Homeowners often overlook lighting as an aspect of home design. But little did they know that a house lighting layout plan is much as important as any exterior or interior plan. A well-lit space with proper lighting levels at home can make your place look put-together and stunning even without any elaborate styling and fancy pieces because proper lighting can make your home glow! So don’t you ever try to decorate your home again with poor lighting fixtures, you’ll just waste your effort and resources.
Creating a Well-Lit Home
Break this common misconception that as long as it lights up the house, you’re good or that meticulous lighting is only applicable to boutiques, restaurants, or photography. Because it’s not! There’s so much to consider when you’re drafting your house lighting layout plan. For instance, you should know the specific function of each room in your house to determine the type of lighting needed. Lighting also greatly affects your mood, concentration, decision-making, and even sleeping habits! Although there’s no absolute rule about the kind of light that should be installed in a room still it’s essential to know the specific function of each room to determine the proper lighting levels at home or the type of lighting needed.
Everyone wants a home that is peaceful and comfortable. Each part of the house should be perfect and with a touch of your personality or preference. Hence, lighting is one of the most important parts of one’s home so that it can illuminate and bring life to your house. There are two types of lighting to consider, one for indoor and one for outdoor. Take note that the lighting shouldn’t be too bright or not too dim. For security purposes, outdoor lighting is important, especially at night but indoor lighting is more important. In sum, when selecting lighting, one must take into consideration several criteria such as the purpose, amount of light, quality of light, type of fixture, and if it is just a decorative fixture. You need to take into consideration these criteria for all of the projects in your home in order to achieve your end goal of having visual comfort in your spaces. Because proper lighting can do a lot of wonders for comfort, ambiance, and convenience in your every room. Below are some tips that you can consider when choosing the right light or proper lighting levels at home and how to brighten up each room in your home.
1. Size Matters
Yes, the size of a room matters. Measure your space first. You should definitely know the measurements of the room you’re planning to buy light fixtures for, most especially the height of the room. Prior to making any lighting purchases, a key tip to keep in mind is to be sure that a ceiling fixture is large enough for your space, like the chandelier, and measure first the length and width of the room. Get the size of the length and width of the room then add them together and convert them to inches, the result will give you a starting point for the ideal size for a light fixture that you’ll purchase. For instance, a 36-inch wide lighting fixture would be ideal for a 20 by 15-foot room, which should be the maximum height of the light fixture for your ceiling. But the measuring step doesn’t end there, you should also consider the visual weight of the light fixture. If the light fixture is light and airy, you should better size up, if on the other hand it is dark and massive, sizing down might be a better option.
If you have a large room, you can buy more than one light fixture. Preferably, you should have one large ceiling light for every 5-7 meters of the ceiling in your space, these large ceiling lights include such as chandeliers, pendant lights, and hanging lamps.
2. Proper Location of Lights
The placement of lights is rather important more than you can think about it. Oftentimes, the spaces in our houses serve multiple functions, that’s why putting dimmers are such a useful feature. Many people don’t have formal dining rooms and instead want the flexibility of a kitchen counter, so having a dimmer or lighting with various switches will be very useful. Moreover, as a general rule, all lights should be placed in the center of the space and at least 15 centimeters higher than the top of any door or window in your room. For instance, a huge ceiling light should hang over the dining table as this should be the central focus of the room. But in other rooms, it is fine that the light should hang over the place or spot where daily activities have to be done or carried out.
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3. Get the Right Bulb
Determine the right level of brightness and color to achieve the proper lighting levels at home. Aside from thinking about what type of light you’d prefer to have, you should also think about the wattage or the output of the light that you are going to choose as well as the right combination of brightness and the color of the light bulb. The color that you will be choosing should blend with the color of the room that which you intended to put the lights on.
When choosing your light bulbs, light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs are the best for conserving energy, they’re energy-efficient and long-lasting. Invest in quality LED lights if you want to save money in the long run and avoid the hassle of frequently changing low-quality bulbs.
Always choose quality over quantity so don’t hesitate to buy the best lighting for your home. Other than considering the characteristics of the light bulb, you also need to check the correct fitting. There are actually a lot of fittings to choose from. So if you need to replace an old light bulb, you should bring it to the store to make sure that you will have an accurate measurement of the same bulb.
Moreover, aside from choosing the brightness and the color of the bulb, its shape is also a thing to consider. There are different kinds of bulb shapes in the market, for instance, there are the traditional, spiral, candle, spot, golf, downlight, globe, stick, and many more. Each shape has its own functions, for it provides a different spread of light rays. Still, it’s your personal preference when choosing the shape of your bulb but just make sure to consider how the bulb will fit your chosen location or spot. It could be quite difficult sometimes to choose the right lighting for the different rooms in your home. There are just so many lights like bright lights, dim lights, hanging lights, wall lights, chandelier lights, and LED lights.
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Moreover, lighting is one of the most important things to consider in designing your house because not only does it help improve the overall physical appearance of your house, but it also affects your mood so a house lighting layout plan is a must.
