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Tips for Great Home Lighting

Great lighting is something you take for granted until it’s not there. When a room is too dim or bright, it’s uncomfortable and sets an unpleasant tone. So, how do you ensure the lighting in your home is more brilliant than blah? Easy. Follow these tips for great lighting from the Deja Blue Home Staging & Design designers.

Image of accent lighting highlighting wall art

Types of Lighting

Light is light, right? Not quite. In any well-designed room, you need to have three types of lighting - general, task, and accent.

  • General, or ambient, lighting is the light source that replaces natural light. It should be bright enough to see around the room and is crucial to lighting design.
  • Task lighting is for specific activities, such as reading, cooking, and other hobbies that require you to see details. Your task lighting should be bright enough to prevent eyestrain but free from glare and shadows.
  • Accent lighting is for drama and visual interest. You can be the most creative with this variety of lighting. You can use accent lights to place a focus on art, houseplants, unique architectural details, and or any other prized possession. The rule for fantastic accent lighting is that it must be 3x as bright as the general lighting in a space.

Now What?

Now that you know the three main types of lighting, how do you put them to use?

  • Spread light around the room. Even general lighting should be evenly dispersed throughout a space. A single, very bright light source creates a glare that causes your pupils to dilate. This makes the space around the light appear darker than it is. Focus on eliminating dark corners and highlighting the most used areas.
  • Use multiple sources of light. The best lighting schemes use “layers” of light that can be operated independently or together. This allows you to use a room for multiple purposes, like entertaining at a party or getting cozy to read your favorite book.
  • Focus on the critical areas of a room. The key to sensational lighting isn’t just how bright it is but the contrast it creates between what you want to see more of in a room. In your living room, it’s important to see well enough not to bump into the furniture. The kitchen requires exceptional light on the countertop and other prep areas. The moral of the story is to place lighting where it matters.
  • Customize your lighting controls. Many people accept poor lighting because the controls are difficult to reach or operate. In 2022, nobody needs to suffer from bad lighting. Dimmers, times, motion sensors, and automation can increase the ease of use and comfort.
  • Finally, you want to invest in the correct type of lightbulb for your needs. Wattage was once the main determining factor in choosing lightbulbs, but the advance of LED lights made wattage obsolete. You’ll want to focus on lumens and the color of the bulb. Most lightbulbs produce warm, yellow light or neutral, bright white light with many variants in between.

Contact Us

We hope we’ve helped you to shine some light on how to design great lighting. Get in touch with us when you’re ready to take your lighting design to the next level. Deja Blue Home Staging & Design is your premier local resource for custom closets, flooring, and much more. We proudly serve Redwood City, Woodside, and Atherton, CA.

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