Avoid these Common Mistakes In Home Illumination

A happy home is one that is filled with light. This may seem to be a trite restating of an old adage, but that does not mean that it is not true. When designing, furnishing or renovating a home, it is the personal taste of the homeowner’s family that decides on what should be done. The budget is also an important factor and compromises often have to be made. One factor that is often not given the importance that it deserves, and where compromises are made, is that of lighting. Spending a huge amount on trying to give a home the “perfect” look often results in disappointment and one major reason for this is not focusing enough on the importance of lighting. Whether you plan to use an interior designer to give your home the look you want or plan to do it yourself, ensure that the use of light is an integral part of the overall interior design. There are many important aspects to indoor lighting and the internet and magazines are full of ideas on what you should or should not do. The decision on how to proceed with the lighting design is yours, but there are a few factors that you should keep in mind to have a home with lighting that works for your family.

What Not To Do When Planning Home Lighting

• Avoid excessive lighting. An overly bright room can look like an office or hospital and that is not the mood you want for your home. It also makes people and objects look hard. Use soft white bulbs and dimmers to create the ambiance you want to suit the mood of the moment.

• Do not depend on just one source of light in a room. Having different light sources that work together will create layers of light that will enhance the mood and décor of the room. Combining overhead lights with floor and table lamps is a good way to achieve this effect.

• Remember that different rooms have different lighting needs. A living room can be bright and cheerful, but the dining room may benefit from softer lighting. The kitchen needs effective focused lighting suitable to a working space, but the needs of a TV room are different. Plan lighting with the use of the room in mind.

• Recessed lighting has its advantages, the chief among them being that it can give a room a clean uncluttered look. That said, it may not be right for every room in the house because it can create a harsh and flat ambiance in a room. That is not what you want for a bedroom or anywhere where you relax and unwind.

• Use dimmers wherever possible. Light and mood go hand in hand. There are times when the family may want a bright and happy room and others when a softer quiet look may be what is required. Dimmers give you the ability to change the lighting to suit the mood.

• Do not ignore closets. They may not be living areas but that does not mean that any lighting will do. A well-lit closet makes finding what you want easier, especially when it comes to small items that somehow always make their way to the corner in the back. Good lighting also makes finding the right color clothes easy – which shade of blue matches your mood today?

• And finally, pay attention to the location of the switches. A badly placed switch can be difficult to find or reach and that could cause accidents in the dark. A switch in the wrong place could also limit the placement of decoration on the wall.

Daylight Is Vital

No matter what artificial lighting you put in the home, nothing will ever replace the importance and effect of natural sunlight. This is what, as medical science proves, the mind and body need to be able to function effectively. Even if the importance of natural light in the home is kept in mind, often factors such as climate, lack of (or wrongly located) windows and external obstructions limit the amount of sunlight that comes into the house. One way of overcoming such problems or of simply adding more natural light to a home is with the use of tubular skylights. Unlike traditional skylights, these can be easily installed on almost any roof and require no structural modification. The installation takes just a few hours and will have almost no effect on the household routine. These daylighting devices can carry sunlight to even the most interior part of the home where elegant diffusers ensure bright, glare-free and controllable daylight is available. If this is the lighting option you have been looking for, contact Sunlight Concepts, the Premier Solatube Dealer for the Bay Area. Solatube is the world leader in daylighting devices. Contact us for a free consultation where your questions about tubular skylights and daylighting will be answered and you will be given all the information you need to make an informed decision on installing them in your home.