Lighting design in West London

• Based: Experience Centre, 117 Windmill Road, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, TW16 7EF
• Founded: 2006
• Area covered: West, South West and North West London, Surrey and the Home Counties, with projects across the UK and Europe
• Our focus: lighting design and control, and technology that disappears into the interior
• Lighting partners: John Cullen Lighting for fittings, Lutron for control
• Visits: by appointment. A tour of around 90 minutes, then a complimentary design meeting
• Call: +44 1932 781 327

John Cullen Lighting is a leading British architectural lighting company, and a long-standing partner of ours. Our Experience Centre is home to the Homeplay X John Cullen showroom: a wide range of John Cullen fittings installed in real rooms, not on a display board.

That matters because light cannot be chosen from a catalogue. Here you can stand in a room and watch what a narrow beam does to a painting, how a concealed slot washes a curtain, and how a scene changes from morning to evening at the touch of a keypad.

Visits are by appointment. Designers are welcome to bring clients, samples and drawings.

Good lighting is decided long before anyone installs a fitting. The question we are asked most is when to bring us in, and the honest answer is earlier than most people expect.

At concept stage, we work from the architect's drawings and the interior designer's scheme. This is when the important decisions are made: where light should come from, what each room is for at different times of day, and which surfaces and objects you want to reveal.

At technical design stage, we issue CAD lighting plans, fixture schedules, wiring schematics and electrical loadings, so the electrician and main contractor have everything they need before first fix.

At second fix, the fittings go in and the control system is commissioned.

At scene setting, we sit with you at dusk and tune the actual light: the levels, the fade times, the moments. This is the step that separates a lighting system from a lighting design.

A new home in Kew, October 2023. Working with Life Size Architecture and Woodmans, we delivered the lighting design and Lutron lighting control for a new-build home belonging to a professional photographer.

One room works as both a photography studio and a media room, with flexible track lighting that gives the right light for a shoot. See the Kew project

A penthouse in Bankside. Working with Hill House Interiors, we delivered lighting and Lutron blinds for a client we have worked with since 1998, and recently returned to bring the system up to date. See the Bankside project

Your design leads. Our job is to make it work beautifully. Interior designers and architects are the people we work with every day, and we are set up to work the way design practices do.

• We issue CAD lighting plans, fixture schedules, wiring schematics and electrical loadings to your build team before first fix
• We are an accredited CPD provider for RIBA, BIID and SBID, and have trained hundreds of design professionals in lighting, shading and home technology. See our courses
• Our founder, James Ratcliffe, sits on the CEDIA global board and was appointed its industry liaison to the design community
• We exhibit at Decorex, alongside the interior design community we work with
• Bring your client to our Experience Centre. It is the John Cullen Lighting showroom for Surrey, so they can see the light before they choose it