Home Lighting Guide

Ceiling Lights

Ceiling lights should be included in almost every room of your home, save for the living room. Only in rare circumstances do living rooms include ceiling fixtures.

It should be noted that ceiling fixtures do not have to be flush or semi-flush mount lights, either. Instead, be a little more creative with your ceiling lights, such as using a chandelier or chandelette in your bedroom. Just keep in mind that the purpose is to create general illumination for each room.

Task Lighting

Once you’ve created general illumination in a room, it’s time to advance to task lighting. Task lighting includes lights that allow you to work in a specific area without needing to drag another light fixture into the space. For example, desk lamps for working in your home office, table lamps for reading in your living room or bedroom and pendant lights in your kitchen for working at an island or under cabinet lights for working at the counter.

Accent Lighting

To complete your indoor lighting scheme, you should include some accent lighting. For example, track lights could be considered accent lighting if properly placed. In the kitchen, track lights could be aimed at cabinets to highlight them, or they can be placed in a hallway or living room to highlight artwork.

Outdoor Lighting

Last but not least, outdoor lighting. When it comes to lighting, the vast majority of people neglect or simply forget to include outdoor light fixtures into their plan. Outdoor lights typically are used for safety and security and include fixtures such as flood lights in backyards and pahtway lights. These are a great start, but be sure to include lights near doors.

Of course, outdoor lights can also include landscape lighting and architectural lighting. These types of light fixtures should be aimed at highlighting the features of your home rather than for security or safety purposes. Use light fixtures that can point upward toward your home to highlight architectural elements such as columns. You can also position outdoor lights behind bushes or other plants to highlight them in the evening hours.