How To Effectively Use Home Lighting Fixtures To Enhance Your Home Décor

If you’re looking to redecorate or are in the mood for a new lamp or lighting fixture, you can go out and buy a lamp with a light bulb. Or start using the light as a decorative element in your home, which can be a lot of fun. You can choose styles in home lighting that create a mood, cast shadows, give crisp lines on a wall, or highlight artwork or accent pieces like furniture and plants.

Start thinking outside the box like a home decorator would, and you’ll discover lighting products that add comfort, security, and style to your home. The buzzword these days is flexibility (meaning: layers of light controlled by numerous switches and dimmers) with the goal of controlling or eliminating glare. Nowadays, the lights are more energy efficient and adapt to different uses in the home. Light bulbs, such as fluorescent and halogen, come in hundreds of colors and designs.

When it comes to lamps and accessories, size does make a difference.

Home lighting fixtures are getting smaller and smaller. The reason for this is that unless you are displaying a particular style of lamp or light, it should appear invisible. There are certain styles that do this very well. Halogen pendants, wall sconces, and low-voltage track and rope lights are just a few of the most popular. Good outdoor lighting has the same principles applied. They should highlight certain features of your property as well as add security and warmth. It is particularly important to hide them as best you can.

Decorative lighting styles to think about

Task lighting:

• They are generally used in places where some type of work is carried out such as reading, sewing and crafts. This is usually accomplished by adding a reading lamp or table lamp. They should be adjustable so that you can correct any glare that casts a shadow on your work.

Decorative lights:

• They are used to display a certain feature of wall art, plants, or certain areas. They are used to set an atmosphere or create a mood and are sometimes called directional lighting, wall sconces, spotlights, uplights, or floor lights. You control the amount per beam spread, intensity and color or a combination of all three. This is the wear on dimmer switches that really come in handy.

Ambient lighting:

• It’s what you need to watch TV or move around a room without having to turn on the main light. It casts a glow or soft illumination and is the best light source for cutting shadows and making a room look inviting. Another benefit is that people always look their best in this type of environment. You can achieve this effect using lights in borders, corners and under the shelves. You can also use track or string lights to create this effect.

decorative lamps:

• These are used when you are looking for a home accent and are not too concerned with adding more light, tiffany style lamps and sconces are great for this. What they do is draw attention to themselves by their appearance. In most cases, they will have a very decorative lampshade of stained glass or unusual fabrics.

In all of the above cases you want to have balance. Remember that balance is achieved by layering. Bright light will create shadows throughout the room, so add another table lamp or post lamp that has a lower wattage bulb to counter shadows. Living rooms require more than one lamp or fixture to soften different parts of the room. Where a laundry room just needs a good strong fluorescent ceiling light. If you are using a chandelier as your main source of lighting, for example in a formal dining room, you need to have a dimmer switch installed for it. Crystal chandeliers can be very shiny and hard on the eyes. Tone this down a bit and you create a warm and romantic place to dine. If you are using fluorescent bulbs, you may not be able to use a dimmer switch. They are made to run at full force and not be on and off all the time.