A lot of planning goes into making a house a home and everyone has their own personal style when it comes to the design and layout of their ideal room.
Home lighting says a lot about your personality, so don’t hold back on replacing those dated fixtures to show off your unique style, conserve energy, and save money long-term.
With the lighting styles and temperatures you choose able to make or break a room, our team at Lumilum share our advice on upgrading your lighting fixtures and adding some creative flair to your abode.
Getting The Right Shade
Having a stylish lampshade can make a room, but make sure it’s the right one. Matching the room’s colors with the right hue is usually the best starting point. If you’re opting for a bold colored or patterned shade, make sure the color is echoed somewhere else in the room – like on a rug, curtains, or wall decor.
Depending on the vibe you’re aiming for, different shapes of shade can help. For example, a stylish empire shade on your fixtures gives off a wide distribution of light, creating an inviting ambience – great for rooms with limited natural light.
For desk or bedside lamps, a drum or tall, tapered shade makes a stunning addition. An opaque shade helps create a narrow beam of light that’s useful for reading and adding a classy finish and studious aura to the room.
Setting The Ambience
Lighting should be both practical and stylish to bring out the best qualities of the room. As practical as that bright fluorescent tube light may be, there are more aesthetic, energy and cost saving alternatives, such as small LED bulbs.
Consider LED ambient lighting that creates a warm glow, rather than a piercing light, for a more intimate feel. For example, slim under cabinet lighting such as LED strip lights, LED tape light, or 24V LED light bars for the kitchen or bathroom can create a calming atmosphere that are not only practical but easy on the eyes.
The layout of some rooms mean that corners can be under-lit without a bright main pendant. This is where stylish accent lights come into their own, helping to draw your eye to parts of the room that need a boost.
The general rule is that the focal point of your accent light should be roughly 3 times brighter than the rest of the room – helping to show off those prized decorations or give the room a tranquil, ambient glow.
Lighting For A Purpose
Rather than relying solely on overhead bulbs to light your room, it’s important to have separate lights for different purposes.
Task lights are not only visually impressive, but they help boost mood, productivity and focus – the perfect fixture for your home office or to aid bedtime reading!
For example, bedside or desk lights can take away the glare from screens and using side lights alongside mirrors makes getting ready easier and shows you’ve got an eye for detail.
Therapeutic lighting also adds a soothing aura to rooms. Increasingly popular with those working from home, lighting the room with warm colors or soothing cold hues – through light boxes or salt lamps – is known to help fend off Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), while adding comforting accents to a room.
Getting The "Green" Light
For many of us, especially with recent trends, living sustainably is something we strive for. That means making eco-friendly choices when and wherever possible.
Avoid traditional incandescent light bulbs, as these are far less energy efficient compared with their alternatives. Switching to LED strip lights or small LED light bulbs such as a GU10 bulb or MR16 bulb, use significantly less energy to keep your home lit.
Plus, in addition to playing your part in protecting the planet, you could save a lot of money by switching from halogen bulbs to LED light bulbs. It’s estimated that the average homeowner spends 15 percent of their energy cost lighting their home.
Making the switch to LED lighting could cut this cost by 70 percent! – helping to keep your wallet looking as good as your home.