Lighting can make or break your room design so it’s imperative that you think long and hard about the type of ambience that you want to create before you decide on what lighting to buy.
You could kit your living room out in layers of soft and comfortable throws, lay down a thick, plush and luxurious rug, and fill the room with relaxing and homely artwork and decor, but if you get the mood lighting wrong your efforts will be wasted. Bright, harsh lighting can completely change the feel of a room’s interior making even the most inviting room feel stark. Here are a couple of important questions to ask yourself before you head out shopping for lights for your room.
What is the room’s function?
The first thing you must do is ask yourself what are you going to be using this room for, what tasks will you be completing in the room? How much light are you going to need to be able to easily do these tasks? Think about whether you will mainly be relaxing in the room or doing something in particular. For example in the kitchen and the bathroom you will likely need a fair amount of light to see what you are doing. The bedroom and the living room will be multi-function rooms, however their primary purpose is for relaxing. Finally your office will need plenty of task lighting on your desk so that you can easily work.
Which types of lighting?
Once you have worked out what the function of each room that you need to light, is you can start thinking about which light or combination of lights you are going to use to achieve this. Generally there are three main types of lighting, these are – ambient or general lighting, task lighting and accent lighting.
- Ambient/general lighting – This kind of lighting serves a general purpose of illuminating the room. Ambient lighting usually comes in the form of ceiling, wall or recessed lights.
- Task lighting – Task lighting does pretty much what it says on the tin, it illuminates certain tasks that you may be performing in a room. For example you may have a light over the mirror in your bathroom, lights over the kitchen counter for cooking, and reading lamps by your bed or the sofa.
- Accent lighting - Accent lighting is used to accentuate certain areas of interest in your room for effect. For example you could have accent lighting over a sculpture or painting, over the shelves in your bookcase, in a display cabinet, or highlighting architectural features in a room atmosphere
The good news is that you don’t need to choose one type of lighting and stick to it; the rooms that are lit best often use all three types of lighting together. This layered lighting effect means that you can pick and choose which lights to turn on depending on the mood you are aiming to create.
Make sure that you are selecting the right bulb voltage for all of the lights in your room, if a light is too harsh it can completely change the feel of the room. Low voltage bulbs work best for creating a warm, inviting and relaxing
atmosphere.