Lighting is more than a practical means of ensuring you can read your book or clearly see what you’re doing. Lighting can be an extension of your décor, highlighting accent pieces. It creates the ambiance of a room. In short, lighting affects our lives in numerous ways. Here are 5 simple ways to improve a room with lighting design. 

Provide More than Enough Light 

Ambient light should give you enough light to ensure you don’t accidentally run into furniture. A common mistake is trying to rely on a single light fixture for an entire room. In large rooms, you really need several fixtures to have adequate ambient light. Additional lights should be brought in to affect the tone of the room and provide task lights where required. 

Have Consistent Lighting 

We’re not saying you have to use the same white fluorescent light bulbs in every fixture. You should consider recessed lighting as accent lighting and floor lamps where required. However, many people make the mistake of failing to keep the light bulb colours the same. No, not all lights are an equal shade of light. Look at the Kelvin colour temperature of the bulbs. Then keep that same colour consistent through the room, whether you’re going with yellow white or bluish white. 

Create Layers of Light 

A room becomes more inviting and certainly less ominous if you eliminate shadows from the corners. You can achieve this by having layers of light in the room. Instead of having a single bright light source in the centre of the room, perhaps supplemented by a window, you create distributed lighting. Add sconces to supply accent lighting, and this can-do double duty as a way to define a sitting area or highlight a decorative item. Sconces are the ideal choice for lights installed at light level, since their glass diffusers soften the light. You could put in mirrors to reflect light throughout the room. Consider buying a floor lamp from pagazzi.com in the corners so that they seem inviting, and it is an excellent way to highlight a seating area. 

Create the Mood You Want with Adjustable Lighting 

You may want a bright dining room to eat dinner with your family, but romantic evenings call for softer light. One way to achieve this is by installing adjustable lighting in the room. You’ll get the maximum benefit if you install these adjustable lights within a chandelier, since their many bulbs create multi-point illumination that looks great at any light level. Simply adjust the light level via the dimmer switch. 

Rely on Task Lighting Where Required 

You need to ensure that work spaces have the right type of lighting for the task at hand. You may want to put directed lights over the bathroom sink to make it easier to put on makeup in the morning, but the whole bathroom doesn’t have to be lit up like a makeup studio. Your kitchen may benefit from task lighting where you prepare food, but the task lights don’t have to undermine the mood lighting or natural lighting in the rest of the kitchen. Consider having standing lamps in the living room or pendant lights above the kitchen island. However, you should be able to turn off or dim task lights so that you can soften the lighting when the occasion calls for it. 

Lighting affects both the mood the room exudes and how well each room is suited to its intended purpose. Follow our tips, and you’ll avoid many of the mistakes people make that undermine their décor or simply cause needless frustration.