MAKE YOUR DREAM HOME LIGHTING A REALITY

Lighting in your home can can affect your mood, emotions, and your overall well being. Lighting isn’t just for nice decoration, it’s a way to show your adventurous style. Lighting is a way to improve your creativity, and your productivity. Lighting is a way to add some romantic ambiance. Lighting is so much more than just for decoration. Let’s go over some key types of lighting that can be found in most homes today, some of the different types of light fixtures, details about some of the most popular light bulb styles, how to pick the perfect lighting for each room, and some of the different types of controls for your lighting.

Types of Lighting

The main types of artificial lighting for your home are ambient lighting, task lighting, accent lighting, and outdoor lighting. • Ambient Lighting • Task Lighting • Accent Lighting • Outdoor Lighting

Ambient Lighting

Ambient lighting is soft, overhead type of lighting that helps illuminate any broad open space. It can also be used to customize lighting to fit or make any mood.

Task Lighting

Task lighting is targeted lighting that is directed on a tabletop surface, desk, countertop, or other work surface to be able to do your work, complete projects. Task lighting also works great for working on hobbies like sewing, tying flies, crafts and other projects, cooking, or writing.

Accent Lighting

Accent lighting is typically smaller, focused lighting that can be directed at any specific item or area of your home in any room. This type of lighting is typically a broad beam that is used to light up or highlight certain things in your home, or areas of your home. It can add interest for conversation starters with your guests as well.

Outdoor Lighting

If your looking for some great lighting opportunities to update your patio for spring, some great ways to add lighting for your outdoor spring and summer fun, is to add some fun lighting to your backyard patio and landscaping. Adding accent lights to highlight beautifully landscaped areas of your backyard is a great way to light up your yard. Some hanging lights to include over your patio table and across the yard to add some additional lighting is another great outdoor lighting idea. A nice centerpiece light for the patio table is another fun lighting idea for your patio.

Lighting Fixture Types

Recessed Lighting

Recessed lighting is lighting that is recessed into your ceiling so that it doesn’t stick out. It gives you overhead lighting that isn’t sticking out, and is focused down to lighten the area below the light. This type of lighting is best for kitchens and entryways.

Surface Lighting

Surface lighting is pretty much any light fixture that is attached to the wall or ceiling. It sticks out from the surface. A couple of exampes of surface lighting aresconces and track lighting. This type of lighting is typically flush against the wall or ceiling that they are installed on.

The Most Popular Flush Mount Lighting Styles to Know

Pendant Lighting

Pendant lights are lighting fixtures that hang from the ceiling. They are typically best suited for hanging above a kitchen counter or your dining room table. They also work great above the entryway to add some style for people to visibly see the light fixture as they are coming or going. It leaves a great first impression of your home if you pick a fancy stylish pendant light fixture. They work great in rooms with higher ceilings as they typically have a cable or a chain that holds them in place.

Lamp Lighting

Lamp lighting covers your typical table lamps, floor lamps, and other mobile light fixtures. These lights have a power cord that plugs into an outlet in the floor or the wall, so they are the easiest type of light to install or plug and go. You can also move them around easily from area to area, or room to room. Light Bulbs Light bulbs come in many shapes, sizes, styles, and purpose. There are money saving light bulbs, and bulbs that range from super bright, to very dim, and everything in between.

Types of Light Bulbs

Most existing indoor lighting uses incandescent bulbs. But, with money and energy saving goals in mind, most new lighting will come with energy efficient LED or CFL light bulbs.

Light Bulb Color Temperature

The color temperature of a light bulb is what determines the color appearance of a white LED light bulb. LED bulbs temperatures range from amber, soft, bright, cool, all the way up to daylight. Amber Light is a relaxing extra warm soft white light. Warm Lights are best for cozy spaces like the bedroom and the living room. Soft Light is a warm soft white light. Another great light for your bedroom and your living room lighting. Bright Light is a neutral yet bright white light. Neutral lights are great for kitches, bathrooms, and laundry rooms. Cool Light is a light that gives you an energizing feel. Cool Lights are best for task lighting in your office, hobby room, bathroom, and kitchen. Daylight Light is a cool and refreshing bright daylight look.

Philips Lighting Temperature

If you are buying Philips brand light bulbs, they provide the following image to show what their bulbs temperature and lighting look like in real life.

Lighting For Each Room

Most rooms will have a mix of ambient, task, and accent lighting. You don’t need to have all three, but usually a mixture of them throughout the rooms in your house.

