Design Help With The Lighting Scheme In Your Home

Have you spent months decorating your home and still something just seems off? Do you have areas of your home that seem a little dark still? Your problem may lie in your lighting design. We usually spend less time thinking about our lighting design then we do choosing the fabric for our couch. Lighting design should not be an afterthought to our home decorating projects, proper lighting can actually improve your health and the health of your family, so take a little time and design a proper lighting scheme for your home.

Start you new lighting scheme by monitoring the rooms usage and current lighting. Are there areas of your room that seem to be dark? Do you feel that there is enough light at each seating location both during the day and at night? Also consider what you are using the space for and if you have enough light for every activity that occurs in the room. Write down each activity that takes place in the room for a week and map out where you think you need more light. Sitting in the dark may be fine if you are watching TV but what about your family member who is also sitting on the couch but is reading a book.

Next, take stock in what lighting you have in the room and what is on display in the area. Do you have pictures or plants that you want to feature and lights built into your ceiling already? Add these details to your room usage information to gain a full and complete picture of exactly what lighting is needed in your room.

Now that you have a full picture of the room you are designing a lighting scheme for, draw a sketch of the space to work on. While it is ideal that your sketch be to scale and also contain all the furniture in your room, a simple sketch will work as well. On your sketch you do want to include any immoveable fixtures and any built in lights as well. You may find it helpful to mark where all the power plugs are located as well. Next, take your notes from your room monitoring and start to plan out where you need to add more light. If you found your couch to be very dark during the day, add a note that a lamp is needed. Decide where to put each new fixture based upon the location of the furniture and the location of the power outlets.

While planning your lighting design you may discover that several areas you identified as trouble spots can be resolved by moving furniture or changing the location of current lamps. Lighting design can be very modular and you may find yourself moving things around several times before you reach the ideal design for you and your family. Do not be afraid to move your furniture around and try new techniques for lighting. The only items you will be unable to move around are your power outlets and architectural details, everything else can be changed to improve the lighting and ultimately to improve your health.

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