A crucial element of your overall design plan, lighting effects every decision of a room’s composition from color to atmosphere to placement of furniture and accent pieces. For many rooms, the proper lighting truly finishes a beautiful and put-together design. When decorating, it is important to see how lighting impacts the other elements of a room, and how lighting can change the feel of the space.
Understanding the functions of the room you are decorating is the first step in deciding how and where to light it. Accent lighting may highlight pieces of art or objects of interest in a library, living room, or study. Lamps can provide much-needed task lighting in an office or kitchen, while running lights beneath cabinets can provide a soft guide through darkened kitchens and bathrooms. Overhead lighting in the major living areas of your home is often indispensable. Chandeliers can add a sense of elegance to a room, while recess or track lighting gives a clean and modern feel, while spreading the scope of light across the ceiling or focusing on sofas and tables. Overhead lighting on a dimmer can set a mood and also save energy. Further, lighting can be used in unique and creative ways to achieve breathtaking affects, either by illuminating translucent resin panels or by casting a warm glow from one-of-a-kind handmade lighting fixtures.
Often one of the most affordable ways to change the look of a room is the lighting. Many stores, both physical and online, offer discount lighting and can provide instructions and advice on installation and safety. A combination of lighting types – direct and indirect – to suit the needs of the room can also help save money while minimizing unpleasant effects like glare from over-lighting or spotty shadows from under-lighting. Sometimes, changing out the lighting for something more balanced can provide an inexpensive room makeover in and of itself.
Lighting can add to or compensate for natural lighting, or a lack thereof. Small windows can make a room look dark and cave-like. The right lighting can balance the light of the room and make it look bigger and brighter. Subsequently, lighting affects color. Once you have chosen a paint color for a room, lighting can soften it and change its tint, so it is important to make sure any colors you choose work for you under all your lighting choices as well. Lighting can also play up shining surfaces like mirrors, steel, chrome, silver or other metallic accents, and even silky fabrics, adding a touch of glamor or opening up a room.
A beautiful, functional, comfortable space takes into account the importance of lighting, from overhead fixtures offering direct and indirect lighting, to positioned smaller fixtures like lamps and running lights. You can achieve breathtaking effects which work for the purposes of the room with relatively little cost by implementing the right lighting in the right way. You can be well on your way to the room of your dreams.
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