Choosing & Installing the Right Lighting

Monday, August 5th 2013. | Home Decorating, Home Design, Kitchen Design

Lighting is an exceptionally important factor in any environment, so if you are thinking about new lighting it is absolutely essential that you get it right if you want to enjoy your home. Today we are going to go through the main considerations you need to make when choosing and installing the right lighting for your home.

Energy consumption

Having great lighting will make for a great home but it shouldn’t come with a painful bill every month or at the expense of the environment, so if you are choosing a particular lighting style for your home, seek out the most energy efficient option. If you are not particularly green, it shouldn’t matter as energy efficient bulbs will cut your lighting costs year upon year so there really isn’t any real reason that you can’t go green with your lighting.

Mood

It is important to match your lighting with the mood you want to create in a particular room and this will be a combination of lights and light dressing. Light can be used as a feature piece, in which case you would opt for loud, standout lighting. Alternatively it can be used to set the tone, for which dimmer switches and diffuse lighting is very good. Light is rarely there just to enable vision during darkness, so when you are choosing your lighting make sure you are choosing according to the spirit of the room and not for any other reason.

Feature lighting that looks good in the store, can look very ugly once it gets to the bedroom and so the lighting you choose should tick as many of your boxes as possible. For areas in which there will be food preparation or any activity in which clear visibility is a must, spotlights work very well. If you have a large home, in which many rooms will require different lighting styles, then consider home automation. If you have an average three-bedroom home, then it may not be lighting that you need, but lampshade decisions. Whatever option you go for, the most essential part is that the light illuminates the feature parts of your home, whilst shading the rest, and adding an atmosphere to the environment.

Suitability

When you are shopping for lighting, there will be a great deal of fixtures that will seem appealing for one reason or another. What is important at this stage is to not get carried away by a sense of sudden lighting inspiration and to always bear in mind the room, scale and size that you need. Lighting, even very beautiful feature lighting, should complement the existing design and décor of a room rather than take away from it.

Installation difficulty levels

This is one that you will have to question with your supplier, but depending on the type of home you have, certain forms of lighting will require additional work. Some lighting will require rewiring, which could require cutting into your walls or pulling down areas of the home and re-plastering; and others will require a lot less effort, time and care. The exact requirements of installing your lighting will depend on your home and the lighting that you want to install, so before you buy ask the supplier what type of home and electrical situation the lighting is best suited for before you commit, so you don’t end up surprised by sudden tool hire costs.