Lighting in Your Home

Lighting in your home does more to set the mood and tone of your decorating style as much as the decor itself. Soft lighting helps accentuate warm decorating styles, while strong lighting gives a room a sense of purpose. Natural lighting is essential for many decorative indoor botanicals, but good light fixtures are needed for normal use.

Kitchens are arguably the most important room of any home. Kitchen lighting is equally important. Kitchens are the backdrop for everything from family get-togethers to daily cooking. Kitchen lighting needs to bright and warm without being harsh. Kitchens with drop ceilings can benefit from light panels, but today's decorators have the option to shun the fluorescent lights of the past and use warm, cost-effective LED panel lights instead. Traditional fixtures work equally well for providing the right amount of light for a kitchen work-space. Indirect kitchen lighting can brighten up the room. They complement other fixtures and lighten up the dark areas, like the space above cabinets.

Dimmer switches work well with ceiling light, wall sconces and indirect lighting. They give homeowners complete control over the lighting they need. Dimmer switches with indirect lighting have become particularly popular for home theatres. This kind of lighting makes it easy to adjust for just the right amount of light for viewing different media. Dimmer switches are particularly effective in sitting rooms, where a variety of light levels may be needed.

Traditional ceiling fixtures are not practical in all rooms, depending on the ceiling type. Table lamps and floor lamps help provide home lighting in these cases. Wall sconces can be used as light fixtures when ceiling lights are impractical. Lamp placement helps to accentuate various features in the room decor. Sconces, ceiling lights and lamps come in so many styles that it is easy to coordinate with room decor.

Indirect lighting camouflaged by edge moulding can banish the shadows on the edges of vaulted ceilings. As in kitchen design, these lights pair well with other room lights. Hidden indirect lighting adds a special something to room design without causing a clash in fixture styles.

The right lighting adds to room decor in the same way the right fixture styles can complement a decorating style. Warm light helps create an inviting feel in room design, while bright lights accentuate a room's utility. Dimmers help homeowner's control the amount of light needed for various room uses.