Waddesdon Manor went under a lighting revamping with particular focus on the main galleries visited by the public. Idea Design presented the case to the Board of Directors and helped gain a grant from The Rothschild Foundation to redesign the illumination for the Waddesdon Manor’s Oval Lobby and West Gallery

The design intention was to update the existing halogen display and gallery lighting with a modern installation that would respect the listed nature of the building and artefacts. The new lighting is designed to reveal hidden architectural features on the walls, ceiling and interior textures. This is particularly evident at the Oval Lobby where LED spots were integrated to the existing chandelier to provide ceiling uplighting improving the overall ambience of the lobby as well as highlighting the Chinese vases, part of the permanent collection.

The main incentive for the West Galley is to update the existing gallery lighting  with new LED technology. Lighting is applied selectively and as required and the focus is on key features and the paintings on display. Some of the artefacts and paintings are photosensitive so a very delicate, minimal lighting design approach is introduced.

Retrofitting the existing picture lighting with new LED technology offered a better quality lighting for the paintings, dealt with the issue of overheating, decreased the maintenance and increased the life span of the installation. Due to wiring and other installation restrictions local diming controls were applied on phase two to allow individual lighting control by the curators.