The lighting design for a modern house in the mountains of Sicily in southern Italy was recently featured in top commercial interiors magazine, IDFX.

The striking interior and terrace lighting for the property was designed by Carl Gardner of CSG Lighting Consultancy Ltd., working closely with Richard Hind of London architects, Studio ANA.

The interior design of the house is unashamedly modernist, in contrast with the rustic style most often found in Sicilian country houses. The lighting design was constrained by the solid floors and walls, with hardly any dropped ceilings or other voids in which to conceal downlights, wall-washers or burial uplights. ‘We had to rely almost entirely on surface-mounted lights, so they had to have a real presence by day as well as night,’ Carl Gardner explains.


The main finishes are all-white walls, pale grey woodwork and polished concrete finish ceramic floor tiles by Porcelanosa. To contrast with these muted tones, Carl Gardner selected dramatic, colourful lighting pieces by companies such as Arteluce, Fabbian and Oligo. A ring of red glass spotlights surrounds the spectacular central stairs, which also has individual twinkling LEDs to crosslight each of the steps. Translucent coloured tables and chairs by Kartell and Calligaris were also chosen to take advantage of the strong sunlight – and the artificial lighting scheme.

Discrete coloured lighting features were a strong theme in the design. In the main bedroom, for example, turquoise light bleeds out from the under the bed, which has structural glass legs – while in all three bathrooms/ shower-rooms coloured washes from below benches or from high shelves add mysterious, entrancing details. On the terrace, vertical coloured fluorescent tubes by Encapsulite were mounted vertically on the inner faces of the timber pergola which encloses the front of the property – while the small plunge pool is lit from within by two blue under-water spotlights.