For so many of us, the lighting of our homes is often overlooked. More often than not, we treat lighting as a necessity. We don’t realize that lighting if thought about elaborately, can enhance and take our home’s aesthetic to a whole new level. We live in an era where selfies and video content are taken very seriously. And for that, you’re going to need the best lighting.
More so, if you ever go to a restaurant and are not happy with the lights there, you’re most likely to leave. Lighting should definitely be considered a key element while setting up or decorating your home. This post will take you through the things you need to consider before deciding upon your lights.
Weigh Your Alternatives
We recurringly make a common mistake: assume that one type of lighting will best suit the entire premise. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every room in the house will have a different vibe to it and a different color tone. The kind of lights you choose to go with should best be in accordance with the room itself.
Seeking professional help, an interior designer, for example, would be a good place to start as they would guide you with all your lighting needs. There are three main types of lighting that you should consider before deciding on any.
Ambient
This is when you put up lights in the house for general purposes. It allows you to walk around the room easily as it covers the majority of the house. Ambient lights come in the form of wall fixtures, tube lights, and recessed lights.
Accent
This type of lighting is usually installed to highlight a certain portion of something. For example, an individual might set up an accent light over a painting to make the piece of art more prominent. Accent lights are also used to loosen up the vibe of a room. Dimmers are mostly used for this purpose.
Task
As the name suggests, task lights are solely to help someone carry out a particular task. You may have seen little desk lamps on writing desks or hanging lights in a storeroom. These lights help individuals focus on a chore and are totally different from ambient and accent lights.
Let the Room Enate the Vibe
The issue with setting up lights is that we sometimes tend to get a little overwhelmed looking at all the rooms. It can be challenging to decide what kind of light should go in each room. To make things easier for yourself, let the room decide itself. The color tone and structure of the room should give you a clear insight as to what type of lighting should be installed there. For example, if you have an artsy and creative room in the house with subtle color tones and many wall-arts, accent lights are the way to go. Let’s look at a few examples of different rooms and the lights they can use.
Living Room
Your living room is a place for casual gatherings. It is the first room in the house that your guests set their eyes on. From fancy dinners to casual tea parties, your living room should have recessed lights that allow your guests to take a full tour of the room. Floor lamps , pendant lamps and table lamps are also a good option if you have a lot of furniture in the room.
Dining Room
Dining rooms should have a calming and cozy vibe to them as it is the place to eat together and have good conversations. Dinner table conversations are the best and the most fun to have, and for that, setting up a huge chandelier over the dining table itself will be ideal. If it’s a small room, then table lamps and hanging lights will do just fine as well.
Bedroom
Your bedroom is entirely your space to relax. You can set it up whatever way you want, but the right kind of light is necessary to set the tone to relax and unwind after a long day. Table lamps on nightstands are a good option to go with.
Size & Aesthetic
Considering the size of the room is an essential step in the whole lights-buying process. Sometimes people tend to buy large overhead fixtures in small rooms and small unnoticeable lights in big rooms – this not only doesn’t serve the purpose of the light but also ruins the entire room’s aesthetic. This is why it’s important to consider the size and hence, set up lights accordingly. Carefully think about what kind of light will go with the room’s aesthetic and then go with that option.
The lights present in a room can either make the room shine or ruin the whole look altogether. Good lighting is necessary to set a particular tone of the room and enhance the ambiance. You might not necessarily need great furniture to make your room stand out. However, lighting is something that can, after all, do that.