Living Room Lighting Guide
The largest space in a home is the living room, it caters for a lot whether it’s hosting family and friends, greeting guests, or watching your favorite football team score the winning goal. The living room is where it all comes to life. Are you planning to revamp your existing living room setting or constructing a new house?. There are a few things you should pen down and sort before finalizing anything else for your living room. No matter how beautiful you try to make your space but a poorly lit room can throw all your efforts in the bin. And with tons of options available in the market, you only want to choose what’s right for YOUR living room.
Lighting in itself is not just a bulb illuminating warm or white colors. It’s an ambiance! But before rushing off to the market consider the following to serve as a guideline for lighting up your living room:
- What purpose will the living room serve?
The answer to this question will decide what mood and style should dominate your space. Will it be a movie night with the fam or having guests over for a barbeque party? Or nothing, your space should be well lit along with matching fixtures to comprehend the nature of the gathering. Majority of the locals in Pakistan, are generally more inclined towards using cool white or warm white tones. The pros of warm white light aren’t just limited to promoting relaxation and helping you unwind for the day, but it gives the skin a softer look, reducing any imperfections making it your perfect selfie partner, or when you want to capture those timeless family moments. Cool lights, on the other hand, keep us alert, energetic, and awake. Perfect for formal arrangements.
- Cool white or warm white?
If you’ve spend hefty amounts on your décor you’ll definitely want your guests to notice the vibrancy and beauty of your room. From the traditional blue pottery vase to the picturesque handmade paintings. Deciding on cool white will be a good option here, as it will make the colors pop. For a gold and pastel theme room with hints of brown, warm lights are more likely to justice as it will help tone down the colors, creating a perfectly balanced color theme.
- Testing samples
Sometimes you need to practically see it to believe it, therefore always buy LED in two shades you like the most and add them to your floor lamp or fixtures to see how they work with the rest of the setting and since a living room is everyone’s space so don’t be shy to take honest advice from your family as they will be accessing it the most through the day.
- What fixtures are needed?
After you’re done deciding on the ambience go ahead and get the fixtures. For classic wood accent putting a traditional chandelier as your centre piece accompanied by wall scones to evenly distribute the light will add sparkle to your room. For more rectangular spaces, hang in contrasting lamps for that extra oomph. And always remember, for larger room settings stay away from fixtures that create obstacles to the natural light by selecting clear glass or plastic forms. Frosted glass holders or double shade lamps can be an example of what not to buy if looking to achieve a brightly lit space.
As it can totally ruin the ambience of your room, making everything gloomy by blocking the majority of the light and or changing its shade altogether.
- Spotlight effect
Lights are not just meant for the ceilings or walls, but you can utilize their brightening feature to showcase other things too. Like, crockery units combined with TV unit and book case as can be seen in many traditional and modern households. Using smaller LED under each shelf section will bring out the beauty of those classic crockery sets and help find your read for the day.
- Layering
Additional light sources like floor lamps, corner table lamps, and candle lights will amplify your space and be more effective than using a single source of light, as layering illuminates all four corners of the room creating a balanced and pleasant atmosphere. The choices vary for each dweller as their needs. For your ease take a print of the above guideline and maybe discuss with your interior designer or local shop owner in case you’re thinking about experimenting with different lights to create the perfect ambiance for your living room.
