Light up your home with a serious wow-factor. Whatever your design is, choosing a large light fixture makes one hell of a statement but how to choose the best ceiling lighting?
When it comes to making your house warm and homely, ceiling lighting can be subtle yet has a powerful statement. Lighting can impact everything from the rug-colour to the wall colour. Therefore, it is important to have a plan for your lighting design.
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1.The Living Space
First, you must figure out how space is used and perhaps the time of the day spent there.
Again, it is of great essence to note how vast the area is and the total height of the ceiling. If you have a low ceiling, large ceiling fixtures such as chandeliers will make your living space appear smaller and cluttered.
In contrast, smaller ceiling fixtures may get lost in larger rooms with tall ceilings. Therefore, ceiling height and the size of the living space are important factors to consider when choosing a ceiling light fixture.
2. Ceiling Light
Different types of ceiling light fixtures have different functions, creating different lighting types.
It is important to consider the function of the ceiling light you are choosing for your living area, based on the desired ambience you wish to create.
There are three lighting types; task, ambient and accent lighting. Generally, ceiling lights will provide ambient light as they provide wide illumination over an area and can be controlled by using dimmers.
3. Chandeliers
With the right chandelier, it can create the right atmosphere.
They act as a focal point in a living room and are ideal for living rooms with high ceilings.
These light fixtures will provide wide illumination over space and will act as the perfect focal point for your living room. This adds an element of style and sophistication.
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4. Flush Mount and Semi-Flush Mount Light
A flush mount light is typically a dome-shaped light fixture that’s mounted flush to the ceiling.
A semi-flush mount light is more decorative, and the base of the light extends just below the ceiling. Style-wise, semi-flush-mount lights can mimic pendant lights, except they don’t hang as low.
Semi flush ceiling lights have a central boss or project a small amount from the ceiling.
The beauty of using these types of light fixtures is that they do not extend far from the ceiling and have a minimal drop, creating the illusion of height.
These light fixtures tend to be unobtrusive and blend seamlessly into the surrounding décor, illuminating light evenly throughout a living space.
These styles are great in most rooms of the home, bringing a slightly more decorative appeal.
5. The Correct Bulb
When choosing a lighting design scheme, bulbs are often overlooked, however, they tend to determine how elegant your chosen design appears in your home and therefore should not be ignored in the decision-making process.
There are many different types of bulbs available, all of which have various benefits and drawbacks to create the desired ambience in your living room.
As the living room is typically a room used every day and mainly in the evening/at night, LED bulbs, which have a much longer life than fluorescent bulbs will serve you well here.
LED bulbs adapt to many different situations, producing a soft white light, they are dimmable and have the added bonus of saving energy.
When choosing what type of LED bulb to use we recommend a decorative type bulb.
Decorative bulbs are invariably the best for your living room; they are elegant, trendy and will perfectly finish off the look of the room. Filament LED bulbs are becoming increasingly popular, with their vintage-inspired look, filament bulbs will effortlessly produce a warm light, creating an inviting atmosphere whilst looking the part too.
6. Hanging Lights
These are lights that hang down on chains are called chandeliers when they have a branched effect.
Multiple bulbs on one fixture but again there are many different chandeliers, from traditional crystal styles to ultra-modern ceiling lamps.
And of course, there are pendant lights which fall into the hanging lamp category! All hanging light fixtures are designed for higher ceiling heights as they are longer.
Whilst all hanging lights can be shortened to fit the height available, they do dangle which is perfect for taller rooms they are not ideal for many modern homes with lower ceilings.
The appeal of hanging lights is difficult to resist for most of us and this has led to us finding novel ways to install lights.
Hanging a light above a table is common practice but we’re now seeing hanging lights featured in corners of rooms and as suspended bedside lamps.
7. Ambient Light
Ambient lighting can be complemented using layers in your lighting design scheme of your living room.
This can be done in the form of using lamps and floor lamps to provide task and accent lighting. If your living room is described by some brightly coloured walls, opting to use something that offers that indirect fluorescent lighting is perfect.
In contrast, a ceiling fixture featuring a clear glass shade will cast an excellent spread of light.
8. Which type of light is best for each room?
There are many answers to this question, no single answers here I’m afraid. To get the best effect in each room of the home use multiple light sources.
In the kitchen, you may have a light in the centre of the room, a hanging light above a table or island and further lights below cabinets.
This is called layering light, there are 3 layers of lighting, general, task lighting and mood lighting. In the example given of the kitchen lighting the central light is a general form of light, under cabinet lights are task lights, they provide light where needed for the task in hand.
Lastly, we have mood lighting, this can be the over table light and brings an ambience for eating.
9. Bathroom Lights
Bathrooms require specialist lighting which offers protection against water ingress.
No one wants lights that are unsafe to be used near water. Any light is suited to kitchen use as the likelihood of splashing water reaching the light is not as great as that of the bathroom.
Not only do children splash about in the bathtub but there are also jets of water from the shower to contend with.
10. The Ceiling Height
The ceiling height will dictate which type of light you choose.
Under 7ft ceiling you can opt for flush ceiling lights.
7ft -8ft ceilings you may be able to fit some semi-flush lights but always check the height of the light fitting before buying a light to ensure you have enough clearance for all your family to walk below.
As a rule of thumb, picture someone taking off a pullover below a light. If there isn’t space enough for flailing elbows opt for flush lights instead.
8ft and above ceiling you can have hanging lights but again you will always need to check the height as hanging lights can be small or very tall.
Remember if your light is 2ft tall and your ceiling if 8ft you’ll just be leaving 6ft clearance.
Exceptionally high ceilings may require specially made lights or customised lengths. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can simply add a bit of cable and chain, you can’t. You’ll be risking making the light unsafe. Instead, look for lights that can be customised for your ceiling height.