A Lesson on Lighting
Practically speaking, lighting is essential for any room to function, but a well-lit room takes things a step further - it sets the entire mood and style of a space. Think about how you feel walking into your standard corporate office with its extra bright overhead lights versus a hotel lobby that combines chandeliers, table lamps, and other accent lighting. There's a big difference, right?
Let's think about what this might look like in your home.
When you vary the types of lighting in your home, it creates a comfortable, visually balanced space that feels warm and inviting. When you incorporate those different types all in one space, it also makes your room more versatile. If you have all recessed lighting, for example, it can feel too harsh, but if you only have task lighting, it may seem too dim - maybe even downright depressing.
The Differences Between Ambient, Accent, and Task Lighting
Ideally, rooms will have a mix of ambient, accent and task lighting. With all three, you'll be able to maximize the space's versatility, and you're guaranteed to have enough light. And, if you want bonus points, adding dimmers to some of your lights will give you even more flexibility.
So, what are these different types of lighting, you might be asking?
Ambient lighting is a fancy word for general light. It's what I like to call "flip the switch" lighting - in other words, when you walk into a room and flip the first switch or two you find, it should light up the majority of the room with overhead lighting. Chandeliers, pendants, recessed lighting, and some wall sconces typically fall into this category. In rooms that don’t have hardwired overhead lighting, table and/or floor lamps act as the ambient light sources.
Accent lighting does exactly what it sounds like - it highlights certain parts of the room and makes them into focal points. It can be used to highlight things like paintings, fireplaces, or other architectural features. These aren’t intended to be a main source of light - instead they're focused on a particular object Examples of accent lighting are picture lights, spotlights, and some wall sconces.
Task lighting brightens particular spaces for specific tasks such as reading, cooking, or applying makeup. They help prevent eye strain and can be used to softly light a particular spot in a room. Examples of task lighting can be table, floor, and desk lamps, pendant lighting, and under-cabinet lights.
If you're putting together a lighting plan for your home, think about how a space will be used and what lights will be most effective at accomplishing necessary tasks. It's usually easiest to start with the ambient lighting and then move to accent and task lighting. Start general and work your way to specific needs.
How to Create a Whole Home Lighting Plan
Before you start shopping for light fixtures or lamps, you’ll want to create a plan! Here’s my method:
1. Start by making a list of the fixtures and lamps you need
Take a walk through your home and figure out where you need light fixtures/lamps and what kind you need like flush mounts, sconces, chandeliers, floor lamps, table lamps, etc. Don’t forget about bathrooms, kitchens, and hallways!
You’ll find that some spaces can only accommodate one kind of fixture and others are more flexible. For example, if you have 8’ ceilings, you may only be able to use flush mounts - or maybe a semi-flush mount - for overhead lighting in a lot of your rooms, so that means you can narrow your search and exclude fixtures like low-hanging pendants or chandeliers (except for over a dining table of course!).
During this step, you’ll also want to figure out if you need any electrical work done - do you need to move a junction box or add any new ones? If you do, I’d suggest finding your fixture first so that you can get the placement right. This is especially true for things like island pendants and wall sconces. For most “regular” overhead fixtures, this matters less. You’ll likely just center them in the space.
Then, think about the eye level ambient lighting you want to have to complement the overhead fixtures - where would a table lamp, floor lamp, or task light be useful?
2. Determine the general style/design direction of your fixtures
Use your decorating style as a guide for choosing your light fixtures. (Be sure to go through this lesson on finding inspiration and creating your design “north star” here if you haven’t yet!)
Once you’ve got that figured out, the easiest thing to do is to stick to light fixtures that fit nicely into those style categories and keep the theme going throughout your home. There are certainly ways to make a more eclectic mix work beautifully, but I think for most people, keeping it simple is a key to success!
3. Pick your metal finish
I personally love mixing metals - it can create a collected, custom feel that makes a home feel special, but if you don’t feel confident doing that or prefer to stick to a single finish, just choose one and carry that throughout your home!
As you pick your finishes, here are a couple of “watch outs” to make sure you get the right ones:
Make sure the sheen is the same. If you choose nickel for example, I’d go with all polished or all brushed. If you mix them, even though they’re technically the same color, it won’t look right - just trust me on that!
Blacks aren’t always black. Many, many fixtures that look black in photos are actually an oil-rubbed bronze. And to make it more confusing, some fixtures that are labeled as oil-rubbed bronze or antique bronze actually look like matte black in person. Ugh! Just be sure to pay close attention to the description and look at closeups of the fixtures to see what the true finish is. Reviews can help too.
Polished nickel and chrome are different (don’t mix them!). It may seem like a silver metal is a silver metal, but that’s not the case! Polished nickel has a warm undertone and chrome has a cool undertone. You see chrome a lot in kitchen and bath fixtures - less so in lighting. Nickel is a lot more common. I have a bias for polished nickel over brushed generally these days because sometimes brushed nickel can look cheap if it’s not done well. That’s just a personal preference though!
4. Choose fixtures with similar “lines” and “feel”
I’ll admit, this part is more of an art, so it’s not as straightforward to explain! Generally, if you can echo design elements from one fixture to another, that’s going to help a ton with a cohesive look.
For example, if your dining room chandelier has a minimalist feel with curved arms, you might choose island pendants that are also minimalist and have a bit of a curve to them. Below you’ll find an example of a chandelier/pendant pair that I picked with that idea in mind.
5. Make sure you have a good mix of uplight and downlight
This last step is kind of a “check” for you as you select lighting for your home, and it’s something I see people forget a lot! Uplight and downlight have to do with the direction of the lighting; in other words, is light shining up, down, or both? This often matches up with the direction of the bulb in the fixture or lamp, but the amount of light it offers will depend on its location in the room (e.g. on the ceiling vs. on a table).
Uplight is going to offer more light to the whole room while downlight tends to highlight specific spots. A well-lit room often has a mix of both at different heights to meet different needs. For example, in a living room, you might have some recessed lighting, a centered semi-flush mount, a table lamp or two, and a reading lamp. That layered mix of lighting is going to make a huge difference in the look and feel of that space!
