Project Story: Architectural Lighting Underscores Upscale Branding at New Hair Salon

January 25, 2024

Montreal hair salon artemys is a new player on the scene in an up-and-coming neighborhood just outside the downtown core. Building its brand from the ground up, it hired the team at Studio Kiff to create an environment that was high-end yet felt comfortable and inclusive at the same time.

Lighting demands are varied for a hair salon: general illumination, task lighting, and decorative lighting. Rachel Bussin, co-founder at Studio Kiff, said that balancing all of these requirements was one of the most challenging aspects of the design. The new retail space also had huge windows. So, the selected lighting would have to complement the changing levels of natural light throughout the day and evening.

“There are many functional pieces to a salon,” said Bussin. “Flow, hierarchy of the space, and how you move through it was very important to us. And we wanted to use lighting to help define the different areas of the salon.”

The Studio Kiff team selected Eureka luminaires for the essential task lighting. Perhaps one of the most distinctive choices was the Lily luminaire. A single white pendant is suspended over each of the five hairstyling chairs, providing a broad source of illumination over the space.

“While most spotlights are smaller and pointed, Lily has a nicer, softer, larger face, which was very different than anything else we could find on the market,” Bussin said.

While the luminaire’s aesthetic is fun and atypical for a salon environment, it is also highly functional. Lily features a friction hinge mounted at the center, which enables the hair stylist to  orient the fixture both horizontally and vertically to meet their specific needs.

In addition to hair styling, artemys also offers some esthetic services to its clients. Two identical manicure stations are set off to one side; each illuminated with a Henri pendant. The designers intentionally selected a white finish, so the minimalist luminaire blends seamlessly into the predominantly white aesthetic. Henri’s large face offers warm, direct illumination that is comfortable for both technician and client.

Eureka’s Outline luminaires are suspended over sinks and pedicure chairs. Stylists and estheticians benefit from uniform light  while they work, a result of a glare-control rings in the lens of each projector. And the pendant itself makes a distinctive, graphic statement in each area.

“We required high-performance architectural lighting in those spaces because the quality of light was critical,” said Bussin. “We also liked Outline’s aesthetics. It has a nice contrast to other design elements in the space.”

Bussin notes that hair salons are places of significant motion. Staff and clients frequently transition through and around the stations. She appreciated that the suspension cables, particularly for Lily and Henri, were designed to stay in place despite all the surrounding activity.

“We’re extremely happy with the final result,” said Hélène Thiffault, co-founder of Studio Kiff. “We’ve had really great feedback on the lighting. People like to see these Eureka products in a very different context.”

• Project Name: artemys
• Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Project completion: May 2023
• Interior Design: Studio Kiff
• Eureka Agent: edp
• Photographer: Alex Lesage