Entryway Lighting

Your entryway is the area of the inside of your house that gives your guests their first impressions of your home. This is where the type of light you use matters most importantly. Your entryway should be well lit. We recommend that you install a pendant or chandelier type of light as they are a great style, and can have an amazing look if you buy the best one in your budget range that you like the most. You will want to make sure the light switch is easily accessible as when you walk in at night it may be dark, and you and your guests should be able to easily find the switch to turn the light on.

Living Room Lighting

Most of your time with your family, and friends, is spent in your living room. Your living room should have several lighting sources. It’s nice to have a ceiling fan with light in the living room to cool off on those hot days. It’s also nice to have some recessed lighting in strategic places in your living room, with different switches, letting you control how much light and where the light is focused. Floor lamps are great on both ends of your couch, or recliner to give you the ability to turn one of these on to light up all these areas, or them each individually as well. Table lamps on your end tables are great as well, as they allow you to ready a book, or your favorite catalog. This gives you the individual lighting you need for where you are sitting to work on that special project. If you have a fireplace mantel, scones are great for placing on both sides of your mantel. Some great ambient lighting to add to your mantel are LED candle lights along your mantel.

Kitchen Lighting

Kitchen lighting needs to be bright to give you that extra lighting you need for cooking. It is best to have multiple sources of lighting in your kitchen so that you can properly light up every nook and cranny. A combination of pendant style lights, and recessed lighting works great in the kitchen. If you would like some additional ambient lighting a great touch is to add under cabinet lights that can be dim for accent lighting, or bright for lighting up your counters for whatever task you have at hand, or preparing your meals for the family.

Dining Room Lighting

Dining room lighting is best suited for pendant lighting, or chandelier lights. This adds some elegant style to your dining room, and is a great look. The best place to install these lights is over the center of the table.

Staircase Lighting

Stairs can be dangerous, so it’s important to have bright pendant or recessed style lighting over the full length of the stairs. They also have lights that attach half way up each step, that are dim, that will give you just enough light to safely walk down the stairs without turning on the bright lights you would use during the day and evening.

Hallway Lighting

Hallways are best suited for pendant, recessed, or wall mounted sconce lighting fixtures. Lights should be placed every six to ten feet to light up your hallway perfectly.

Bedroom Lighting

Bedrooms are the funnest place to plan lighting for. A ceiling fan with dimmable lights is great for the bedroom main light. This gives you a breeze to keep you cooler on those hot summer nights. Ambient lighting should be used throughout the room, and if your looking for some fun lighting to add you can use color LED lighting that is controlled by your tablet or smartphone so you can add color, cool effects, and some romantic lighting into your bedroom. Reading lights on your night stands give you great lighting for some late night reading, or working with your laptop when you need to during the night. ,

Bathroom Lighting

Bathrooms are an important area of your home to have functional lighting for doing your makeup, and taking a shower. Recessed lighting, or wall mounted surface lights work great in the bathroom. A surface light above your mirror will give you the lighting you need for getting ready in the mornings. If you have a bath tub, then dimmable lighting will give you that romantic and relaxing lighting to let you relax when you are in the bath.

Home Office Lighting

When you work from your home office, lighting should have some careful consideration so that you have some different options so you have less eye strain while working. We recommend a ceiling fan with a dimmable light, a table lamp, and maybe even a floor lamp to give you different options based on how your feeling at different times of the day. Having the right lighting in your home office can help prevent eye strain, stress headaches, and also make you more productive.

Optional Lighting Controls

There are lots of ways to customize your lighting in your home. Dimmable light switches can save you money, and give you more control over the different levels of lighting you are looking for in each room, at different times of the day and night. and control the environment inside your home to set the right mood. Another great type of light control, the Motion sensored light control, can also save you money since they will turn off after a certain amount of time with no movement in the room. They will also turn on as you walk into the room, or when movement happens.

Conclusions About Lighting

Lighting affects everything in your home, and daily life. It can affect your mood, your productivity, your sleep patterns, and even improve the decor and look and feel in your home. Careful planning, and a lot of thought, should go into how you want each area of your home to look, and the style that you are trying to accomplish. El Dorado County Home Builders highlights products and services that you might find interesting. We frequently receive free products from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. If you click a link on this page, then go on to make a purchase, we might receive a commission – at no extra cost to you, and this does not impact the purchase price of any products that you may purchase.