Give Your Home a Cozy Kind of Bright With These Four Easy-to-Follow Lighting Tips

November 10, 2018

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By 

Patricia Paner

Give your home a cozy kind of bright with these four easy-to-follow lighting tips

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again–good and proper use of lighting is not only essential to foster a homey ambiance, but it also improves space functionality. Modest spaces are given a dose of style and personality with proper lighting. An excellent lighting plan can do wonders for your entire home as it sets the mood, helps you concentrate, and brings focus to pieces you want to highlight.
There are professional lighting designers and architects you can hire to create a comprehensive lighting plan for your home. They study the science behind the differences in lighting options available and the many attributes of each kind–there has to be a balance among brightness, color, and temperature.   
In the absence of a professional service provider, here are four quick tips you need to know about lighting your interiors.

  1. Familiarize Yourself With the Basics

It’s time to let go of the giant, fluorescent dome light you’ve probably been using as a single light source for decades. Sure, it does the job, but trust us when we say it isn’t doing your interiors any favors. The widely-used trick to achieve a well-lit home is to make use of the three basic forms of light in every room of the house.

Ambient Lighting
Consider this as the stylish cousin of the dreadful white dome light in your grandmother’s dining room. Ambient lighting’s most basic task is to replace daylight, and is often placed at the center of the room. It provides a rather flat illumination, but mixes well with the two other ‘pools’ of light we’re discussing next.
Chandeliers and pendants work well for this function.

Photo courtesy of Tom Byrom on Unsplash

Accent Lighting
Perfect for highlighting textured walls or drawing attention to art, accent lighting provides depth in an area through shadows, while drawing attention to a certain focal point through a very concentrated light. This also works for drawing attention to outdoor plants and ornaments.
Wall sconces, track lighting, and flood lights should do the trick.

Photo courtesy of Jimmy Chang on Unsplash

Task Lighting
Emitting a smaller, more concentrated ray of light, task lighting is what you need to focus on a certain task—more or less the same purpose as the clunky study table lamp you had in college. You’d want one for your home office, or right over the stove. It helps you concentrate on the work at hand, and help you focus on finer details of whatever’s under it.
Desk lamps, floor lamps could be your go-to.

  1. Use Mirrors to reflect light

We all know windows can help make spaces look so much bigger, but did you know it can help spaces look a lot brighter, too? Positioned correctly, floor-length mirrors or even wall-mounted mirrors can catch and distribute natural light throughout a room.

  1. Install Dimmers

If you’ve ever experienced being blinded by fluorescent lights being turned on while you’re taking a nap, you’ll definitely appreciate having dimmers installed in to your ambient lighting. There are tons of desk and floor lamps that offer the same feature. Dimmers will help you adjust the brightness of your lighting, whether it be for setting the mood or for keeping a little light on for the kids at night. Helps you save on energy, too!

  1. The Sun Is Your Best Friend

We all love a home filled with glowy, natural light. We can’t put it any simpler: opt for light-colored curtains, clean your windows, move tall furniture away from the windows. Trust us, it’ll make all the difference.

Find hundreds of lighting options at the 29th Philconstruct Trade Show, running from November 8-11, 2018 at the SMX Convention Center at Pasay, Philippines.

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