There’s no doubt that lighting has a deeper impact on our emotions and moods. In fact, it can create visual stimulation, emphasizing a particular feature of your home you want to highlight.
Lighting for home décor is an extremely underrated feature of any interior design project. If done correctly, lighting can improve your home’s interior even more.
Since choosing the right light fixture types for your room decors can be a little confusing, here’s our ultimate lighting guide that’ll help you decide which modern light fixtures should be a part of your home.
Types of lighting
You can choose from accent lighting, task lighting, and ambient lighting. Usually, you’ll see that all rooms have at least two different types of lighting. However, a room can have three in certain cases. Here’s what each type of light does below:
Accent lighting
The most decorative lighting in a room is accent lighting. Typically, these lights draw attention to something that you admire in your home, like a bookshelf, fireplace, or painting. Generally, these lights make your space stand out for all your visitors to see.
While accent lights can be simple, they can also be luxurious. Lamps, sconces, and chandeliers all act as accent lights.
Task lighting
This type of lighting provides light for specific activities, such as doing your makeup in front of a mirror or reading a book. These lights aim to brighten a small area, not an entire room.
Task lights come in different shapes and sizes. They can be implanted into a mirror, sat on a desk, or mounted on a wall. In fact, some task lights have rotating capabilities to be placed at whatever angle and to go wherever you need them to be.
Ambient lighting
This is usually the primary source of light found in a room. From recessed lighting to overhead fixtures, they can be anything.
Often, your contractor will decide the amount of ambient lighting a room has — they’ll measure the lighting in ‘foot candles’ or how bright a light is a foot away from its ‘home.’ Usually, bathrooms and kitchens will require more foot-candles or brighter lighting.
Lighting categories
Now that you understand the details about different types of lighting, you’ll have to understand the lighting options you have:
Lamps
You probably already have a table or floor lamp in your home. However, if you don’t, it’s another option to add to your choices. Since lamps don’t brighten an entire room, they’re a perfect candidate for a light task.
This light category has numerous options to choose from. Plus, they’re quite inexpensive and easy to move around the room.
Chandeliers
Since chandeliers give off more than one light source at a time, they can be labeled as a large lighting system. These lights are suspended from the ceiling, and depending on where you place them in the house, they can be decorative or functional.
Pendants
Pendant lights aren’t similar to mounting lights — they hang considerably low from the ceiling by a chain, cord, or wire.
The primary function of a pendant is to act as a task light hanging above a kitchen island or a dining room table. However, they come in a variety of sizes.
Flush and semi-flush mounts
Both mounting lights are usually rooted in the ceiling, where they allow for extra walking space and brighten the room. Simply put, they don’t take a lot of space — approximately six to twelve inches is the most they’ll hang away from the ceiling.
Sconces
Mounted directly on the wall, sconces can be hardwired into the wall or a cord can hang down to plugged in.
Wall sconces are usually bought in pairs, each on either side of a fireplace or a mirror. In contrast, swing-arm sconces are generally mounted by themselves as an accent light, highlighting a bookcase or a piece of art.
Verdict
We’ve covered different types of lighting and lighting categories to help you choose the perfect lighting for your home. Now, the choice is all yours, but at least now you’re aware of everything you need to know to begin your lighting endeavors!
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Galileo Lights is your online source for modern lighting fixtures. Their curated collection of luxury lighting spans a range of unique styles and price points.
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About the Author
Gregory P. Johnson has a degree in interior design and has experience of more than 7 years of working with hundreds of different designs. Currently, he’s working as a senior blogger with a focus on home lighting and décor.