subject: Changing rooms: lighting to bring mood and atmosphere to your home [print this page] Changing rooms: lighting to bring mood and atmosphere to your home
After a stressful day in a bright, fluorescent office, there's sometimes nothing better than taking time to unwind in your favourite room at home. It's important that you have a place to relax in comfort, and with just a few changes you can bring mood and atmosphere into your rooms to make them a great place for yourself and others to unwind and enjoy the evening.
When choosing lighting for your rooms, you need to consider practical task lighting to make sure you have sufficient light for reading and other activities. Lighting is also important in the rest of the room however, and by spending a short time experimenting, you can avoid making your rooms too light or too dark with strategically placed floor and table lamps.
As an aesthetic choice, lighting can be just as important as the rest of your decor to achieving an ideal look for your home, so if you've spent time choosing the right blankets and cushions to complement your furniture, or experimenting with scents and sounds to create a peaceful atmosphere, you'll want to be sure that your choice of lighting is also suited to the environment you've created.
Mood lighting adds the finishing touches to your designer room, and can mean anything from choosing a pleasing colour for your bulbs, such as amber or pink tones, to selecting the right shades for your table lamps to further control the level of light.
While dimmer switches can be effective in reducing overall lighting, it can be much easier to control the light level of your rooms by choosing your bulbs carefully. Lower wattage bulbs, particularly between 25 and 40 watts, are ideal for providing sufficient light without it being overbearing, and moving away from brighter, more powerful bulbs will also have beneficial effects on your electricity bill, helping reduce stress even further.
Where you place your table lamps is also important in making sure no areas are left in the dark, and by experimenting with other features of your room, you can find even more distinctive looks - such as strategically placing a lamp behind an attractive house plant, as long as caution is taken.
Confine practical lighting to the kitchen and ensure the other rooms in your home are a perfect place to unwind at the end of a busy day, by choosing mood lighting to enhance the atmosphere of your bedroom and lounge.
