Transform Your Living Space Living Room Lighting Ideas
People love to feel welcomed.
There’s also that feeling inside of warmth and comfort when you have awesome living room lighting ideas that you can share with others.
The one area in your home that enjoys the presence of others is the living room. It’s an area where your guests feel welcomed and entertained.
There are a lot of lighting designs that you can choose from. There are some considerations that you need to meet when looking for lighting in your living room.
Such considerations would be:
- Design Concept
- Size of the space
- Color combinations
- Lighting position
- Position of furniture
- Other elements of design
Your living room lighting plans is important for lighting.
You need to make sure that natural light comes in – and that lighting fixtures are not overwhelming in certain areas.
It can also provide you a better layout so that you can perform your tasks better.
What are living room tasks you say? I thought you’d never ask!
- Cleaning
- Entertaining
- Watching movies with the family
- Watching your favorite reality TV show
- Reading a book
- Just resting :)
A poorly lit living room will make it hard for you to enjoy all these tasks.
The purpose of lighting is to make your life easier – not the other way around.
There is a variety of light fixtures out there for you to choose from and they come in different designs.
The number of choices available should make it easy for you to look at what suits your needs.
On the other hand, pendant lighting adds a level of elegance to the living room. With its’ drop stem effect from the ceiling, this kind of lighting fixture is beautifully lined in a track.
The good thing about pendant lighting is it provides good illumination throughout the living room. Traditional lamp lighting is another popular choice.
It is the type of lighting that shows off your personality. Aside from this, it also gives the room a look that is totally your own. Select lamps and fixtures of your taste and you can do whatever design concept you want to your living room.
However, if you are going for your personal taste, you need to follow some general tips on implementing your lighting design concept.
One tip is to get the exact spot of the center of the ceiling of the living room. You need to calculate for this by measuring the length and width of the ceiling.
Once you get the center of it, you can now make this your starting point in spacing out your lighting fixtures. Another thing you need to be careful of is the size of the fixtures.
You need to pick out sizes that will enhance the beauty of the place.
- If it is too big, the fixture will dominate the space.
- If it is too small, it might not give off enough light.
There has to be a balance in your selection when it comes to size.
The next type of lighting fixture you need to look at are those for specialized tasks. One of these fixtures is the reading lamp.
Image Source: Daily Rebecca
If you see yourself as a bookworm, the lights that come from the ceiling and walls are not enough for you to read.
You need something that will help you read your book.
The next type of living room lights are pin lights.
Image Source: Megaworld
The goal of Pin lights are to highlight certain features of your living room. An example of this is an artwork or a painting.
Pin lights are mounted on ceiling or walls and are often lined up in a track. All of the pin lights beam onto the object that is to be the center of attention. I
If your prized possession is a huge piece and is not a painting, you can use a spotlight to highlight it.
The light bulbs used in tasked lighting fixtures come in the forms of PLC lights, fluorescent light bulbs, halogen lights, and a few more choices.
The purpose of these installations is to perform what it is meant to do.
Recessed Lighting Ideas for Living Room
Image Source: Lowes
The good thing about wanting to give your living room a new look and fresh décor is that you do not have to break your bank to do so.
The most practical thing that you can do is to redo the lighting fixture. By doing so, you can create a whole new look for your living room.
If you want to change the look of this area, recessed lighting is one of the best things that you can add to it.
Strategically positioning recessed lighting fixture in your living room ceiling provides ample lighting. It also gives off a new atmosphere and feel to it.
Just like all the changes that you do to your home’s interior design, there are some principles that you need to follow.
Image Source: TrendingSINY
It seems that everybody is into recessed lighting these days. If you try to visit some homes, you will find out that they have at least one area that features this type of light.
Recessed lighting is often done on walls and ceilings. The primary purpose of this concept is to illuminate the entire sector by applying small light bulbs that throw light to it.
The encasement has reflectorized metal that reflects the light that the bulb emits. Although it looks totally complicated, it is operated by just a single switch.
There are a lot of options to choose from lighting fixtures regarding recessed lighting.
The variations include
- dim lights
- accent lights
- low lights
- black lights
- colored lights
- and more.
The first thing that you have to consider when installing recessed lighting is the reasons why you need it. Lighting fixture has three major factors for installation.
- accentuating certain things and objects in the living room
- helping you get your task done
- general lighting purposes.
Recessed has all three under its belt. That is versatility for you.
So if you need or want a multi-purpose type of lighting fixture, you need to have recessed lighting at the top of your list.
General lighting usage happens when you use the lighting fixture for your daily activities in the area.
You can use this when you are having coffee or entertaining guests. Recessed lighting does this because it can illuminate the whole living room.
Recessed lighting helps you get your tasks done in the living room.
If you want to read a book, you can position individual recessed lights at a particular table and chair and aim the light bulb at it. It means that when you read a book at that table, there is one particular recessed light specifically aimed at you to help you perform your task of reading.
Lastly, accentuating objects within the living room means that recessed lighting is positioned to highlight individual objects in particular areas of the living room.
Accentuating involves sculpture, painting, or a portrait of someone you love that you want to focus attention.
To do this, you need to position the lighting in front or near the object you want to highlight. Positioning accent lighting fixture is the best way to start your lighting fixture remodeling project.
From here, you can proceed to the other types.
