Getting the light right in your house could be the difference between a cozy warm ambiance and a dull living space. With lighting accounting for 11 percent energy use in residential building and 18 percent in the commercial building, it’s evident how much people spend just to power up their surroundings and making them more habitable. Generally, a well-designed lighting pattern in your house can result in remarkable energy efficiency and savings. Therefore, it is necessary to consult your lighting designer or expert for some inspiration on proper home illumination that yields a balanced and cohesive lightscape.
Decent lighting is essential to amplify a house visual appeal. This is achieved by breaking from the normal overhead light and introducing these three layers of brilliance: ambiance, accent, and task lighting. Here’s how you create these lighting effects with different light source or fixtures.
1.Ambient Lighting
Your first layer of concern is ambient lighting. Also referred to as general lighting, it’s a layer of light that offers an overall illumination of the entire area. Ambient lighting is achieved with overhead lights from ceiling light fixtures such as pendants, chandeliers, flush mount fixtures, panels, recessed lights, and troffers. By a flip of a switch, every house detail is brought to display. But this may not be exciting if you prefer shading light on specific centerpieces in your house. That’s where accent and task lighting comes into action.
2.Accent Lighting
In interior lighting design, a house should present utility together with beauty and comfort. These attributes can be accomplished using a layer of accent lighting. As much as this layer is less functional as many would think, it creates dazzling themes and makes normal spaces and house features appear extraordinary elegant. One example is placing a sparkling chandelier over a boudoir, and a dramatic effect is achieved.
You can set your accent lighting to timers or dimmers and make your home look beautiful 24 hours a day with minimal effort on your part. Accent lighting fixtures such as track lighting, uplifting and wall scones give you more option to try different lighting shades and angles. So, be bold and highlight what you love. In case you encounter difficulty in setting up this layer of light, kindly ask a lighting designer.
3.Task Lighting
This is the third and final layer of lighting design commonly used in residential lighting and some part of commercial lighting. Task lighting is more specialized than accent lighting in both application and lumination. More often you might think task lighting in the form of a bright desk lamp in home workstations or kitchen undercabinet lighting, which is also right. But there are other exciting places to experiment your task lighting magic. One excellent place is in the bathroom. Vanity light illuminates your bathroom and opens up space for a bright and fresh shower.
Also, you can engage in a reading session with a bedside reading lamp rather than disrupting your partner’s sleep with the blasting overhead light. The idea is to reduce general illumination and focus a specific amount of light on the task at hand.
Now that you have the know-how on different layers of light and you’ve probably imagined how your room will look, choosing the right light fixtures will be paramount. Find multi-purpose fixtures to cut on cost but maximize efficiency. An example of downlights can be applied for both ambient and decorative lighting. Similarly, floor lamps can be used for both task lighting and accent lighting. A lighting designer will help you choose the suitable light fixtures for maximum task layering.
