Light is one of the most important aspects of the home. Having the right lighting can set the perfect mood or make the task at hand easy. On the other hand, that dark corner in the kitchen where it’s hard to work or a light that’s too bright in the bedroom can take away from the joy of living in your home.
Here are some tips to help you plan the best lighting in your home:
Make Your Budget
Planning out your budget likely seems obvious but home projects quickly add up often costing more than expected. This will help you avoid setbacks due to unexpected expenses. Think through the amount of lighting you need and decide what are areas you want to invest in more and the areas where you can minimize cost.
Choose Your Style
Similar to choosing a color palette when you decorate an area, you consider what theme and style want for your light fixtures. Lighting is a major component that will, in part, shape the mood and atmosphere of each room. You want lighting themes that both speak to you personally and are fitting for each space, the lighting should reflect your specific style.
Layered Lighting
The principle is to arrange your lighting in three layers, ambient, accent and lighting for tasks. With the purpose of Illuminating the general area, ambient lighting is more about the functionality. Accent light is about highlighting, used for Illuminating decorative areas and, for example, in the form of pendants, chandeliers or track lighting. There are also many types of task lighting to be used for eliminating areas, such as hidden, under cabinet lighting for kitchen counters. Bringing these three elements together will bring a nice balance to the lighting in your home.
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Statement Lights
When you have settled on a theme, the first thing you want to do is to choose what fixture is going to make the statement that defines your lighting style. This could be a modern chandelier or a pendant and might be in the kitchen, if you want that to be the focal point, or maybe the dining room or entryway. Once you have done this, the rest of your fixtures should be easier to choose.
Requirements of Each Room
Next, you want to consider each room, what they need for their individual function, ambient light will be natural and others have need of more functional light. For example, the bedroom is a place for relaxing so, accent lighting is appropriate. In contrast, the kitchen is a place where you need to see clearly so bright lighting, that is more functional, is what you need.
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Accurately Measure Spaces
Finding the right size fixture is important to achieve adequate illumination, thankfully there are guidelines to help you find the correct fixture size for the space. Once you get the basic dimensions of each room then the calculations are easy. Each type of room needs specific consideration, for example, lighting the expanse of space of a living room is considerably different from the focused lighting over a kitchen island.
Know Your Tech
Keeping up with the technology is helpful as lighting has become sophisticated, offering many options for controls, energy- efficiency and components. Systems that you can control from an app on your phone and LED lighting are just a couple topics that are worth looking into. You should ask your contractor for the latest innovations and home lighting systems.
When you tackle the lighting in your home remember to plan carefully for a successful project and don’t be afraid to release your creativity.
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