Love your home in a new light

Lighting is not just about illuminating a room; it is an integral part of decoration. The right lighting breathes life into a room, and makes it look vibrant. Lighting a room badly may strip the beauty of your home, no matter how well you decorate it!

A quick guide to lighting your home effectively:

Types of lighting techniques:

• General lighting

This can be used to ensure sufficient light throughout an entire room.

• Task lighting

This is important to create adequate lighting for a particular purpose, such as to brighten up a reading corner.

• Accent lighting

This type of lighting helps draw attention to the object of focus, and can be used to highlight a showpiece or a work of art.

 How to plan lighting for each room in your home:

Hall

Hall is the space where we watch television, entertain guests, etc. For bright lighting throughout the room instead of one strong light on a single wall, opt for 4 different lights of lower wattage at different areas in the room.

Use warmer colours (which nowadays are available even in tube lights).

Highlight paintings and showcase pieces separately with picture lights; these require a combination of dull and bright lighting.

For dull lighting (for watching TV), go for wall washers or up lighters.

Dining Room

Chandeliers or a combination of hanging lights or pendants are perfect for your dining room.

If you have any decorative pieces in the room, highlight them with picture lights. To draw attention to a rack of classic crockery, illuminate it beautifully with halogen lamps.

Bedroom

Bedside lamps are a must for your bedroom! You can get elegant lamps at affordable prices.

Affix lamps on both sides of the dressing table.

Illuminate your wardrobe as well for enhanced convenience.

For general lighting, go for wall lights or pendant lights.

Kids room

Your kids’ room needs a lamp for the study desk. 

For general lighting, wall lights with translucent frames would be just right. You can also go for multiple tube lights to make it really bright.

Dimmers can be especially useful for storytelling time.

Kitchen

Light your cooking area, and shelves or cabinets separately. For the cooking area, go for either down lighters or hanging lights, or a combination of both, which would serve the purpose for general lighting as well. For shelves and cabinets, you can use clip lights or fluorescent bulbs.

Bathroom

For bathrooms, consider multiple low-wattage down lighters. Use dimmers to vary light as per requirement during daytime.

Use a separate sidelight – lamp near mirrors, which can be really useful for shaving, and adds a nice effect to your bathroom too!

Once you’ve drawn a plan, get a quote from an electrician. You would get an estimate of the sockets, and rewiring which needs to be done. Re-plan if you need to align your plan with your budget. Soon, you’d love your home in a new light!

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