Dulux Trade creates a lasting impression for designer's haven

First impressions are everything, especially in the interior design industry. Light, shade, colour and space all play an essential part in winning a client over.

So, when textile designer Natasha Marshall of Natasha Marshall Fabrics & Wallcoverings decided to embark upon a brave office move with cameronwebster architects and purchased an old print works in the West End of Glasgow, the brief was simple; produce a light, contemporary, fashionable space that is practical as well as encouraging creativity.

One of the major difficulties encountered by cameronwebster architects was that much of the building consisted of a semi-underground basement. To ensure that there was enough light within the basement area, cameronwebster employed a number of exciting and creative solutions within their design.

One of these solutions was the use of a unique paint product capable of maximising the light available within a room, allowing it to appear significantly brighter and more spacious.

Dulux Trade, the industry leading manufacturer of quality paint systems, has created Light & Space a revolutionary new paint using the latest in paint technology, Lumitec, to reflect substantially more light back into a room by reducing the amount of light the painted surfaces absorb.

Natasha Marshall, Managing Director of Natasha Marshall Fabrics & Wallcoverings, explains: "The old Printworks is an inspiring building full of character so its appeal as a design headquarters jumped out straight away.

"The only problem with the location is that most of the space is found in the basement, which is somewhat cut off from natural light. We therefore wanted to create as much light as possible in this area using physical elements such as glass walls and a glass floor in the level above. However, even with these building alterations we still needed something extra to ensure the studio looked and felt bright, airy and an altogether inviting place to work."

A driving factor in the choice of Light & Space was the designers' need for 'true' light when viewing colours and patterns.

Making rooms look outwardly bright and spacious can often be a challenge.For Natasha Marshall Fabrics & Wallcoverings and cameronwebster, increasing the light available was an even greater priority. In order for their teams to work effectively the studio had to be well illuminated, especially due to the lack of windows.

Natasha Marshall chose the 'Absolute White' shade of Dulux Trade Light & Space for the studio interior due to its ability to provide a clean, crisp blank canvas, maximising the amount of light available in the room whilst still providing a versatile backdrop.

The extensive use of glass walls and floors had already increased the light directed down into the studio basement within the building, however the Absolute White shade of Light & Space has allowed this light to be reflected back into the room, instead of being absorbed into the paintwork as often happens with standard paints.

The room looks contemporary, open and inviting, the perfect environment for a designer and architect.

Natasha concluded: "The end result has been fantastic, Light & Space has really helped us to achieve the vision we had for the building when we first saw it. Light & Space has made a visible improvement on the light available within the space and we can’t wait to get started making the most of our new headquarters."

As the issue of sustainability continues to rise up the political agenda and businesses strive to become more and more environmentally friendly, it’s good for Natasha Marshall Fabrics & Wallcoverings and cameronwebster to know that Dulux Light & Space will also save them energy.

Light & Space reduces the need for artificial lighting, therefore a room can benefit from the same average level of illumination whilst using up to 20% less energy.

Dulux Light & Space is available in a palette of 26 colours as well as 'Absolute White'.