The way you light your home has a massive effect on how well you function. Get the right lighting combination into place, and your home can have a cozy, inviting and airy feel to it all year long. However, you can start to tire of the lighting that worked well before. If you’ve noticed that the lighting in your home is looking increasingly dreary, take steps to upgrade it so that your new year looks a lot brighter.
Use Different Light Sources in Each Room
Each room may have a main light source, such as ceiling lights in the kitchen. But those shouldn’t be the only lights you have. Ideally, each room should have multiple light sources, which is a strategy called light layering.
Your living room, for example, may have recessed lights in the ceiling that illuminate the majority of the space. But you’ll also want smaller table lamps on side tables to provide extra light where people are reading or chatting. Accent lighting helps brighten dark corners and shelves, too.
The idea behind light layering is to place lights at different points so that you have more options. A few overhead lights are going to seem rather dull after a while, no matter how bright the bulbs are. Adding lights at different heights and angles lets you adjust the overall brightness to suit your mood.
Change the Bulb Temperature
Speaking of bulbs, change the fixtures to ones that take LED bulbs, if you haven’t already. Then, turn your attention to the bulbs’ temperatures. Bulb temperatures control the color and warmth of the light. Temperatures around 3,000 to 5,000 Kelvin range from slightly yellowish and warm to a more natural white indoor light that’s nice and bright, but not clinical. Those below about 2,500 K can be too yellow and seem too dark for whole room use. However, they can be very interesting when used for shelf accent lights.
Temperatures around 6,000 to 7,000 K are more like daylight. Temperatures above that enter “cool white” territory and start to take on a bluish cast. You want to avoid those as they can seem very cold and uninviting when lighting an entire room.
Re-Evaluate Outdoor Lighting Locations
The location of each light outside your home can also affect how you feel. A dim porch light that barely illuminates your door can create a dingy atmosphere. That’s not what you want to see when you come home in the evening. Instead, install brighter lights that make it easy to see what you’re doing as you try to unlock your door.
Garden path lights that aren’t very visible are unsafe, too. You want path lights that let you see everything on the pathway so that you don’t trip. Replace older lights that have seen better days with new ones that are clean, especially if you have solar garden lights.
You don’t have to revamp the lighting in your home alone. Contact Whipple Service Champions in Salt Lake City for help with upgrading your home’s lights. Let your home shine bright this coming year!
