Lighting a room or space is damn easy. But using the lights to their optimal possibilities to give you the perfect blend of light in your home or business establishment is somewhat a technician’s exclusive zone.
However, there are some general as well as weird hacks that work perfectly well and give you a lighting solution that really wins your heart and mind.
Here in this blog, we are going to discuss 9 Weird Light Tricks that Actually Work. You can also try some of them to readjust the lighting in your home.
Things to Consider for Better Lighting
The magic of light is not just that it fills a dark room with complete brightness. It is when the light is perfectly designed. Then, it helps your body and mind. Your eyes don’t get stressed because there is no excess light or glare.
On the contrary, you can have a very pleasing feeling about the light decor in your home.
Leading light designers
There are some time-tested methods to arrange the lights in a manner that they provide optimum light and also enhance the aesthetics and ambiance of the home.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are ways that may sound weird at the outset but they are great hacks for ensuring a perfect lighting solution for your home.
Our bodies have evolved to work in a natural cycle of darkness and daylight. But our modern life seems to have extended the daylight way too deep into the evenings.
We are often exposed to light. That’s not good for our health, both mental and physical. One way we can reduce the effects of overexposure to artificial lighting is by opting to more controllable lighting systems such as recessed lights, task lights, and dimmer switches.
It’s not only the changing lifestyle that makes us more exposed to artificial light but the changing work behavior is also giving rise to changing needs of light.
For example, now more and more people prefer to work from home. And, it is possible due to the all-pervasive information and communications technologies. But studies have shown that most of the people who work from their homes often work in a poorly lit environment.
So, one of the things you should consider when planning a holistic lighting system for your home is the need for a properly illuminated workstation. If there is no such specific place in your home, you should earmark an area for this purpose and install a task light.
Generally, 50 to 100 lux is good enough illumination for a living room. But for work, you would need 300 to 500 lux.
Here are 9 weird sounding hacks that actually improve the lighting system at your home:
1. Do away with overhead lights, think in layers
It is possible to install a powerful overhead light that illuminates the entire room in a bright flood of light.
Alternatively, you can install a series of recessed lights to provide sufficient lighting to a given space. Too much overhead light is good for big gatherings and parties. Such lighting does not add any warmth or character to space.
In order to give a tasteful illumination to your room, you will have to think in terms of multiple solutions such as task lighting, table lamps, floor lamps. They bring layers of lights that perfectly illuminate every specific space with a personality and character of its own.
When you use a variety of lighting options, your lighting arrangement is more flexible and geared up to provide optimal lighting to every corner of your room.
Too much light coming from overhead light could be good hosting conventions and parties. But to give a tasteful feel about the space and lighting, you should think in terms of layers of lighting and use multiple lighting options.
2. Use dimmer switches
When you have lights for different purposes and themes in your room, it is better lit, no doubt. But think of the possibility that you can still control the lights.
The solution is dimmer switches. Along with new lights, you should also install dimmer switches to control the lights. It helps you change the light flow in the room and you can customize it for your needs.
The dimmer offers you the opportunity to turn the light into quaint settings for a perfect family dinner, something that an overhead light without dimmer cannot do.
3. Think about shadows
One of the common mistakes lighting designers can make is to not think about shadows that each piece of lighting fixtures will cast on the surface that they illuminate. It is a common problem in light designing with recessed lights.
When you allow multiple lighting systems to operate in a given space, each of them creates their own beam spread and shadows of the objects they tend to illuminate. For instance, to illuminate the area near the bathroom mirror, use two lights on the sides than one overhead light.
The overhead light will cast a shadow on your face and you will have difficulty in minutely focusing on your face during shaving.
Similarly, if the kitchen light falls on the edge of the counter, it will cast your shadow exactly where you want the light. The solution is to use a task light to light up the area where you need light unobstructed by shadows.
4. Pick the right size fixture
When lighting an area, pay attention to the size of lighting fixtures you are using. A small chandelier over the dining table or big light over the small table next to the sofa are examples of disproportionate lighting.
A general formula to work out the right size for your dining room is add the height and width of your room and the outcome in centimeter should be the diameter of the chandelier.
Ideally, it should be one foot shorter than the narrowest width of the dining table. Don’t trust your sense of measurement, when you visit the store, you better go ready with all measurements.
