A Look at the Different Kinds of Lighting You can Use for Your Living Space

Lighting comes in different forms and styles, as you may already know. Lighting can be functional and decorative, and it can also emphasise a particularly beautiful piece of artwork, illuminate a corner of the room, or serve a purely practical purpose as well. Or it can do all three. If you want your home or property to have that extra ‘wow’ factor, you can’t just focus on the décor or furniture – you also have to focus on the lighting. And this is where the importance of the proper lighting comes in. Lighting can play a central role in enhancing the ambience of a room or space, and it can definitely enhance the mood, making the room cosier or more inviting or accentuating your personal taste in décor and artwork. But choosing the right lighting can be a bit of a challenge, so here’s a look at the different kinds of lighting you can use for your living space.

• Ambient lighting

The first kind of lighting you can benefit from is ambient lighting. This type of lighting gives more of a general illumination to a room or space, and it is designed to create a more uniform level of light. In many homes, you will often see ambient lighting as soon as you step into a room and flip a switch. For ambient lighting, you can go for ceiling mounted lights or recessed lighting fixtures which direct the light at a downward angle, or you can go for wall sconces or floor lamps as well. Ambient lighting is often soft and comfortable, and the light looks like it’s bouncing off the room’s walls and ceiling.

• Task lighting

Task lighting is another form of modern lighting which can be especially useful for specific rooms such as kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms. As the name implies, task lighting is ideal for, well, tasks. If you are performing a specific action or function such as cutting vegetables, or shaving in front of a mirror, you need proper task lighting. That being said, you need to have task lighting for your kitchen worktop, the sitting area of your living room, your home office, your bathroom, and your garage or cellar, especially if you like tackling DIY projects. Task lighting is often placed directly overhead the particular surface where you are doing tasks, so ceiling-mounted lights are ideal, as are hanging lights. You can also use table lamps for task lighting in the living area, bedroom, or home office so you can read or do accounts properly.

• Accent lighting

Accent lighting is used to accentuate or emphasise a particular spot or area. It can draw attention to a painting or a sculpture, for instance, and it can also enhance the look of a plant or a shelf. You can even use accent lighting to highlight an outdoor feature or element, such as a beautiful tree, a fountain, or a unique landscaping feature. With accent lighting, you have many options, but you can use track lighting or recessed lighting which have fittings that are adjustable so the light can focus precisely on one object.

When you are planning a room’s lighting, it would be a good idea to consider the ambient lighting right at the beginning, followed by task lighting and then accent lighting. The experts recommend moving from the general space to the specific areas afterwards, and this indeed makes a lot of sense.

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