We all know what a new coat of paint can do for a room. The same goes for lighting upgrades which can enhance the mood and function of your indoor spaces. If you want to get the most out of your home, do some planning, understand each type of lighting, and improve your space and your mood too! 

Here are some useful tips to help improve the lighting in your home and what planning and installation might look like. 

Types of Home Lighting

The lighting in your home will include a variety of kinds of lighting that are all used together to build a warm and inviting atmosphere. The main types of indoor lighting to consider include Ambient, Task, and Accent Lighting.

• Ambient Lighting - Ambient lighting refers to the functional light source that brightens your space beyond the natural light, contributing to the overall light in the room. Most ambient lighting uses a central light source, or group of lights that can create plenty of illumination but doesn’t necessarily enhance the mood of the room. Used alone, these lights may cause unflattering shadows from bright down-lighting and can be combined with other types of lighting.

• Task Lighting - Task lighting provides light for a specific task like the lamp you put on your desk. You can use task lighting to illuminate a certain task anywhere in your house, such as under the cabinets in your kitchen to brighten your food preparation area or over your kitchen sink, or bathroom mirror. 

• Accent Lighting - Accent lighting highlights specific objects or features in your home, for example a piece of art, a doorway, or a plant. This type of lighting can be used to create dramatic effects but needs to be incorporated in a purposeful way with proper aiming angles and placed in close proximity to the object being illuminated. 

With thoughtful design and installation, ambient, task, and accent lighting all combine to create a more comfortable and useful environment in any room in your home. 

Lighting Controls

To take full advantage of the lighting fixtures in your home you might want to upgrade your lighting controls. With varying levels of complexity, lighting control upgrades can be used for a range of features like optimizing the location of light switches, installing dimmers, motion sensors or timers. You can even install a system that connects your home’s lighting to the internet in a way that will give you remote control of your lights from anywhere in the world. In the past, some of these systems were complex and tricky to use. Not anymore. There are simple easy to use app based systems readily available. 

Lighting Design Tips for your Home

To enhance your home lighting there are a variety of design techniques like layered lighting, bulbs with different color temperatures, dimmer switches, remote lighting controls or specialty light bulbs. 

Layering in lighting design refers to using multiple light sources in each room. The rule of thumb is to incorporate at least 3 different light sources per room. Dimmers are an excellent way to enhance the atmosphere in any room, giving you full control of the brightness of your lights and allowing you the power to balance with natural light. 

Ask us to help you select a design that meets your needs. 

Getting Professional Help for Installing Home Lighting

There's a lot you can do to update your home’s lighting and you’ll need a licensed electrician for the installation so give Keating Electric a call and get your project done right.