The kitchen includes ceiling lights whose fittings are recessed and offset; their glow is both diffuse and elusive.

Designed by Patricia Urquiola for Flos, the Tatou Floor Lamp is composed of a steel-painted body and an external polycarbonate diffuser with an injected printed opal polycarbonate internal diffuser. The innovative shade is sculptural, elegant, and perforated to provide a distinctive light source.

Brick Lane in 57 Diffuse by Carnegie, $42 per yard Woven polypropylene is finished with eco-friendly GreenShield.

Designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2011 for Flos, the Tatou Table Lamp features a painted steel body with an exterior and interior diffuser, creating a diffusion of light that is at once soft and direct. The lamp shade is thoughtfully perforated, resulting in a substantial lamp with a sense of lightness. The Tatou Lamp Series is currently on sale for 15% off at the Dwell Store until 10/23/2014.

Scent London Collector Brick Diffuser The porosity of this clay brick—housed in a handsome copper tin—makes for a surprisingly apt vehicle for a scent meant to recall the British capital.

SO – IL transformed a typical New York loft by using scrim walls to obscure columns and provide diffused lighting throughout the work space. Photo by Iwan Baan.

San Francisco’s modernists were faced with the issue of building within a firmly established stylistic tradition—think bay windows and gingerbread. Henry Hill’s 1947 renovation of a 1908 Victorian tucked away on an alley in historic Russian Hill provides a remarkable response to the dilemma.

The brick brise-soleil provides the interiors with diffuse light.

The ceiling is unfinished plywood covered by a metal screen that diffuses light from LED strips.

Pellegrino bottles wrapped in twine become DIY diffusers. "This project takes advantage of the fact that you can buy little jars of essential oils for reed diffusers instead of buying the whole kit," writes Danny in the book.

Astrain streamlined the storage in the room, making room for wall art and allowing light to be diffused throughout.

Near the hallway is a sculpture by Zaric. The picture window toward the end of the space can be covered by a sliding screen for privacy and to diffuse light.

A light well draws daylight into the piano room, infilling the back of the floor plate with diffused light.

The exposed pine beams finished in OSMO oil support the polycarbonate opal/diffused panels set on aluminum glazing bars.

Addional lighting options in the kitchen include diffuse Bartco fluo-rescent strips hidden in coves overhead.

Floating Staircase-Designed to diffuse the light as it spills through the treads/railing creating a play of light inside the home

The simple kitchen provides unobstructed views of the lake while cooking. Clerestory windows provide ample diffused light while encouraging cross ventilation.

The firm played with ceiling forms to create “spaces within spaces.” New skylights bring diffused natural light into the center of the home.

With an adjustable round reflector, Cecilia Xinyu Zhang’s Equant suspension lamp offers indirect and diffused illumination.

The custom overhead light is a pine box covered in linen, which diffuses the LEDs inside. A gray linen curtain conceals his tools.

The 1,570 square-foot home's entryway features a slatted fence that diffuses light and adds privacy to Eichler's original design. Photo by: Scott Hargis

FCstudio designed the gridded Muxarabi panel made of catuaba wood; placed in front of the home office window, it softens light to a diffuse glow.

The Music Pavilion is filled with a soft, uniform white light diffused by the canvas roof overhead. Deep red hues echo the warmth of the desert.

The kitchen looks out onto a broad patio and backyard through floor-to-ceiling glass, while the upstairs balcony provides shading to allow in only diffuse daylight.

A large, exposed bulb hangs lower than its peers on a three-bulb pendant. The simple design effectively spreads subtle but diffuse light across this elegant, neutral-toned bedroom.

Six-foot tall operable windows capture and diffuse the abundance of natural light throughout the home, while nine-foot-tall floating white ceilings and wall planes create a sense of continuous space.

“This house considers also real and imagined aspects: It is now projected as a diffuse space, free of partitions, where the boundaries between rooms are blurred so that any unexpected events can happen,” says Pardo.

A view from the mezzanine reveals how white walls, finished in lime-based mineral plaster, gently diffuse light through the space. Aside from the bathrooms, the architects steered clear of barriers and doors to maintain a sense of openness.

Karie and Mason enjoy a playful loll on the bed in the Deans’ new master bedroom. The perforated wall facing the neighbors’ backyard offers a great deal of diffuse light while still managing to conceal the Deans’ boudoir from prying eyes.

Orlando added a barrel vault to the living room, to diffuse light and emphasize the higher ceiling.

Another winner at Moooi, the Mistral lamp, imbues an industrial, box-fan aesthetic with a pleasant breeze and an elegant, intricately etched glass diffuser.

Outside the three daughters' separate bedrooms, natural light cascades through a ceiling of skylights. Aluminum louvers diffuse indirect sunlight to create a soothing glow in the afternoons and a refreshing wake-up call each morning.

Centrally located under the window, the bed now has equal spacing on either side, allowing just enough space for matching nightstands and wall sconces. The shades are a combination of roman blackout shades and light-diffusing solar shades from SelectBlinds.

Soft, diffused light entering from the bedrooms.

The interior is lit by several medium sized windows and an off-the-shelf track lighting system. With the door open, diffuse light makes the space glow.

The light blue shade of the cabinetry becomes apparent only in soft, diffused light.