Lighting Design For Your New Home

Creating a lighting design for your brand new home helps in making each space both beautiful and functional.  So what do you need to consider when it comes to lighting up your life?

Lighting uses can be broken down into ambient lighting, task lighting  and accent lighting.  Ambient lighting is the light you would need for general day to day (or should it be night to night) activities within your home.  The introduction of ‘daylight’ coloured globes has helped to keep that ‘natural light’ feel throughout your home.  Daylight globes suit most colour palettes but work best for the cooler greys and blues. For those after a warmer colour palette such as beiges, creams and browns, warm white globes throw off a soft yellow light.

These days, more people are opting for downlights throughout the main living areas and bedrooms instead of ceiling or oyster lights.  Downlights are less intrusive visually which allows you to create more impact with feature lighting in certain areas.  The drawback is that you require more downlights per room to ensure you have enough illumination and don’t end up with dark corners.

Task lighting becomes essential over your work spaces such as kitchen benches, bathroom mirrors and study areas.  Again, daylight globes work well but for more intricate and focused tasks, you may want to consider a cool white globe.  Cool white globes have a cooler blue or even flourescent glow which is perfect for producing higher contrast.  Keep in mind that task lighting should be directly overhead or even in front of the task area so that you are not throwing shadows.

Accent lighting is where you can really go to town.  From star lights in wall niches lighting up artwork to feature pendants over your kitchen island bench, accent lighting is all about creating beautiful aesthetics.  Along with the positioning of overhead feature lighting, make sure to also include power points for wall and table lamps.

A final note, pay attention not only to the location of your lights in the ceiling but also your light switch points.  Imagine yourself walking through your home.  Where would you instinctively reach to turn on a light as you come into a room?  Two way switching also works well for areas where you enter from one end and leave from another such as passageways.