Switched on: How to create dreamy bedroom lighting

Bedside lighting creates the ambience for rest and intimate encounters. Here's the lowdown on layering, symmetry and styling 

Vico Megistretti's Nesso (mushroom lamp) c.1960 in orange, red or white. Injection-moulded polycarbonate, 32cm from €172, Lamp Twist.

Bedside lighting guides the first and last moments of your day, especially as the hours of natural light grow shorter. It creates an atmosphere for restful sleep, relaxation, and intimate encounters. It also offers a key aesthetic detail, enhancing the overall function, layering, symmetry and styling of the room. 

Having just redesigned a small master for a newly married couple, we were drawn into a journey to find just the right set of bedside tables and lamps to match their highly specific vision for task and ambient lighting. Illuminated, I changed my lighting to a softer wash in the specific zone of our bed.