we make as a hanging fixture, not as a ceiling you'd have to build and never change.

Here is how we'd build it. We suspend many small elements on fine steel cables. Glass orbs, or crystal drops, or small lit spheres, whichever suits the look you want. Each one hangs at its own calculated height. Alone, each is just a point of light. Together, arranged with care, they form a flowing surface that rises and falls like the movement in your image. We can follow the shape of your corridor, its length and its curve, and we can set the density of the points and the depth of the wave to match the effect you're chasing.

And there's a quiet advantage to doing it this way. Because it hangs from the structure instead of being sunk into the ceiling, it stays flexible. We can shape it to your exact space. It can be dimmable. It can be reached and cleaned and serviced later, which a built-in ceiling never can. You get the effect, and you keep your freedom.

Since this is for your client, here is how we'd begin. Send us the dimensions of the space. The length, the width, and the ceiling height. Our designer will draw the layout for you. The pattern of the points, the path of the wave, the rise and fall of the heights. You'll see the whole thing on paper before anything is made, and you'll be able to show your client the exact effect, drawn for their space, and speak about it with certainty.

Send us the room, friend. We'll draw you the same feeling, made to hang.

Thinking of you, Marie, Lyfairs

Letters to Lyfairs is where we answer real people, one letter at a time, in our own words. If you're a designer chasing a particular effect for a client, show us the feeling you're after and let us draw it into a fixture. Write to us at support@lyfairs.com. Some letters become quotes. Some become drawings. This one could become a ceiling of light that isn't a ceiling at all.