Room Lighting: 7 Ideas for Atmospheric Light in Living Rooms
When designing a living space, many people think most about furniture and decoration – but how hard do you think about what is the right concept for room lighting? Only perfect lighting ensures that you feel completely comfortable in your home. We have compiled 7 ideas on what you should look for when choosing the right light source and what light in the particular room will create the desired room atmosphere.
1. Why Even Think About Lighting?
People are notoriously uncomfortable in the dark. An example from everyday life? Imagine sitting alone in your living room – without any source of light. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? Now imagine a living room with pleasant lighting, where you make yourself comfortable with a good book or movie. It is so simple to explain why a sophisticated concept for room lighting should not be neglected in any case.
Light = Safety & Security
As the advancement of light sources has continued since the 18th century, there are now countless ways to bring light into our lives. Get inspired by our 7 ideas around creating atmospheric light in your living spaces. You’ll be surprised how easy it can sometimes be to make a big impact with just a little bit of light.
2. Atmospheric Light - 7 Ideas
Whether you feel comfortable in a room or not is determined by the lighting. Brightness, contrast, light color and positioning play an essential role.
2.1 Indirect Lighting in the Bedroom
Some have in mind only the practical aspects of lighting in the bedroom, such as:
- sufficient light when dressing,
- a bedside lamp for reading and
- a light source to find the way to bed.
But atmospheric lighting in the bedroom can also do so much. Keyword “indirect lighting”: you direct the light against the walls, ceiling or floor, which causes it to bounce around the room. For example, you can install LED strips under the bed or along the ceiling of the room, which will set the mood in a warm tone. This way, the bedroom is not completely in the dark, but is atmospherically illuminated by individual lights – the so-called feel-good light. Another implementation of indirect lighting is hiding light sources behind artwork or decorative objects on the wall. If you implement indirect room lighting this way, you’ll enjoy the added effect of having your decorative furnishings bathed in phenomenal light.
Extra tip: If you want to use the indirect lighting in a particularly sophisticated way, switch a timer between them so that the lights cast the room in a pleasant light when you fall asleep, but go out by themselves after a while to avoid unnecessary power consumption.
2.2. Mix of Three Light Sources for the Living Room
As a rule of thumb, a mix of three different light sources provides the ideal lighting. Only when there is a balance between high-contrast and low-contrast lighting do you feel completely at ease. Rooms look their best when the room lighting consists of a mix of background lighting, accent lighting and task lighting.
Backlighting: This type of lighting provides light for the whole living room. Classic are ceiling lights or spotlights on the wall, which provide sufficient brightness. The idea is that this light is evenly distributed in the room and does not cast disturbing shadows. However, a living room that is exclusively softly lit quickly looks boring and tires the eye. Therefore, it needs additional accent light.
Accent light: Point light sources provide variety, although you should be careful not to use too bright light. By cleverly using accent light, you put the focus in your living room on special details, pieces of furniture or works of art. Both spotlights and decorative luminaires are ideal for this detailed lighting.
Task lighting: Your favorite armchair or cozy sofa is often used as a retreat for reading. To avoid straining your eyes, we recommend the third type of lighting – task lighting. Floor lamps or spotlights provide such a focused and high-contrast light that will help you concentrate better.
2.3 Accent Lighting with the Help of Table Lamps and Picture Lights
When it comes to the concept of room lighting, accent lighting is a particularly exciting design element, so let’s take a closer look at it.
Table Lamps
Table lamps have different tasks in different rooms. In the bedroom, the bedside light serves a practical purpose, as it must provide enough light to read a book or find the way to bed without accidents. In other rooms – especially in the living room – serves the Table lamp rather than a decorative object. It brings into focus objects that you particularly like, such as a framed photo, your favorite vase or an artistic sculpture. The light automatically directs the gaze of your guests to the object in its immediate vicinity.
Picture Lights
Everyone knows the effect from a gallery or a museum – there put Picture lights or spots the paintings or photographs perfectly in scene. You can also easily implement this at home. Place the light source so that you can admire your piece of jewelry in the best light.
2.4 Dimmed Light in the Dining Room
Finding the ideal lighting for the dining room is not so easy. On the one hand, people feel more comfortable when they have a bright light for dinner, but after dinner, the glass of wine or socializing is better enjoyed in less intense light. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose, you can have both: thanks to a dimmer. When choosing a lamp, make sure that it can be dimmed. This also works for LED lamps.
2.5. Glare-free
Glare control is a lighting design term that means shielding light fixtures from something so they don’t glare directly into your face. The most common implementation of glare control is to put a lampshade around the bulb. Another option: attach reflectors that redirect the light.
Especially with Pendelleuchten in the dining room, this concept is essential to consider when lighting the room, because the light sources usually hang just above eye level, and the “naked” light is perceived as very disturbing.
2.6 Choice of the Light Source
Who doesn’t know it – the moment in the changing room at the fashion store when you cringe when you look in the mirror and wonder if you really look like that. As a customer, you will probably never understand why such bad lighting is used in changing rooms in particular. This example should make you realize how important it is to pay attention to color when choosing a light source for your room lighting. The human eye finds tones that are closest to natural, warm white daylight to be pleasant. As a rule of thumb, you can keep in mind: If the light color (expressed in Kelvin) of a light source is between 2800 and 3000 Kelvin, then the lamp emits warm light. The higher the value, the bluer/colder the light.
Extra tip: While you will find warm white light very pleasant in most rooms, you should still make an exception for your work areas. These are the kitchen and desk, for example. There, the choice of a cool white light makes the most sense, as it provides sufficient brightness and does not create a feeling of coziness that may disturb your concentration.
2.7 Smart Lighting
Smart Lighting, or “Intelligent Lighting” in German, is becoming more and more important in recent years when it comes to room lighting ideas. There are different concepts on how you can implement smart lighting. One way to help save energy is to control it using daylight. You can control the lamps in your rooms so that they automatically turn off or on at a certain daylight brightness. In this way, you ensure that no light burns unnecessarily. Another option that is now widely used is timing lights. Using an app or voice control remotely, you can turn on the lights before you even get home. For most people, not returning to dark rooms brings a sense of security and comfort, but a warm welcome from active lighting. Also, the times when you have to constantly ask yourself if you really turned off the lights are a thing of the past. After all, the room lighting can be not only activated but also deactivated via the smart control.
Wide Range of Lamps at KunstLoft
Now that we’ve filled you in with room lighting tips and ideas, we’re sure you can’t wait to replace your lamps and create the perfect concept to create atmospheric light in your rooms. With KunstLoft’s exquisite selection of high-quality lamps and lighting fixtures, you’ll be able to do just that effortlessly. Besides classic Chandeliers you will find there Pendant lights, Floor Lamps, Table Lamps and even Picture Lights, with the help of which you can make your home shine. If you are looking for inspiration for lighting concepts and other ideas for decorative highlights, take a look here:
Image credits: @KunstLoft; Vincent Rivaud 2333855 – Pexels; Vecislavas Popa 1571468 – Pexels; Naim Benjelloun 2030119 – Pexels