5. Position lamps at the right height
The positioning of the lamps and lights is of vital significance. If the lights are at the right height, the illumination is perfect and the overall look and feel
But if the lights are not positioned at the right height, they tend to provide either too little or too much light, both of which spoil the texture and quality of light and ambiance.
For example, the pendant light must be 31 to 37 inches above the area they intend to illuminate. A chandelier in the dining room should be 67 inches from the floor. A table lamp should be up to your shoulder.
A lamp at a height above that would blind your eyes or a lamp at lower than that height will create little beam spread and may not illuminate the intended area properly.
6. Considering the paint color
When designing a perfect lighting arrangement for your room, you should take into account the colors that don the walls and ceiling.
If the walls and ceilings are painted in dark colors, no matter how you try to illuminate it, it will always give the look of being insufficiently lit. But if you use lighter shades of the same color, you can notice a marked improvement in the result.
Instead of a single dark color, you should use light and vibrant colors to get the best result. Downlights that illuminate a portion of the wall are especially more effective with different color combinations in your home painting.
7. Ways to conserve energy
When you are choosing lighting options, you should spare a thought for the energy that these fixtures are going to consume.
CFL and LED bulbs are highly energy-efficient. By replacing your ordinary lighting bulbs with CFL and LED bulbs, you can save a lot of money over time. Though there are some limitations to these types of lights.
For instance, they do not work with dimmers. Saving energy is important not only because you save money through this but also because it’s socially responsible behavior. By saving energy, you contribute to a more sustainable future.
So, while designing lighting for your home, you should bear in mind that the overall consumption of energy should not increase dramatically because of your new lighting design.
By using multiple lighting fixtures for specific purposes, you can significantly bring down energy consumption in your home or office.
In fact, you can do an energy audit yourself and identify all those additional lights that are redundant. By removing such fixtures from time to time, you can save energy as well as enhance the overall look of your home.
8. Ways to improve light for work
These days, a lot of people like to work from home. The lighting for general living and working has to be different.
You need much more light to do your work than you need for simple living purposes.
So, if you have yet not developed a working area in your home ready with sufficient lighting, you should not delay it anymore.
There are more chances of you finding work to do from home these days. For a working area, you need more ambient lighting and some special task lights. You can try out your lighting vision as long as it’s not too minimalist. You can use recessed lights to illuminate your working area.
There are different kinds of recessed lights that come in different trim designs. Make your selection of lights keeping the fact in mind that you need sufficient lighting and at the same time it should not be overly lit.
9. Ways to improve kitchen lighting
If it is the kitchen lighting that’s weighing heavily on your mind, there is a simple formula to solve this problem.
Use maximum lightings you can use. Downlights, pendants, strips, and task lights all can be used in a single kitchen. It is not recommended to use cabinet lighting if shelves are solid. It’s better to place lights under the cabinets to illuminate your work surfaces.
You can use a series of recessed lights and task lights to provide adequate lighting in your kitchen.
Remember, the kitchen is another area of your home beside the working area that needs more lighting than any other living area in your home.
The kitchen is one of the most important places in your home. It has a different kind of lighting requirement that cannot be addressed by a single overhead lighting.
You need to provide adequate light for every functional part of the kitchen.
Some areas are tricky and difficult to properly illuminate. For such areas, you need to have special and separate lighting arrangements.
Conclusion
Lighting a home or office with tasteful designs and fixtures which can also promise optimum lighting is a long and tedious process. But lighting designers are known for tackling such difficult situations with ease. It is because of their knowledge, skill, experience, and power of visualization that they are able to design effective lighting solutions for even complicated spaces and architectural designs.
In this blog, we have discussed 9 weird light tricks that work. We believe this would go a long way in helping you plan the lighting in your home or office yourself. However, these tips are no substitute for a professional light designer who would look at every aspect of the work from a professional perspective and offer solutions that are most effective and long-lasting.
No one would like to spend money over and again on ensuring that the lighting system is perfect for all occasions and from every perspective. However, there are a number of basic things that you can do to ensure that the lighting in your home is just perfect whether it is about the kitchen or the work station that you have created recently. We have talked in detail about these things in this write-up.
Let the magic of light illuminate your home as well as your mind and soul.
