How the room is lit through the day, and how you control glare and heat at the glass.
Each decision below is shown three ways — what it changes in use, which way it moves the cost, and how it looks. Price direction only. The responsible supplier confirms the quotation after measurement and specification.
Specifiable · quotation requiredCoordinated by ELS · quoted after validation.
ELS coordinates
No dedicated lightEssentialIncluded
Even wall washModerate$$
Close grazing lightBespokeModerate$$
Backlit haloSignatureModerate$$
Light within the shelf or nicheLow$
If you choose a recessed or concealed run: the channel's profile dimensions and installation method set the recess depth and the build sequence. Confirm the channel before the wall is built. See the channel detail
See what each option changes
No dedicated light
In use
The wall is lit by whatever lights the room. Nothing to wire, nothing to fail — and the honest choice for a wall whose material has no texture worth raking light across.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
The wall reads flat and even, exactly as its material looks under general light.
Even wall wash
In use
Light laid evenly down the whole wall makes the room feel larger, because a bright vertical surface reads as distance. It flattens texture rather than revealing it — the opposite of grazing.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
An even, calm glow across the full surface — the material's colour is what shows, not its relief.
Close grazing light
In use
Light placed close to the surface and aimed along it turns every ridge and joint into a shadow — the only technique that makes fluting, stone or brick read as three-dimensional. It is equally unforgiving of a wall that is not flat.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
Maximum texture and drama — the wall's relief becomes the subject, strongest after dark.
Backlit halo
In use
Light hidden behind the panel throws a glow onto the wall around it, so the panel appears to float. The fitting is concealed, which means access for replacement has to be designed in rather than assumed.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
A soft halo with no visible source — the most atmospheric option, and the one that works best as the only light left on.
Light within the shelf or niche
In use
Lighting the inside of a recess lights what is displayed there rather than the wall itself — the right choice when the point of the wall is what sits in it. Wants a warm, low-output source, or it reads like retail.
Cost impact
Low
How it looks
Pools of light inside the recesses with the wall face left dark — the objects read, the wall recedes.
Specifiable · quotation requiredCoordinated by ELS · quoted after validation.
ELS specifies
Warm 2700KEssentialIncluded
Warm neutral 3000KEssentialIncluded
Neutral 4000KSignatureIncluded
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Warm 2700K
In use
The warmest of the three. Reads as lamplight rather than daylight, and suits bedrooms, living areas and anywhere the room is used in the evening. Skin and timber read warm; cool greys and whites read slightly yellow.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
A warm cast across the room, strongest on pale walls and timber.
Warm neutral 3000K
In use
The middle setting, and the one most rooms settle on. Warm enough to sit in, neutral enough that whites still read white. Review colour samples under the lighting you intend to use, in daylight as well, because lamps sold as 3000K can render materials differently.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
A near-neutral cast; finishes read close to how they look on a sample board.
Neutral 4000K
In use
The coolest of the three. Suits kitchens, utility areas, workshops and offices where the task matters more than the mood. In a bedroom or living room it reads clinical.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
A crisp, colourless light; edges and surfaces read sharper.
Specifiable · quotation required · LightingCoordinated by ELS · quoted after validation.
ELS coordinates
General lighting onlyEssentialIncluded
Layered — ambient, task and accentSignatureModerate$$
Cove / cabinet LEDSignatureLow$
Facade / landscape lightingBespokeModerate$$
If you choose a cove line: the channel's profile dimensions and installation method set the recess depth and the plaster and ceiling sequence. Confirm the channel before the ceiling is closed. See the channel detail
See what each option changes
General lighting only
In use
A single ambient layer — downlights or a central fitting that lights the room evenly for everyday use. Simple to run and maintain; LED sources stay cool and sip power, which matters through long, hot Sarawak days. Work surfaces and corners are left a little flat.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
Even, functional brightness with no drama — the space reads clear and practical, but without depth or mood.
Layered — ambient, task and accent
In use
Three coordinated layers on separate circuits — soft ambient fill, bright task light exactly where you cook, read or prep, and accent light to lift features. You light only what you need, which keeps a hot room cooler and trims the running load. The most liveable everyday scheme.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
Gives the room real depth — pools of light and shadow, and highlights that make materials and joinery read richly.
Cove / cabinet LED
In use
Concealed LED strip in ceiling coves, under wall units and inside cabinets — hands-free glow over a worktop or inside a wardrobe, and a soft night light along a hallway. Specify a sealed, damp-rated strip and driver, and plan for LED heat and for access to the driver, especially near timber and food.
Cost impact
Low
How it looks
Reads as light with no visible fitting — a floating ceiling edge, a glowing under-counter line or a halo behind a mirror. Quietly luxurious.
Facade / landscape lighting
In use
Exterior light that grazes the facade, marks the entrance and picks out planting and paths after dark — adding presence and safer footing at night. Specify weatherproof (IP-rated) corrosion-resistant fittings and UV-stable housings that shrug off heavy rain, equatorial sun and humidity, with wiring routed above any flood line.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
Turns the house into an evening landmark — texture raked across the walls, a lit doorway and glowing greenery. The most striking after-dark impression.
Specifiable · quotation requiredCoordinated by ELS · quoted after validation.
ELS specifiesVerify on site
Fixed colour temperatureEssentialIncluded
Tunable whiteBespokeModerate$$
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Fixed colour temperature
In use
One colour temperature, set at specification and unchanged in use. Nothing to commission and nothing to fail — the fitting is the control.
Cost impact
Included
How it looks
One consistent lamp colour through the day; how the room looks will still shift with daylight and its surfaces.
Tunable white
In use
Tunable-white requirement; available range and controls are confirmed against the selected lighting system. ELS specifies five dependencies before it can be planned: compatible luminaires, matched drivers, a control system, the zoning the change applies to, and commissioning once installed. Any of the five missing and the fitting runs at one colour.
Cost impact
Moderate
How it looks
Lighting reads warmer or cooler on demand, within whatever range the chosen system provides.
A real figure belongs only to what ALUMAX supplies; appointed-trade works — electrical, air-conditioning, ceiling, flooring, painting, data and security — are quoted by the trade, and loose items follow the purchasing arrangement in your appointment. ELS specifies and coordinates throughout. Cost is a relative direction only, never a price; maintenance is described in each option's “In use”.
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