How to Plan Your Home’s Lighting

Your home is your whole kingdom. It might be perfect for you but believe us, it surely needs more– more light!

It sounds cliched but a good home decor lighting is literally everything. Get it right and the entire look of your interiors will improve drastically. But deciding how to light your home like a dream is not as simple as plugging in your favorite lamp. A well-illuminated room seeks to achieve the perfect balance of function and form- lighting fixtures that are tremendously attractive & add to the room’s design while also giving out the right amount of light to make the space functional for its use.

So how to plan things out?

Well, luckily there’s more than one answer to the issue and with a little strategic approach, it’s absolutely possible to plan your home’s lighting that will flawlessly work for you! Let us know how.

Three types of lighting

There are mainly three types of lighting- task light, ambient light, and accent light. Simply put, consider them as ‘layers’ that work together to build up lighting in a room where each of them works distinctly.

• Task Lighting: As the name suggests, it provides extra light in a specific part of your room to help you carry out a particular task. For example, a desk lamp.

• Ambient Lighting: Used for filling the entire room with a soft light. Ceiling fixtures & modern chandelier lights are a perfect example.

• Accent Lighting: Meant for calling attention to little details or particular objects in the room such as a piece of art or a bookcase.

In order to plan the perfect lighting at your home, you should first figure out what kind of lighting would you need for each room.

How to use them in your space?

Once you understand the concept of the lighting types, the next step is to think how they’ll work for your home.

Ask yourself. Where do you plan to entertain your guests and what mood do you want to set in your living area? Do you have separate space for dining, reading, or home office? How well do you want your bedroom to be illuminated?

Moreover, if your house is still under construction, planning your home’s lighting will take some strong imagination. And while you are analyzing all your rooms, don’t forget to plan your outdoor lighting as well; because they’re equally important.

Begin from the top

With a few exceptions, it’s wise to start with your ambient lighting. Each room will need at least one ambient light and these beautiful fixtures will be responsible for a major portion of lighting in your home.

Task & accent lighting come next in the list. You can further prioritize task lighting for indoor workspaces such as home offices. As compared to accent and decor lighting, it is often easier to add or modify task lighting depending on your needs.

Consider the architecture of your home

Think logically. Bright lighting and good lighting are never the same things.

If your walls are painted with cooler tones, consider putting light bulbs that cast a warm glow. Similarly, you might want to go for a cooler glow to brighten up a warm & darker space.

Nonetheless, the structural design of your house also plays a pivotal role in deciding the type and intensity of lighting that you’d be needing.

For an instance, a few recessed pot-lights might replace the need for ambient lighting in the basement but will never suffice for a grand foyer with a tall ceiling. Moreover, you should also consider evaluating how much natural light each portion of your house receives so that you could plan your home’s lighting accordingly.

Stephen Onaola, Ceo of Precise Lighting Store is one of the biggest Nigeria's online lighting retailer and lighting expert.