Lighting your home

Lighting your home affects the mood and atmosphere, tone of a room and can accentuate décor. Finding a balance between practicality and design is easy to achieve and will make a huge contribution to the overall feel and ambience of your house. Lighting your home can not only add interest and drama to a room but can now be achieved in a more eco – friendly way than ever before and with so many options you will be spoiled for choice.

Here at the Homeowners Club we have devised a basic guide to lighting your home to best suit your style, tastes and budget.

Kitchen & Dining

• Firstly identify the main areas of the kitchen that need sufficient lighting.
• Three popular lighting environments for the kitchen are ambient lighting, accent lighting and task lighting.
• Ambient lighting provides a soft and indirect light source, such as a ceiling fixture or skylight, allowing you to do everyday tasks. Accent lighting accentuates certain elements to provide a desired mood, so might incorporate using light in kitchen cabinets or spotlights. Task lighting uses spot, recessed, or tracking lights to directly light areas used for standard kitchen tasks.
• A suspended ceiling light hung low over the dining room table not only illuminates the table well, but provides mood and dramatic impact.
• Dimmer switches are popular in the dining room, where mood and atmosphere are paramount. But remember- glass topped tables can reflect strong light and cause irritating glare.

Bedrooms & Bathrooms

• Bedside table or separately switched wall lights each side of the bed are a must to provide comfortable light levels for reading and flexibility - a dimmer switch is an idea too.
• A well positioned small table lamp or wall lights for a dressing table will help illuminate the face, eliminate shadows and enhance the overall scheme.
• It is important to have light forward of the body at a bathroom mirror to produce a bright and clear shadow free reflection.
• Remember not to over specify the wattage when lighting your bathroom – it can be uncomfortable, especially first thing in the morning.
• Background bathroom lighting can come from a surface mounted central ceiling fitting or a number of recessed ceiling spots evenly across the ceiling.

Living Room & Offices

• In the living room use ceiling fittings and wall lights to help provide general background illumination.
• Plaster uplighters are particularly effective in providing good light levels without reflecting in television screens.
• Strategically placed table and floor lamps add a sense of space and enhance any lighting scheme, providing atmosphere and interest as well as adding light where other light sources may not reach.
• Halogen floor standing uplighters are particularly good for providing high levels of ambient light when ceiling or wall lights are seldom used.
• A good reading light should be directional and have a bulb of at least 40w.
• Highlighting pictures, bookcases and other objects by using picture lights.
• In the office, specifically illuminate the desk area.
• Halogen lighting sharpens contrast between black and white and accentuates colour, making the working area more efficient as well as reducing eye strain when working with a computer.

Handy lighting tips

Never rely on one source of light alone to light a room – it creates a very harsh contrast which can be tiring to the eyes.

Multiple layers (Ceiling, Wall, Table or Floor Lamps) of light add atmosphere by creating different areas of light to gain versatility and flexibility in your lighting scheme.

Keep hallway lighting relaxed and non intrusive with a table lamp

Create a welcoming glow by using an 8w energy saving bulb – it will give out the same light as a 35w bulb.

Always double check the maximum wattage for lamp shades to avoid burning!

If you are at a pre-decorated stage consider all wiring and the positioning of plug sockets so you can place a table or floor lamp just where it is needed.

Consider colour- rooms with very dark colour schemes will absorb light requiring a higher wattage, but neutral or white have high reflective qualities.

The colour properties of bulbs are important. Fluorescent light is cold and inhibits the natural colour of objects making it more suitable for utility type purposes. Incandescent and halogen bulbs are preferred for main living areas as they are warmer in colour, and allow the objects they illuminate to be shown in their natural tones.

Avoid installing a light fitting to low ceilings. Flush and Semi Flush fittings will always look better than a fitting that is forced to fit.