Hands up who thought it was a good idea to paint their large, bright and airy living room a deep shade of purple? Great in the summer but now the dark nights are here, I am struggling to keep my room feeling bright and not drab. The lighting lets me down. It always feels cosy on a night time which is great but during the day it’s lacking that bright pzazz, but I do know I don’t want it to feel stark and clinical.
All the rooms in my house have bold punch colours in them so I need to up my lighting game and change how I think about lighting my rooms.
A person’s home should really be a reflection of their personalities; their hopes, dreams, passions and achievements. But with homes becoming increasingly homogenised by cheaper mass production methods, it’s becoming harder and harder for those of us without a fortune in the bank to make our homes stand out. One of the more affordable ways to shake things up is to improve the lighting in your home, which can really help you appreciate it in a different light (pun very much intended). Here, we’ll focus on the three most important rooms in the house.
The Living Room
As the name suggests, the living room is where we do the vast majority of our “living” and, as such, lighting should play a major role in how we design the space. Depending on the size of your living room, you’re either going to want to focus on one large central light, several corner lights or both. In larger rooms, more ostentatious lighting fixtures are common, with living room chandeliers and more esoteric designs often seen in wealthier households.
One trend that appears to have taken root in 2018 is cylinder pendants, which offer a slightly avant-garde look, but without much pretension. If you’re on a budget, meanwhile, paper lanterns can offer a similar effect for a fraction of the cost. Also, always make sure you have at least one standing lamp in the room to offer some flexibility.
The Bedroom
For many of us, the bedroom is no longer just the room where we relax, unwind and lay our heads after a long day at work. It’s the reading room, the TV room and, in some cases, sometimes even the office. Modern bedroom lighting should reflect this. The most flexible and inexpensive way to invest in lighting your bedroom is by changing up the bedside lamps.
Task lighting refers to the lighting we use to help us achieve a specific task; whether it’s reading, applying makeup or doing a spot of last-minute work in the early hours. If this is what you desire, consider a flexible bedroom lamp that can be manoeuvred to direct the light where it is needed and keep it away from your soundly sleeping partner wherever possible. Dimmers are also a common fixture of many bedroom lighting configurations, as they are ideal for either gradually waking you up in the morning, or lulling you softly to sleep at night.
The Kitchen
In the kitchen, you’re going to want to keep things bright and focus on lighting that accents the work surfaces where you’ll be preparing food. Kitchen lighting is all about making the most of limited space, so lights that are embedded underneath cabinets are common, particularly in kitchens where space is at a premium.
LED spotlights are popular choices for kitchen lighting, as they last longer than standard bulbs and are more energy efficient. Lighting trends are often fickle, but the recent trend of large white domes would really suit a large, open-plan kitchen/dining room. Of course, if the kitchen looks out over the garden, you’re not going to want to overdo it as you really want to make the most of any organic light coming into your home. Because modern lighting can be marvellous, but it can’t beat the sun!
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