Staggering Living Room Lighting Ideas For Your Home

The living room is a very active area in the home and you can do a lot of things with it. The traditional route is to make the living room the primary activity area for the family. So this is where you’ll find the TV, the console games, and probably the sound system as well. Another common choice is classing up the living room in order to make it the ideal area to host and entertain guests. Not everyone gets to go as far into your home as your bedroom or even the kitchen, but pretty much anyone you invite inside will get to sit and see your living room. It’s because of its diverse functions that proper living room lighting should never be neglected. Proper lighting is a seemingly minor factor and its importance is often downplayed by most people. However, if done right, diverse lighting can do wonders for any room. Proper lighting for your home is a subject that every frugal homeowner should learn. Just like in photography, lighting is very important and can do so much for a dull room. There are a lot of things you can do that won’t really require any extensive or expensive work to implement. Something as simple as adding a lamp or installing a dimmer can have a huge impact on the overall image of a room. If you’re interested in designing your living room yourself, or if you want to do a bit of research about the things you can suggest to a designer before you actually hire one, here are some living room lighting solutions that might interest you. Be sure to read until the end because the last tip ties in all of the others. Light up your wall art Photo courtesy of MyLifeStory via Flickr, Creative Commons A lot of us hang portraits or art on our walls, so why not add a little more emphasis by adding a focus light on each one. You may have seen this kind accent lighting at museums where they shine a light on a painting to make it more visible and eye catching. If you want to see this kind of lighting being done, go visit the closest Starbucks branch at night. They use accent lighting for most of their wall art. This idea isn't only good for highlighting your hanged art or portraits, it also adds another layer of lighting to the room which can improve its mood. A lamp is a great living room lighting fixture Photo courtesy of Pieter Musterd via Flickr, Creative Commons The lamp’s primary function may be to provide light but there’s no rule that says it has to look plain. A brilliant idea for people who are looking to add a bit of art in their living room but are concerned about space (so it’s great for condos) is to use elegantly designed lamps as an art fixture. These are art fixtures in themselves and you can definitely justify the use of space because they’re not just there as eye candy - they actually have a function. It’s in the lamp selection that you need to get creative. Naturally you’ll have to find one that is non-traditional, but this isn’t so difficult anymore since lamp art is really popular. Use dimmers Photo courtesy of Joseph O’connell via Flickr, Creative Commons Dimmers are brilliant for setting up the mood. If you have friends over doing a bit of work, for example, you can set the lights to full to best illuminate the room as you and your friends get your tasks done. Then if you plan to have a bit of a drink afterwards, you can dim down the lights a little to create a more relaxed atmosphere. Dimmers allow for this kind of diversity with the use of your lighting which is why it’s always a good idea to have them, especially for rooms that have diverse functions like the living room. Make full use of natural light Photo courtesy of Daryl Mitchell via Flickr, Creative Commons Properly placed windows will allow lots of natural light into the living room. If something like this is possible, you need to implement this living room lighting design and make the most out of natural light. It’s great for the environment when we maximize the use of sunlight in our homes, and it saves you a bit of cash as well. It’s a straightforward practical option that every condo owner should take if he can. Layer your lighting Photo courtesy of Francis Gaerlan via Flickr, Creative Commons The final tip is one that combines all the ones that were mentioned before, you need to layer your lighting. In order to do this you need to know about the three lighting types that you’ll be working with. The first is ambient lighting. This is the main light source for our living room. When you flip the main switch in any room to illuminate it, you’re using ambient lighting. We already mentioned earlier that attaching dimmers to this is one way of diversifying its effect. The second kind is task lighting. There are certain areas in our homes that require more light because we perform tasks in them. In the kitchen, for example, we need extra light for the area where we prepare the food in. For the living room, lamps can handle task lighting or you can install overhead reading lights in appropriate areas. The last one is accent lighting. The perfect example for this is the suggestion made earlier to add lights to your portrait or wall art. Accent lighting’s main function is to draw the viewers’ attention. How you will make the best use of all three kinds will depend on the general layout of your living room and your own preferences. Remember that ambient lighting for your condo isn’t the only thing you have to consider when designing your living room. Properly lighting up the whole room is important of course, but there’s so much more that you can do. Make full use of available accent and task lighting options as well.