Home lighting tips you need to know

2018/02/28

Lighting affects so many aspects of our lives, yet we take for granted just how important the right lighting is to our day to day routine. Did you know that lighting can greatly improve your child’s productivity while he’s studying in his room and your alertness at work? The right warm lighting can also help us better relax in our own home after a long day. Having the right lighting helps us get things accomplished, while getting it wrong can affect our eyesight, the quality of our rest, and how we do things.

So, if you’re just about to move into your new home, or you feel there’s an area for improvement where your current home lighting is concerned, here are some useful lighting tips from experts for different areas of your home:

LIVING ROOM

Light should promote comfort and wellbeing in living spaces, enveloping residents with a sense of security, and allowing them to dwell and interact with others harmoniously, according to landscape architect Paulo Alcazaren.

“In general, I’d look for versatile lights with adjustable brightness. You want the room to work for different purposes—bright and clean for guests, cozy and comfy for the family. Lighting can help you achieve both,” he said. 

What to look for: LED bulbs or lamps with adjustable brightness, which also allow you to save on energy, since you only use the amount of light you need for your purposes. Look for one that’s flicker-free and are comfortable on the eyes.

BED & BATH

The bedroom is your sanctuary, that one sure place where you can unwind, calm the senses, and truly relax and let the day go. The bathroom is also the haven for most at the end of a long day, where one can take that warm bath and get into comfortable PJs before tucking into bed. Bedroom and bathroom lighting play an important role in setting the right atmosphere for these. And for women, the right bedroom and bathroom lighting is also critical to daily makeup application—contouring, blending, and highlighting can be very tricky in the wrong light!

So for the bedroom and bathroom, especially if a lady lives in the house, “make sure you use soft, diffused lights. Nothing that is too bright, glaring, or flickering,” celebrity makeup artist Jigs Mayuga recommends. And if the boudoir happens to be in the bedroom, it’s best to have natural lighting for doing makeup. 

How to achieve natural lighting: Mixing LED bulbs with cool and warm lighting should do the trick.

KITCHEN & DINING ROOM

For the kitchen and dining area, online influencer and mom Kelly Misa-Fernandez recommends having bulbs that allow you to create different moods in your kitchen, “depending on the task needed to be done.” The hip mom prefers room light that is “bright and energizing when I’m performing delicate chores like chopping up ingredients,” and one that “can also make the kitchen look homey, cozy, and romantic for those special occasions,” she shared. Think intimate dinners and having friends over for wine and cheese night.

What to look for: There are now LED bulbs in the market that allow you to switch your lighting from warm to cool and back, whatever you feel like using. Such bulbs allow you to switch your lighting from normal, when the kids are studying or you’re entertaining guests, or when you need the room to be brighter for tasks; to ambient, when it’s bedtime or you want to give your dining area that cozy, intimate feel. Look for one with zero glare, so it’s relaxing on the eyes.

Another type of lighting you can look for are vintage-looking LED bulbs and LED candles, which would look so nice in your kitchen or dining area. The classic filament design can give your home beautiful ambient lighting for the same feel as a warm and cozy cafe or romantic fine dining restaurant. They can also enhance the look of your chandeliers, wall sconces, and modern luminaires.

And finally, look for LED bulbs that allow for up to 90% energy saving, with a low carbon footprint, and with a lifetime of at least 15,000 hours to minimize maintenance cost.