LED lighting. It’s how you use it.
Lisa’s blog · Our North Road project
A few thoughts, and a look around a home where we’ve used it extensively.
Lisa Melvin
Founder, Kuche & Bagno 25 October 2026 · 7 minute read
North Road · A concealed line of light above Renée’s painting and the console.
I’ve been having a few conversations recently about LEDs and whether we should be avoiding them. There is quite a lot being said about flicker, colour and the effect of lighting on how we feel, and I can understand why choosing the right lighting can feel confusing.
I certainly wouldn’t be recommending that everyone keeps away from LEDs. We use them extensively in our work. For me, it’s about choosing them carefully and thinking about what the light is actually there to do. Do you need to prepare food, get ready in front of a mirror or simply find your way through the room? You don’t always need the whole space lit up.
Our North Road project, Ash House, is a really good example. Hannah and I have used lighting throughout the home, within the ceilings, furniture and bathroom details. Looking at the photographs is probably the best way to explain what I mean.
North Road / The kitchen
I like to see the effect, without staring at the light.
Look at the line of light around the kitchen ceiling. The LEDs are tucked into the perimeter detail, so the light spreads across the ceiling rather than leaving you looking directly at a strip of little dots. It gives the room another layer, alongside the light within the cabinetry.
This is something I come back to in our designs: using a recess, a niche or the edge of a piece of furniture to conceal the source. You still have to consider how bright it is and where it reflects. Hiding the strip doesn’t automatically make the lighting comfortable, but it gives us a useful starting point.
And of course a kitchen still needs proper working light. Chopping vegetables and sitting down with a drink are two different things. I want a scheme that can work for both.
The ceiling detail carries the light around the kitchen. You can also see the illuminated cabinetry beyond the island.
The bespoke bar · Light within the shelves and the storage below.
North Road / The bespoke bar
A piece of furniture comes to life.
I love what the lighting does here. The bar has lovely materials and details in its own right, but the light brings out the shelves, the objects and the depth of the cabinet. It gives you something to enjoy even when you’re not using the bar.
This is where I find LEDs so useful. We can build the lighting into the furniture, rather than relying on a ceiling fitting to do everything. The light becomes part of the design from the beginning.
And it can be very practical, too.
In the kitchen, the sliding cabinet fronts reveal the glassware and the illuminated timber interior. Open and closed, it’s quite a different view. The photographs below show the same cabinet both ways.
These are the little details I enjoy: storage that works hard, but is still lovely when you open it. It’s also why I like to think about the furniture and the lighting together, while we can still plan the profiles, wiring and access properly.
Open. The glassware and timber interior become part of the room.
Closed. The cabinet returns to a quieter, continuous elevation.
North Road / The music room
One of my favourite details.
The illuminated recess above the piano is another example. The instruments have a place of their own, with the light picking up the timber panelling behind them. They become something to look at and enjoy, as well as something to play.
It doesn’t take a room full of decorative fittings to make an interesting space. Sometimes it’s that one carefully considered detail. I particularly like how the light follows the recess and lets the instruments take centre stage.
The music room · A lit recess gives the instruments their own place above the piano.
North Road / Bedroom & study
The same thinking, in different rooms.
In the blue bedroom, light is tucked into the timber-lined shelving and the window-seat surround. It picks out the toys and the warmth of the timber against the blue cabinetry. That’s a very different effect from simply switching on the main ceiling lights.
In the study, we’ve used light within the display shelving above the desks. Again, it gives the furniture another dimension. The practical working light still needs to suit the person at the desk; lighting a shelf and lighting a task aren’t necessarily the same job.
There’s a thread running through the house, but each room has its own character. That matters to me. I don’t want every room to feel as though it has been given exactly the same treatment.
The bedroom. Light brings out the timber within the blue cabinetry.
The study. Display lighting is considered alongside the working space.
North Road / The bathrooms
Think about the mirror. Then the rest of the room.
The Origins Living mirrors bring their own layer of light to the bathroom. Their shapes are a lovely feature, and the glow around them helps give the basin area a presence within the room.
We’ve also used a concealed vertical line of light beside the blue wall panelling. It’s a much smaller detail, but you can see how it picks up the texture and defines the edge.
Getting ready in the morning and having a bath in the evening call for different things. I want enough useful light to see properly at the mirror, with the option of a softer atmosphere at other times. One setting doesn’t have to do everything.
The mirrors introduce another layer of light around the basin.
A closer look at the light beside the blue panelling.
How I live with light
In the evening, I want very little.
At home, I hardly ever put the main bedroom lights on in the evening. I’ll often just use the light coming from the en-suite to find my way around. That suits me. Someone else might want to read in bed or get ready for an evening out, and of course we need to allow for that.
What I’m interested in is having the choice. The room doesn’t need to be completely lit all the time. We can have the useful light when we need it, then bring things down as the evening goes on.
There is a sensible basis for that: the CIE’s guidance on light and daily rhythm encourages brighter days, much lower light before bed and darkness for sleep, with enough light to move safely at night. It isn’t simply a question of whether the source is an LED.
I was interested to see that MAVI’s own advice, from Kas Bordier’s practice, includes tunable LEDs that can change from brighter, cooler daytime light to warmer, dimmer evening settings. That feels much closer to the conversation we should be having: how the lighting supports the way we use our homes.
A few things I would still check
The details behind the effect.
The colour and the brightness. I tend to favour a warmer light for a relaxed evening setting. Around 2700K is a familiar warm white, but a warm lamp can still be far too bright. Kelvin tells you about the colour; lumens tell you about the light output. I also want to see what that light does to the finishes we’ve chosen.
The flicker and the controls. This is worth asking the supplier about. The lamp or tape, the driver and the dimmer need to work together, including when the light is turned right down. I would ask for flicker test information for the proposed combination. A strip being concealed or “dotless” doesn’t answer that question.
The way the light leaves the fitting. Side-emitting tape, recessed profiles and diffusers give us different ways of directing or softening it. They are useful choices, but they still need to suit the detail. You have to think about where someone will be sitting or standing and what they will actually see.
The energy it uses. Watts matter for running costs. A 14W lamp uses 86% less electricity than a 100W lamp, so there is a real saving when you’re comparing suitable light output. With tape, check the rating per metre and the total length. A little lighting detail repeated throughout a house soon adds up.
From our projects to your home
I’ll certainly keep using LEDs.
North Road shows just how much they can bring to a home. For me, the important part is thinking it through: where the light goes, what you need it for, how it works with the furniture and materials, and whether you can change it when you want a different atmosphere.
That’s the conversation I’d like to have when we’re planning your rooms.
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