When considering what type of lighting is appropriate for your home, indoors and out, you will be surprised at the wide variety of styles available to you.
Current lighting trends offer countless fixtures that are not only functional but contributing factors to your home’s décor. These days practicality can be enhanced with style, elegance and a bit of fun with the flick of a switch. Despite its obvious necessity, lighting aesthetically affects every room in your home.
Small Changes Work Well
Why not replace the single ceiling light in your bathroom with a stylish vanity bar along with coordinating wall sconces? Vanity lighting dramatically enhances how you see yourself. Everyday tasks such as applying makeup, shaving and hair styling become more mundane in a poorly lit room. Vanity lighting sconces on either side of the bathroom mirror will provide even lighting to both sides of your face providing warm illumination as opposed to the shadows cast by one ceiling light.
This idea of creating mood and atmosphere through light should extend throughout your home. Perhaps your dining room is in need of an upgrade.
Why not install a new chandelier to add a dramatic effect to your dining experience. Is your kitchen lacking that certain something? Chandelier lighting offers a stylish alternative. In fact it can be used in any room and if the design strikes you as a bit too opulent you can always downgrade to a mini chandelier, also known as chandelettes, which lends a sense of intimacy to smaller rooms in your home.
By creating atmosphere through light each room in your home will take on a character all its own. And the opportunities available to you are almost limitless.
As lighting affects each and every room inside the home it also extends to the outside as well. You can add that dramatic effect to backyard barbecues with lantern lights or cylinder floodlights to illuminate the outside of your home. Lowvoltage lights are popular for landscape lighting and they are low cost and easy to install. With some creative thought and an eye for arrangement outdoor lighting can greatly enhance the exterior of your house in practical ways such as illuminating doorways and pathways thereby preventing accidents.
Safety & Security
A well-lit environment also provides added security against potential criminal activity. And in decorative settings such as your garden or your deck the proper lighting fixtures will enhance your enjoyment and even add value to your property.
The great thing about using light to accommodate your home’s decorative style is that it allows for self-expression. You can do just about anything you want! And lighting trends are always evolving to keep up with consumer demand.
Stefan Graf of Illuminart Lighting Consultation and Design says,
“People should approach lighting design in much the same way they approach buying pieces of art. They either have nothing hanging on their walls or they may go to a retail store and buy some inexpensive prints, or they seek out and purchase pieces of fine art. Fortunately there are enough lighting options out there to suit every client’s personal taste.” *
Using light as a decorative feature has evolved to the point where designers are now primarily focusing on you and what it is you want rather than retreading existing styles.
“Eclectic is really the word that best reflects the range of colors, styles, shapes and sizes of decorative lighting available,” says Joe Rey-Barreau, an educational consultant for the American Lighting Association. “There has been a big move
recently to more daring designs and material combinations – wrought iron with crystal, polished brass with colored glass. And at the same time, traditional product is still available.” *
Barreau also adds that consumers are always looking to save energy whenever possible and adding dimmers and using low-voltage bulbs have become an import aspect of lighting design.
With an adventurous spirit you can alter every aspect of your home with creative lighting design. With the help of a credited designer the options available to you are limitless. It’s just a matter of flicking the switch.
Next month we’ll take a closer look at some of the amazing new lighting technology.
* Provided by the American Lighting Association.
