Lighting Design: Common Mistakes You May be Making
Whether you realize it or not, lighting changes the color of a room and influences the comfort level of its guests. To prove this point, ask yourself how comfortable you feel in a cafeteria or school gym--the harsh lighting is hard to escape! A thoughtful, seamless lighting design scheme should make the eyes do less, not more, work. What you don’t want to do is fill the ceiling with lights, creating a flat ceiling, or use fewer ceiling lights at a brighter setting, creating glare.
Take a look at some tips below to create a warm, inviting space.
1. Use ornamental fixtures to draw the eyes up.
2. When using recessed lighting, use more around the perimeter, fewer in the middle, and a small number of ornamental fixtures, depending on size of the room.
3. Always use a dimmer for ceiling lighting.
4. Consider preseting the room’s entire lighting scheme.
5. Vary your sources of lighting, from accent/sconce lighting, to table and floor lamps.
6. Keep lighting temperatures below 3000K in residential spaces.
7. Choose warm white bulbs.
8. Angle picture lighting at the floor or wall, not the artwork.
Are you content with the lighting design in your home?