In order to complete the décor of your house, you need excellent lighting. We are not only referring to a strong bedside lamp but various light fixtures that will turn the dullest of rooms into a festival of light From the kitchen to the backyard, there isn’t a place inside and outside your house that wouldn’t benefit from improved lighting.
This is especially true for the living room where you spend the most time during the day. If you’re short of ideas, here are the 7 most powerful suggestions on how to use lighting to upgrade the ambiance of yourliving room.
Large windows spell more daylight
The most obvious suggestion is to have large windows so enough light would get inside. Although this notion seems simple enough, there is more than one way to put it into practice. Namely, you can install glass walls that allow natural light to penetrate the living room as if you were standing outside. The benefits of natural light are multitude but mostly concern improved psychological wellbeing.
If you are worried that a living room with a glass wall would prove impossible to cool down in summer since it is overexposed to sunlight, there is no need to worry. Namely, installing draperies and curtains will allow you to regulate the amount of light entering the room. Just be careful to choose draperies that match the décor of the rest of the living room.
It’s all about the right colors
Speaking of interior décor, it can have a deciding effect on the ambiance of the living room. Again, this is connected with light because dark and light tones reflect light in different ways. This doesn’t mean that the walls of the living room should be drabby plain white as walls in a hospital but rather have a light, creamy tone.
The color palette you can use to paint the walls of the living room is virtually endless but we can suggest such colors as light green or sky blue. As far as the celling goes, it should be painted differently, using a darker shade to create a contrast and make the room appear bigger.
Also, take great care that the furniture and wall art reflects the mild shade of the walls so avoid dark-colored sofa or a black-tiled mantelpiece, for example.
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Having mentioned the light colors imbibe natural light, you can actually boost its effect by increasing the number of mirrors. Unlike the bedroom, the living room should have as many mirrors as (aesthetically) possible.
Apart from the usual small wall mirrors, you might want to convert an entire wall into one great mirror. Ideally, it should be located opposite the windows so it reflects as much light as possible. Another neat interior design solution is to attach mirrors to pieces of furniture. There could be a tall mirror on one side of the wardrobe or even the coffee table’s surface can be reflective. Like light colors, mirrors will add the feeling of spaciousness to your living room.
After dark
So far, we have been discussing how to utilize daylight to make the living room stand out. However, after dark, artificial light fixtures are the ones that take center stage. Updating the ceiling light is easier and cheaper than you might think, as you only have to call electrical services such as Sparkys NOW to inspect the fixture. Once they give a green light, you upgrade it any way you like.
For once, you might want to install a chandelier if the living room is stately enough. We strongly recommend that you do not install pendant light in a cramped apartment, as they make the space look even smaller.
The power of LED light
In terms of décor, there is hardly any type of light more suitable than LED. Firstly, LED lights save a lot of money since they use 95% of the energy they get from the electrical grid to produce light and the remaining 5% is wasted on heating the light bulb.
Apart from their energy efficiency, LED lights are widely used by homeowners because of their decorative properties. Namely, they come in all colors, as there are even LEDs that change color using a remote controller. This will allow you to create a light show in your living room.
What is more, you can get an LED strip that is quite cheap and decorate the line where the ceiling meets the walls. The same multicolored strip can be used for decorating the outline of the entertainment unit or the coffee table. Just imagine how cool a mirror table with a flashing LED around it would look at night!
A lamp here and there
Before LED lights made their way into our home, lamps were used for ambient lighting purposes. What goes out of fashion is bound to make a comeback so antique-looking lamps can be used to decorate the living room. In fact, if this room doubles as a study, then lamps will have a practical purpose as well.
The trick to incorporating lamps inside the living room’s décor is to think outside the box or more precisely, outside the table. A lamp can be attached to the main ceiling light fixture, creating a disco ball effect. Also, if you have floor lighting solutions, lamps can be integrated into those, additionally dissipating the light.
What you want to avoid when placing lamps around the living room is grouping them together. Since they are quite powerful and luminescent, lamps ought to be set wide apart. The last thing you want are proper spotlights inside the living room, raising its temperature if the lamps aren’t LEDs.
Where do you keep the computer?
It might seem odd that we mention it but a computer screen is also a source of light. When all the lights in the house go out after bedtime, the computer screen will likely remain the only light source in the living room. Place your laptop or desktop computer away from the windows so it doesn’t act as a beacon for a home invasion.
Having adopted the 7 powerful ideas listed above, you will alter the ambiance of your living room for the best. Now it’s time to go shopping for lighting fixtures.
Sarah Jessica Smith is a young blogger from Sydney. She is in love with life and all the things that can make her daily routine easier. She loves to write about home improvement, lifestyle, and all the small things that make life such a great adventure.
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