Contemporary Lighting Fixtures: Illuminating Ideas from Salone del Mobile Milan

If you’ve wondered lately about new and innovative ideas in the world of lighting, you’ve come to the right place! Fred and I recently returned from Salone del Mobile Milan as guests of the Italian Trade Commission. Salone del Mobile is the largest furniture show in the world, and this year featured three enormous pavilions filled with stunning new lighting designs from around the globe. I was so excited to be there and was running around a mile a minute, taking pictures on my phone so I’d have an inspirational record of everything we saw. My photos aren’t exactly professional-quality – but they’ll still give you a good idea of the lighting that blew us away. Here are some of my favorite lighting fixtures from the show:

We saw many cool examples of contemporary lighting you could think of as art. For a long time now, lighting designers have been doing sculptural light fixtures that can double as “wow” focal points in a room. But advances in LED lighting have changed the game completely, allowing lighting designers to break even more boundaries and have more fun than ever before. These circular lights hanging from the ceiling are a great example. A low-voltage wire runs through a thin tube; the transformer is remotely located. This light fixture is probably twelve feet long, so it requires a serious ceiling to hang from. It would be amazing over a dining table in a house with dramatic ceilings; it would also have a memorable impact in a commercial space, like a hotel reception area.

These disks can also be viewed as art. Made of patterned Plexiglas, they could be used as a fun little folly sitting on a living room side table, or they could be scattered in multiples to create interesting design moments throughout a lounge space or at a bar. If you think of light in terms of providing ambiance from multiple sources at multiple heights, these sit somewhere in the middle. They’re not as tall as an overhead light that illuminates your head, and they’re also slightly lower than a table lamp would be. They’re a terrific mid-point source of light.

This bronze “vine”is truly art-like, and in fact is similar to installations you’ve probably seen in magazines. It’s a great example of the double-duty nature of sculptural lighting that is both functional and aesthetic at the same time.

How fun are these colorful pill-shaped light fixtures? Bars of LED-sourced light make them playful as well as functional and are yet another example of lighting as art.

Similar to a mobile, this light fixture is positively sculptural. It would be amazing over a dining room table or hanging in a corner. Comprised of loopy leather strips connected by LED light tubes, it’s powered by an electrical source in the red stem hanging in the center. It attaches at six different points on the ceiling, drawing the eye all the way up to fully appreciate just how wonderful this really is!

Here, LED rods are assembled in a symmetrical grid that can be customized by length. It would look fantastic over a kitchen island, or even stretching the length of a living room. I’d put a dimmer on it for extra drama. I’d also suggest this to any of our clients who are eager to devote the bulk of their wall space to windows, but are wistful about the resulting lack of wall space for art: just install this on your ceiling, and you’ll have art galore!

These paper goblet light shades were assembled as a breathtaking installation by Louis Vuitton in the ballroom of an empty palazzo. Comprised of hundreds of paper shades, each modified to be a little lantern, it was incredibly inspirational. Looking at it, you might think it was a pretty simple task to outfit each shade with light, but the true challenge – and the truly awe-inspiring aspect of this installation – was creating the armature that supplies the electricity to illuminate it. It reminded me that people who hire designers are looking for someone who can think beyond the obvious and not just order beautiful things, but assemble them in a way that results in magic.

These gigantic glass beads of various shapes, sizes and colors are a fanciful and contemporary play on Italy’s famous Murano glass. Power runs through their metal tubes so glass is all you see. I’d hang one in a corner, cluster a few over a dining room table, or suspend them next to a bed. I find it particularly alluring that they’re not all matching.

I just loved this adorable little accent lamp! It operates on a rechargeable battery without a cord or plug, so it’s ideal to use as a nightlight or to place on a bookshelf. Just four inches tall and three inches in diameter, its thick, solid ball of clear glass rests on a metal base.

Clamshell-like, hinges on each of these lights enable them to be opened to any degree you choose – fully, or perhaps just an inside peek’s worth. Arranged in gray, red, and white, they act as a colorful – and functional – miniature gallery.

These are just a few of the light fixtures that inspired and amazed us. For more inspiring photos (professional ones!) please visit our website.