DIY Saturday #104 – Choosing Correct Lighting for Every Room (Video)

Guest Blogger #581, Entry #1330, June 23, 2012

Happy DIY Saturday! What projects are you getting into this weekend? Don’t know where to start? If you aren’t ready to tackle a large project, what about starting at your lighting? You would be surprised how much lighting can affect the size of your room, the colors that you feel when in the room and the mood.

Enhance your interiors with the perfect lighting fixture

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Today on Stagetecture watch a video for choosing lighting for your dining room, and my guest blogger gives tips for each room of your home! When it comes to DIY projects, lighting is one of the easiest and will change the entire feel of your home.

Video

Guest Blogger – How to Choose the Right Lighting for your Home

The kitchen is the room in the house where we spend most of our time, and with the current trend for open plan living, more of us than ever are spending our time in a room which is a kitchen combined with a dining room, playroom or living area. A dual purpose space gives far more flexibility over how it is used, but it can be difficult to decorate and light when taking into account all of the uses for the room.

Choose lighting for every room of your home

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Natural

Natural light is always best, and having large windows and doors in a kitchen area makes the space bright and airy. Resist the temptation to hang dark blinds or curtains on kitchen windows as neutral colours will make the kitchen look cleaner and fresher too. Skylights and Velux windows work well in kitchens and if you are creating a kitchen in an extension area, plan in plenty of natural light at the building stage.

Cooking

For kitchens lacking in natural light, bright lighting in the cooking area is essential. Spotlights are ideal as these can be moved to give the best light, as are having lights under the kitchen units which can be used to light up the work surfaces when chopping or slicing. Many cooker hoods perform the dual function of extracting smells and providing light, and where possible, bulbs which give a natural daylight tone should be chosen.

Dining Area

Although strong and bright lighting may be preferred in the cooking area of the room, in the dining area a softer light is often preferred. Many people opt for overhead lights in the dining area, and some cream retro kitchen lights with large shades give both subtle lighting and a café or restaurant feel to the area. Bright overhead lighting can be too harsh when eating, which is why lower lights are often used in restaurants. In cream retro kitchen lights are not your thing, think about having standard lamps or wall lights which can all be controlled individually, allowing you to change the lighting levels as required.

Modern day lighting can brighten your dining room

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Play Area

A kitchen often doubles up as a play area for small children and again, bright and simple lighting is more appropriate. Standard lamps or table lamps are not the best choice with small people as they may pull them over, or repeatedly switch on and off, so the best option is to go for either wall or ceiling lights. For a room which has several distinct areas, try to choose similar styles of lighting for all areas, or find a common colour and design for all of the shades.

Fitting New Lights

If your kitchen lighting is really not up to scratch, then fitting new lights may be the only option. Changing lightshades and buying new freestanding lamps is something anyone can do, but new lights fitted into the ceiling or walls is something which should only ever be tackled by a professional electrician. Before doing any work in the house involving power, switch off at the mains.

The Contemporary Home offer a great range of cream retro kitchen lights which are great as lighting shades in contemporary and retro styled kitchens.

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