It is important for you to know that you can combine recessed lighting fixture with one another to create a whole new lighting motif for your living room. The good thing about these lightings is that each of these give off enough illumination to the entire room.
It means that this is all you need to install. The next step that you need to take is to identify the features of your living room you want to draw attention to itself.
A perfect example of this is the fireplace. By emphasizing this, you draw the attention of your guests toward it with the help of recessed lighting.
The light beams accent the fireplace and make it a centerpiece for conversation.
After doing some accent lighting, you need to focus on the other aspects where you need recessed lighting to do its other purposes.
To help you execute your décor plans for recessed lighting, you need to have things like a counter, a couch, a single chair, and a table. All of these are familiar sights in a living room.
Another advantage that recessed lighting brings into the fold is its flexibility. It is flexible enough to combine with other forms of lighting fixture and still make the living room a more beautiful place to stay.
The combination will provide you with various options on how to light your living room. The combination offers you more style and function.
Combining recessed lighting fixtures with lampshades creates a dramatic effect in the room.
The lamps should be considered first since these are easily placed and removed without any effort in case you are not happy with the result. Positioning your recessed lighting should go next.
By following this, you are surely going to end up with a beautifully lighted living room.
An important thing to remember when installing lighting fixture is that your aim is to create the perfect lighting effect according to your taste and budget.
It is an endeavor that requires you to make the necessary plans in a meticulous and detailed manner. It is important that you do not leave any stone unturned.
All of the necessary tasks must be covered especially when it comes to the design of the fixtures down to the light bulb that you want to use for recessed lighting.
Living Room Ceiling Lighting Ideas
There are certain considerations to think about when talks about ceiling lights come up.
First of all, you have to take note of the overall design of the ceiling in your living room. It is wrong to choose ceiling lights that are better fitted in a Victorian home when you have a living room designed in the Zen fashion.
The next thing that you have to consider is the size of the room. For bigger living rooms, you need powerful lights that can light up the whole area.
Smaller living rooms require lights that are not as powerful. The last thing you have to consider is the height of the ceiling.
If your ceiling is a bit low, then you need to cross out chandeliers from your shopping list because it just takes too much head room.
The general rule in picking out fixtures for the living room is it must have a relaxing effect.
Living rooms is a place where people chat with friends, spend time alone, read a book, listen to music, have a cup of coffee, and entertain visitors. Relaxation is the name of the game.
Fluorescent lights are still the most popular ceiling fixtures for the living room for good reason. For a simple design, this will go a long way.
The good thing about it is the bright light it emits lights up a wide area. Another thing going for it is its availability.
You can buy fluorescent lighting fixture in any hardware, supermarket, and grocery store because it is widely available. It uses energy in an efficient manner and is more efficient than incandescent bulbs.
Track lighting is one of the best task living room lighting fixtures. There was a time that art galleries were the sole users of this type of lighting.
It is the best type of installation that emphasizes the artwork that they have on display. For this reason alone, you can adopt the style of art galleries into your home.
You need to identify the artworks you want to highlight and put some track lighting fixture in front of it.
Track lights are some miniature spotlights that are lined up in a track supporting these fixtures.
You can focus the heads of the fixtures on the object for illumination.
These heads are usually the adjustable type so you can easily move it to a particular angle you want.
Living Room Lighting Ideas Apartment
If you live in a simple apartment, it is important that you know that lighting can turn something simple into something with a lot of character.
You always have the choice of sticking to the stock lighting fixtures your apartment had before you moved in. Unfortunately, doing that will not add any color to your room.
But before you start on your lighting remodeling venture, you have to understand your landlord’s rules and regulation when it comes to remodeling your apartment.
If you live in a condominium apartment, you need permission from the administration about your plans. If they give you the signal, then you can set your plans in action.
One of the best and practical things that you can do is to change old light bulbs with colored ones.
Changing bulbs is something that will bring coolness to your apartment. By doing so, you can emphasize a few things in your apartment living room.
Then you can make the fixtures look better. Aside from highlighting parts and objects, a different color light bulb offers a different ambiance to the whole space.
You can experiment with various colors and designs of lighting fixtures to get the one mood you want in your apartment living room.
One of the best light fixtures that add character to an apartment living room is a standing floor lamp.
Floor lamps provide ample lighting illumination to poorly lit areas.
The great thing about these is that they do not cost a lot and they are portable which allows you to move them around at will.
They come in single and multi-light bulb models. The advantage of having a multi-bulb standing floor lamp is that you can angle the lights in multiple directions.
It offers illumination in different directions.
Low level lighting fixture work well when they are aimed high at a wall. These are placed at the foot of the wall and when turned on, it produces a dramatic effect on the overall look of the living room.
Sconce and flood lighting fixtures are your best bets in this aspect. A word of warning though, do not use a bulb that easily heats up.
Because of its proximity to the floor and wall, it becomes a fire hazard.
Doing a little research on how to do your own lighting remodeling project is an easy task. It may be easy, but you need to put in the time for it.
The reason for this is because there are a lot of things that you have to decide on. There are some aspects of lighting that you need to know.
Some of the information that you need to gather include the wattage of the bulbs that you need, and the size of fixtures that will suit your living room.
If there is one good thing that you might discover in your research is that the options in picking the best lighting fixture is almost unlimited.
It is good because you have a lot of options in your hands.