Home Lighting

Although many homeowners may feel daunted at the thought of updating home lighting, there are plenty of easy ways to improve your home lighting without completely overhauling the system. A few simple fixes can make a dramatic difference in the quality of the lighting.

1. Diversify Your Lighting

When dealing with a room that isn’t well-lighted, one of the easiest things to do is to simply install a new source of light that is completely different from the lighting sources in the rest of the room. For instance, in a room that is solely  lighted by recessed downlights, try adding a table lamp or a wall sconce to bring more warmth to the room. When possible, try to incorporate three distinct sources of light into each room.

2. Consider Specific Tasks

Task lighting is often overlooked, but it is incredibly important throughout the home. Adding a task light beside a bed or over a kitchen counter  will improve performance of visual tasks.

3. Add More Control

Dimmers allow you to enjoy greater control over the lighting and therefore atmosphere of each room. In addition, dimmers can help you to cut down on energy consumption, as you only turn on as much light as is actually needed.

4. Incorporate Reflective Accents

For a particularly easy fix to a poorly- lighted room, try introducing reflective elements into the room. For instance, hang a large mirror on a wall that will reflect light in order to brighten the room. White walls also reflect and amplify light so that you need fewer sources of light in order to achieve pleasant ambient light.

5. Light the Corners

If there are dark corners throughout your home, find creative ways to add a little more light in order to increase the functionality of those areas. For instance, add a wall sconce in a dining room, a portable uplight behind a potted plant or a task light in the corner of the kitchen. These little changes can make a huge improvement to your overall lighting.

6. Save Energy

Motion-sensor light switches can easily be installed in order to increase the efficiency of your lighting. These switches turn the lights off once you leave the room so that lights aren’t left on unnecessarily.

7. Update Fixtures

Upgrading a few of your most prominent fixtures can make a big difference in the overall lighting of your home. Any fixtures that are either stylistically outdated or inefficient can be easily replaced with a newer model. You don’t need to replace every fixture in your house – simply focus on the ones that have the most impact on your lighting.