Palefire Studio creates sculptural, unique lighting for the home, with each of their lamps made-to-order and hand-painted. Here, the London-based design studio shares their tips for bringing together modern lighting and tiling in a way that is joyful yet effective.

Make a boldly artistic statement

While lighting and tiling usually serve a functional purpose in the home space, there is endless scope for creative experimentation when they are considered together. One place to start is by juxtaposing bold, block-colour tiles with vibrant, statement lighting. The Zellige Coral Gloss Ceramic is the ideal, high-contrast backdrop to our statuesque, Art Nouveau-style Parasol table lamp, hand-painted here in the snaking green Serpent pattern.

Breathe new life into small space

Lighting and tiling can be surprisingly impactful tools for bringing a sense of bright, airy spaciousness to a compact room or a darker corner. Opting for a large-format tile design, such as the Hendrix, in a pale, natural finish like the Ivory, is one way of opening up a smaller space. Ceiling or wall lights that work well in multiples, such as the Rotor Wall Light or Diabolo Surface Mount ceiling light, will elegantly complement this effect by flooding the room with extra light.

Spotlight your kitchen counter

When we were designing our more dramatic, larger-scale pendant lights, we wanted to make sure they were just the right style and proportion for hanging low over a kitchen countertop, either on their own, or in multiples for maximum impact. The Cloche and Buoy pendants bring a grand and commanding presence to a counter or kitchen island, and pair perfectly with luminous, high-gloss ceramic tiles such as those in the versatile Zellige collection.

Create the illusion of height

A space with lower ceilings doesn’t need to feel cramped or busy. All of our uplighter designs cast their glow upwards and outwards to transform a space, and are particularly useful for making the most of a room with a lower ceiling. Whether it’s eye-catching sculpture-like statement lighting such as the Satellite, or the more petit 1950’s-inspired Diabolo uplighter, which works especially well as a bedside lamp, uplighters are an ideal companion to long, slender tiles which draw the eye vertically, such as the Loki.

Introduce tactility and texture

At Palefire Studio, texture is a central element of design with our design principles because we make our sustainable lighting made from recycled paper pulp, which produces a delicate yet robust, ceramic-like-finish. Introducing a combination of slightly more rustic, textured surfaces, such as a Totem floor lamp in our chalky-white colourway, Celadon, or the similarly hued Alba Mist tile, brings a tactile, modernist-infused yet surprisingly cosy depth to any living space.

Build layers of warmth

A restful cocoon-like environment can be built with layers of earthy, natural shades and surfaces. Our clove and brick shades, particularly when painted onto the natural, unique grain of paper pulp, brings a cool, calm mood. A warm and cosy atmosphere can then be complemented further with the Mediterranean-inspired terracotta styles in the Valencia range, for example, or the tumbled marble in Mandarin Stone’s classic, core collection.