Home Lighting

As you design the interior of your home, lighting is one of the crucial elements that must be considered. Each home needs a variety of lighting in order to perform different tasks, so it is important to carefully consider what types of lighting you use in certain rooms. Avoid the following common home lighting mistakes in order to ensure that your home is well- lighted.

Blocking Natural Light

Whenever possible, it’s important to take advantage of natural light. Homeowners often lose much of their natural lighting because of curtains or poorly placed furniture. Consider where the natural light is coming from and maximize its use in each room. Obviously, natural light will need to be supplemented with light fixtures, but it should always be the starting point.

Recessed Downlights Everywhere

In general, a common lighting mistake made by homeowners is the overuse of recessed downlights which may not provide enough light to light a whole room without  installing them all over the ceiling..

No Variety

Building on the problem of only using recessed downlights, another common issue is forgetting to add variety to the lighting. Effective lighting requires different layers of lights that can fulfill different functions. For instance, a kitchen should have ambient light as well as task lighting and accent lighting.

No Dimming Options

Adding dimmers to lights allows more control over the lighting in each room. Raising or lowering the lighting level instantly modifies the atmosphere of a room. In addition, dimmers reduce your energy bill and  result in less impact on the environment.

Forgetting Task Lights

Although homeowners always know that they need general ambient lighting in each room, they often forget to consider what kinds of task lights will be useful additions in certain rooms. For example, the kitchen needs to include task lights that will illuminate counters, sink and cooking areas. Another  locations that  will need task lighting  are your home office, reading areas and bathroom mirrors

Poor Lighting Around the Bathroom Mirror

For a bathroom mirror or vanity, it’s essential to incorporate light from several directions.  Downlights alone will be unflattering  creating  facial shadows and exaggerates wrinkles. Lights should be added to the sides of the mirror around eye level in order to eliminate this problem and improve the quality of light for shaving and applying makeup