HOME LIGHTING – Creating Specific Lighting Themes for Different Rooms

In this blog Mayflower London explores the appropriate and popular lighting themes for specific rooms around the household and how they are most commonly achieved.

When deciding upon the level of lighting for the different rooms around the home, it generally follows that rooms where daily household tasks are performed should generally be brightly lit, whereas in the rooms where the family rests and relaxes one would usually choose a dimmer level of lighting. Well, would you want to watch your favourite movie with a bright spotlight reflecting on the screen or cook that four course meal in a dark kitchen…Would you?

Study Lighting
Although household study rooms can be sophisticated and elegant affairs, they are undoubtedly task-oriented areas of the home, and naturally should focus on functionality, requiring a level of lighting suitable for reading, writing and other such activities. Small task-oriented rooms such as a study are perfect places to have those modern and stylish adjustable balanced arm and gooseneck arm lights, and is just the sort of room where these types of lamp lights are literally made for. Couple these together with some evenly spread recessed mini LED spotlights on a mid lighting setting to assist in providing overall illumination and you’ll be working away comfortably for hours.

Garage/Workshop/Shed Lighting

Another task-oriented area of the home, the garage/workshop/shed, or ‘man cave’ as they are colloquially known in a somewhat sexist convention, is the part of the home where mechanical, DIY or engineering activities are usually performed. Here the lighting should follow a similar pattern to that of the study but with a higher level of brightness, as the types of tasks that are carried out here require greater focus and a higher level of visual clarity than that of simply reading or writing. Again, a set of evenly spread recessed LED spotlights to provide overall illumination will work suitably here, but instead of the balanced arm and gooseneck arm lights of the study, a couple of large flexible floor standing interrogation style lamps on a bright setting should be perfect for when looking under the bonnet of your car or when building that giant model aeroplane.

Games/Play Room Lighting

It’s easy to say that playroom lighting should engage the imagination and nurture creativity, and you’ll find plenty of child-themed colour changing lights that can do just that, but don’t forget to take care of the basic lighting. If it is a play room for younger children, appropriate measures must be taken to ensure that every light in the playroom needs to incorporate safety features, be of sturdy and solid construction, as well as choosing bulbs that do not burn hot as well as they burn bright and with this in mind LED bulbs are a bit of a no-brainer. In the case that it is a games room for older children or teenagers playing pool, air hockey and video games, a similar level of lighting to that of a family or living room will work nicely.

Family/Living Room Lighting

Let’s forget about task-oriented lighting and relax in the living room. Ceiling dome lights will create a welcoming and comfortable environment, and here’s where you might want to break out your supercool modern floor lamps, or perhaps those sublime antique table lamps that you’ve been trying to find the perfect place for. If leisure time means cosying up with a book, a floor lamp with a directional head that stylistically fits in with the room’s aesthetic will assist you by lighting up the world of the novel you’ve been diving into. However, if it means movie or gaming time, lights or lamps with dimmer functions will be just the ticket unless you’re going for the full home cinema lighting experience, something which you can read about in another blog here.

Bathroom Lighting

Perfect bathroom lighting is all about the appropriate lighting layering. Often one of the smaller rooms in the house, but because there are usually a host of reflective surfaces as well as there being a variety of bathroom bound activities that have different demands, one of the toughest rooms to light to perfection. Bathrooms demand sharp and clean light in the morning, so a single large enclosed dome light or several recessed lights would make a solid choice for primary illumination. For that warm and calming ambience when you are unwinding after a heck of a day at work, making use of accent lighting and a few candles should hit just the right spot. Finish off with some wall or mirror mounted lights in the bathroom to bring that extra level of visibility for those close up bathroom moments. Obviously as there is much water potentially splashing about, bathroom lighting installations must adhere most stringently with electrical regulations.

Bedroom Lighting

More often than not in sync with sunlight than other rooms, the bedroom needs little in the way of harsh lighting, especially when you’re using it for the more amorous variety of activities than a catnap or getting in those forty winks. Keep things soft with a single shaded ceiling lamp, with table lamps on your bedside unit so you can blanket the room in darkness or summon up light after a bad dream simply by leaning over and simply flipping that switch.

Kitchen Lighting

Kitchens can and do often wear a variety of different hats; Primarily a food prep area, but also a social hub, an entertainment space, and possibly even as your main or makeshift dining room. Take your cues from the bathroom and embrace layered lighting. Recessed or surface-mounted lights are absolutely ideal for casting a steady and even glow across the length and breadth of the room, and task-oriented downlights, such as those usually integrated into cooker units can bring faultless visibility to your cooking surfaces. Take pains to resist going too bright with any one light – kitchens are home to more and their fair share of reflective surfaces, so glare can end up being an unexpected problem.

Garden & Exterior Lighting

If it’s going outside, it needs to be both durable and waterproof. Outdoor lighting options run the gamut of lighting styles from the ultra modern to the traditionally inspired. As a basic rule, the latter will be more ornate and usually wall-mounted – think projecting electric lamps with a lantern-style appearance. Taking a modern approach you can make use of floodlights, recessed floor lights and small accent spot lights – up-lighting keeps lighting soft and casual whilst emphasising all of your wonderful botanics and shrubberies. Now that solar technology has improved, it will often make sense to make some if not all of these lights partially or fully solar powered.

Mayflower London’s expert team of lighting technicians enthusiastically help our clients to not only select the lighting control system that is right for you, your family, and your home, but also in assisting you in being able to make proper use of the lighting control system to set the desired level of ambiance or brightness for each particular room or as is necessary.