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Is it finally time to see your home in a new light?
There are many home decor ideas that can bring a fresh look and vibe into your home. You can paint, rearrange the furniture, or replace the cabinets. One of the most effective ways to boost your home’s overall appearance, however, is by redoing your interior lighting.
The difference between good interior lighting and bad interior lighting is huge. A poorly lit interior can leave your home feeling cold and unwelcoming, while good interior lighting can highlight the best features of your home.
In this post, we’re going to look at 10 amazing interior lighting ideas that’ll not only brighten your home but brighten the people inside it as well. You’re going to have dozens of lighting options, which can get a bit overwhelming if you don’t know exactly what you want. Use this guide as inspiration to figure out what’s going to work best in your home.
Ambient Lighting for Mood
One of the most important things that we always tell people about interior lighting is that you need variety to control the ambiance. Having different lighting options for different moods is crucial because some of your rooms are going to have multiple uses.
For instance, your dining room may need brighter lighting for a lively family dinner, but more subtle lighting when you’re sitting around the table having drinks with friends. The same goes for your living room; when you’re playing games, you need more lighting, but when you’re watching a movie, the lights need to come down.
Using dimmer switches, wall lights, and lamps can help you control the mood you want for a given situation.
Accent Lighting to Bring Focus
Another good general tip is to use accent or directional lighting to bring focus to the particular areas of a room that you want to highlight. Whether it’s a wall sconce to highlight a particular piece of art you have hanging or track lighting to highlight an entryway or hall, you can powerfully guide people’s attention wherever you want it to go.
You can create accent lighting with various types of lamps and/or fixtures, as long as they don’t overpower the part of the room you’re trying to accent. Find loads of options from Le Klint on this website.
Floor Lamps As an Affordable Solution
Not only are floor lamps versatile in allowing you to create ambient and accent lighting, but they’re also an affordable solution to any lighting conundrum. They come in all shapes and sizes and they’re easy to find room for, so you can really let your personality shine through with this type of lighting.
There are loads of great designers making really cool floor lamps, but an antique route is always a good option as well.
Wall Sconces For a Subtle Approach
Use wall sconces on your living room walls to create really subtle and elegant lighting textures. Again, you can get sconces to fit any style and they’re really easy to install, so it’s a simple way to give your room a certain something.
Sconces are also a good option for lighting hallways and softly lighting above the bed for nighttime reading.
Oversize Lights to Make a Statement
We’ve talked a lot about the amazing effects you can achieve with lots of subtle lighting, but there’s something to be said for making a statement as well. Chandeliers are still a great way to bring light to an entire room, while making your guests look up to admire the artistry of the fixture itself.
Installing a chandelier can be a bit pricey, but you can achieve a similar – albeit more subdued – effect with a nice oversized lamp tucked into a corner. This can be really helpful when you’re tight on space and low on light.
The Moroccan Touch
Moroccan-tinged interior design has been all the rage over the last few years, but you don’t need to have Moroccan decor to get yourself a perforated Moroccan lantern for your room. These fixtures can either be a standalone lamp or chandelier style, but whichever you choose, you’ll want to make it a feature piece.
Not only are they beautiful by themselves, but the perforations in the metal, when lit up, will send incredible patterns of light dancing across your ceiling and walls.
Colorful Lighting Is Playful Yet Elegant
Bright whites and soft yellows are usually what we see in interior lighting, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can create a really interesting atmosphere by utilizing different colors, whether it’s coming directly from the light or a toned sconce or shade.
Obviously, this shouldn’t be overdone, but when you’ve got a room centered around a specific color scheme, completing the look with matching lights can take it over the top and create something really unique.
Mixing Old and New
Gone is the rule that you shouldn’t mix old design features with new ones and vice versa. If you’ve got a room that looks particularly modern in design, it can be really effective to add an antique lighting fixture to the mix.
Conversely, if the home itself is old with a lot of antique features built-in, then a really modern looking lamp, chair, and table set can provide it with extra depth.
Letting the Natural Light In
Lighting isn’t always about adding the artificial stuff, though it is important. You can keep your room(s) laid back with subtle lighting features to use at night, while letting the natural light do the work during the day.
Yes, adding windows or a skylight to a room might seem like a lot of work, but nothing beats natural light. By doing so, you’ll also be more eco-friendly by saving your artificial light for the nighttime.
Making It Practical
Your lights shouldn’t just make your home look good, they should also make your home more practical. This is most obviously true in the kitchen, where soft mood lighting is nice, but doesn’t do you many favors when you’re chopping vegetables and assembling meals.
Under cabinet lighting – rather than having a few bright overhead lights that can be unpleasant and create shadow – is really helpful for brightening your countertops. Practical lighting at its finest!
Choosing Between Interior Lighting Ideas
Now that you’ve got a few interior lighting ideas to choose from, you can take stock of the lighting in your home and choose the best ones for you. Lighting is an oft-overlooked part of interior design, but improving your lighting situation has practical benefits too. It’s time to let the light into your life.
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