Kinds of Lighting for Your Home

No room design is complete without considering light! Whether they’re natural or from lamps, light has a big impact on a home’s overall look and feel. How do you utilize lamps and incorporate light into your plan? Here’s what you need to know!

The Importance of Lighting

Apart from colors, from pieces of furniture that will go into your space, natural light or artificial light from lamps should also be considered. After all, light illuminates your space, highlights special pieces in your rooms and amplifies your style.

The 3 Types of Lighting for the Home

A common mistake: most of us think that using just one of these types is enough for proper illumination. But to establish a mood, every room needs a combination of general lighting, task lighting and accent lighting.

1. General or Ambient Lighting. General lighting provides overall illumination for a room. This type of lighting should cover every space in the room. The usual forms include: ceiling-mounted lamps or bulbs; wall sconces; cove, and valance lighting that bounces light off of ceilings and walls.
2. Task Lighting. Task lighting is intended to light up areas of function, such as a work desk in your home office, the counter top in your kitchen and a side table in your living room. Table and floor lamps are kinds of lamps that fall under the task lighting category.
3. Accent Lighting. Accent lighting is also called highlighting, for its purpose of drawing attention to particular elements or objects in a room—an artwork, a plant, bookcases and the like.

Para Sure tip: when planning for layers of light in a room, move from general to specific. Ambient lighting being your base type of lighting has to go first.

Do you need all three types of lighting? Often, you don’t. It’s important to think about the function of your space. If it’s where you’ll work on personal projects, then prioritize task lighting. If it’s where you’ll put your family mementos and achievements on display, then start with accent lighting.

Check out more home improvement and decorating tips from Island Paints.