Light Fixtures That Light Up Your Rooms

You know how beautiful photographs of furniture looks in magazines and catalogs? Everyone wants their homes to look just as glowing. There’s a trick designers use to achieve this look: layers of light. When you layer light sources, you create a textured look that shows off the best features of your room. To do this, you’ll need to combine different types of light sources and fixtures. Below is a guide to achieving layered lighting for any room.

Windows

Yes, windows. It seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious is overlooked. However, if your room has great windows that provide lots of natural lighting during the day, you’ll need to take this into consideration. Daylight is what we are usually trying to imitate when we add lighting to a room, so if you have it, use it.

Keep in mind that even on the sunniest South Florida day, a single window may not give your room sufficient light. And it will vary depending on the time of day. Placing light sources near the window will give subtle lighting that creates a balanced, beautiful space no matter what time of day it is.

Pot Lights

Pot lights, also known as recessed downlights, are often used to modernize and brighten a space. They can spread light throughout a large area, especially the center of a large space where wall lights might not reach.

Track Lights

Track lighting can overcome its bad reputation when used in the right way – especially in kitchens. They have the ability to put task lighting right where you need it.

Pendants and Chandeliers

Pendant lights or a chandelier. I’ve put them together here because the line between them is often blurry. A chandelier is often larger and more decorative, but basically still a pendant light that hangs from the ceiling. More important is where the light is aimed: either down or up to provide a general glow.

Turned downward, the light can illuminate a dining room table or console and create an intimate mood. Aimed upward they will project more light to the room’s center and can highlight overhead features in a room.

Dropped Ceilings

In some instances, pendant lighting will not work, for example in a condo with a concrete ceiling. In this case, a dropped ceiling panel can supply the space to put in lighting fixtures such as pendants or pot lights.

Sconces

Sconces can be artistic and ornate or simple and sleek and they come in many sizes. Evenly spaced single-bulb sconces add light at eye level and provide even brightness. Or, if you wish to eliminate shadows, place your light fixtures close together.

Standing Lamps

Standing lamps – table lamps and floor lamps both fall into this category – are useful for adding task lighting for reading. They also throw off a gentle glow wherever they are placed and can be used to target the center of a space or the corners. When placed near a window a floor lamp, they can substitute natural light that would stream in during the day.

Wall Washers

As the name implies, wall washers are installed on the wall, or sometimes on the ceiling. They are used to highlight decorative features in a room, such as a statement wall or piece of art. In addition, they will make the entire room seem much brighter.

Uplights

If you have a decorative ceiling, you can show it off with uplights. Combined with a wall washer they can put your architectural features on full display. Uplights are often installed in the floors of contemporary homes, and combined with wall washers and pot lights can seem modernist and cold to some. So unless you like a minimalist, gallery-type look, you may not want to use them excessively.

Very few people are going to walk into your home and complement you on your lighting scheme. But that’s not the point. If you have layers of light implemented correctly, what they will do is complement you on your home.

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