5 Ways You Can Improve Your Home’s Lighting
If you’ve ever dabbled in home decor before, you’ve probably invested in new furniture, art and a fresh coat of paint. But have you looked further than that? While it might not seem like it at first, lighting is one of the most important parts of a home’s atmosphere and aesthetic. Even the most stunning color palette, expensive furniture, and attractive decorations can look flat or dirty in the wrong lighting. In interior design, lighting choice is crucial to ensuring that the final product matches your original vision.
Home lighting plays a significant role in making guests feel welcome. Harsh lights can feel overly intrusive and clinical, while dim lights can feel claustrophobic. However, actually controlling your lighting seems daunting at first. With so many different types of light fixtures available and new trends popping up constantly, you might need help figuring out what you need in your home. But there are many ways to customize your space’s lighting. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your interior lighting with as little effort as possible.
Get to Know Your Options
When making your interior lighting choices, it’s vital to understand both the practical and aesthetic benefits of each option. If you go to a friend’s house or find yourself in a space with lighting that you find appealing, try to ask or figure out what the owner did to get it like that. What sort of bulbs did they use? Did they set up overhead lights? Or did they go for separate lamp fixtures? Constantly educate yourself on what works and what doesn’t, specifically regarding the lighting in each area you come across.
Training your awareness is crucial to figuring out your space’s lighting. Research as much as possible, and ask your local hardware stores as many questions as possible about the different lighting options available. While it seems like a pain, and you want to get on to actual installations as soon as possible, this step is worth investing time in. Not only will you have a better breadth of knowledge to draw from when lighting your space, but you’ll also learn how to design your home to complement your lighting much better.
Match Your Decor With Your Lighting
When shopping for fixtures, it’s important to consider your home’s decor when selecting the right lighting options. You’ll need to choose a light fixture that compliments your décor, and a darker-colored space will warrant brighter but not washed-out lights. Or, you’ll have to complement cool and warm lighting with the color palette you’ve chosen for any given area. You’ll also need to consider your fixtures’ shape, size, and color to ensure they fit in with your interior design. You don’t want to buy fixtures that are mismatched with your decor, too big or too small for their location.
You can also use your lighting to add texture to your interior. For example, you could install a few pendants with diffusers or several recessed lights that cast different colored shadows.
Maximize Your Windows
Unless you live in a basement, you’re likely to have natural light all over a space, regardless of your light fixtures. During the day (and at night, if you live in brightly lit areas), your windows let in lots of light that will also impact the look of a space. You want to ensure that whatever lighting you go for doesn’t shy away from your natural light but instead embraces it. How does your space take in outside light? Are there spaces that need more or less?
There are ways to manage how natural light streams in from the outside world. Firstly, drapes and window shades are a no-brainer if you’re okay sacrificing some of the spaciousness granted by excessive windows. If not, consider tinting your windows. You can alter the warmth and brightness of outside light by finding different types of glass to put in your windows. You’ll have to figure out the best window tint, but the final results will be stunning once you land on it.
Choose the Right Bulbs for Your Fixtures
Once you’ve decided on lighting fixtures, you’ll have to add the light! It seems straightforward enough: just put a bulb in there, and it’ll be fine! Well, not exactly. There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing your bulbs. For example, you’ll need to consider the type of bulb you’re using, the wattage of the bulb, and how often you plan on turning the lights on and off. You’ll also want to consider the desired color temperature of your bulbs. In addition, it’s important to see how your lighting set-up will impact your energy costs and expenditures. Some lighting options might be a more significant drain on your utility bill than others.
The most common types of lighting options that homeowners tend to make use of are CFL bulbs, incandescent bulbs, and LEDs. While these bulbs all provide excellent lighting, there are several differences to remember when picking the right one for your home.
Don’t Skimp on Installation
When dealing with wiring, you’ll want to ensure you take the time to get it right. The odds are that you’re not a professional electrician and might need to learn the best way to install your lighting fixtures safely. When installing any lighting in your home, it’s vital to ensure the wiring is installed safely. This means that there are no exposed wires, that the wires aren’t touching each other or anything else, and that the cables are not being worn or damaged. It’s worth investing in an electrician who knows what they are doing, especially if you’re installing entirely new lighting fixtures into your home that require considerable alterations to wiring.
Final Words
When it comes to home lighting, you can always find creative solutions to achieve stunning results with minimal effort. Take the time to get to know your options. See how your space would benefit from different types of lighting and encourage yourself to invest and experiment. You can achieve the lighting style you want for any space at a lower cost than you think.
Tia, and TipsfromTia.com is trying to keep you looking good and
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