5 Lighting Tips for Your Home from Interior Designers

With careful planning and a little creativity, you can transform the most basic of spaces into a warm and comfortable environment. Whether you're refurbishing a single room, building a new home, or involved in a commercial project, these tips are here to help you maximise your lighting potential…

1. Make a plan

Before you go rushing into any design decisions, have a good think about what activities take place in each room (sleeping, eating, working) and what types of lighting would be best suited. Consider any key features of the room that you would like to enhance and carefully investigate any architectural restrictions. Make sure your lighting plan also includes the style of the lighting pieces you want to incorporate and even the colour temperature of the bulbs.

2. Helpful lighting

Consider how you would like your new lighting to support your household activities. For example, cooking requires more concentrated lighting and bathrooms are best with a combination of sidelights and downlights. Dimmers are a great option for changing the atmosphere and warmth of a room in an instant.

3. Layered lighting

The key to a good lighting plan is a layered approach that combines three types of light: ambient, task and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides an area with overall illumination, task lighting helps you to perform specific tasks, such as reading or cooking and accent lighting adds drama to a room by creating a visual interest.

4. Choose the right bulbs

When choosing light bulbs you should consider how bright you need each space and what atmosphere you would like to create. Soft white/warm white is best for bedrooms and living rooms; providing a warm and cosy feel. Whereas bright white/cool white is best in kitchens & bathrooms and provides a whiter, more energetic feel.

5. Using Spotlights

Use spotlights to highlight your favourite features of a room. This may be a feature wall, an architectural element such as a fireplace or a centrepiece such as a sculpture or painting.

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