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7 Factors to Consider When Buying Lighting

7 Factors to Consider When Buying Lighting

Perfect lighting plays a significant role in creating a beautiful, functional, and well-lit space. Having proper lights is crucial in promoting comfortability, and productivity, along with defining the overall ambience of a room. Usually, most of us take lighting as an afterthought in our interiors. This is because we think of it as something that adds utilitarian details to space rather than something that incorporates aesthetic value. When done right, lighting can bring your design to the next level.

Today we are going to share with you 7 factors that you should consider when buying lighting solutions for your home. Read on to learn everything about a good lighting design: 

1. Know the company you are buying from

With simple internet research, you'll find numerous online stores where you can shop for all kinds of lighting solutions. You might have heard of horror stories about stores that aren't exactly legitimate. So before any purchase, make sure that the company you're working with has a great reputation and track record. The site you're purchasing from can be a good indication — it should look like a reliable business. Have a thorough inspection of the website; look for industry-standard and online-seller certificates before making your first purchase. 

2. Know your lighting options

The most common lighting mistake people usually make is assuming that one type of lighting will suffice when designing a room. In reality, a great design is composed by using lighting in layers.

When creating a perfect lighting design, there are 3 main types of indoor lighting, ideally used in each room, including:

  • Ambient: 

Typically known as general lighting, ambient lighting fills the space with illumination and enables easy and safe movement. It usually comes from track lighting, wall-mounted fixtures, and recessed lighting.

  • Accent: 

To highlight a particular focal point, like a painting or a wall sculpture, accent lighting is used. Track lighting, picture lights, and wall-mounted fixtures are common. Dimmers are often used with these lights to provide a feel of mood lighting.

  • Task:

A task light assists you in completing a specific function. You can use them as your desk lamps to make work from home easy or hang them as a pendant light on the kitchen island; these both are examples of task lighting.

3. Types of Lighting Bulbs

The four popular types of lightbulbs include LED, compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, and incandescent.

An LED (Light-Emitting Diode) light is the most energy-efficient lightbulb type. They emit a bright directional light, while giving off no heat, making it ideal for task lighting. They also don’t contain mercury.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFL) emit a warm light, come in various colours and can be used to illuminate large spaces. These lightbulbs are more expensive than the LED variations and usually last longer than incandescent lightbulbs. Please work carefully with these lightbulbs, as they contain mercury.

Halogen lightbulbs are great for pendant lights, recessed lighting and under cabinet lighting. They emit a white light and are energy-efficient, but they also have the shortest lifespan, compared to the other lightbulbs.

Incandescent lightbulbs are quickly becoming outdated used and are now more expensive both CFLs and LED. They are not as energy-efficient as other types of lightbulbs. They emit a warm light and can be used as dimmer lights.

4. Know the different types of lights available

If you want to get creative with lighting, you'll need to know all the different types of lighting available in the market to mix and fuse them. Let's dive in to learn more about lighting:

Ceiling lights

The ceiling light in a room usually provides ambient lighting, so almost every room will have them. The 2 main types of ceiling lights that can be used in space are flush and pendant lighting. Flush lights will have little or no gap between the ceiling and the light fitting, whereas pendant lights usually hang down by a chain or chord. You can buy a vast array of ceiling lights from our website, britelighting.co.za; from strikingly stylish to functional lighting, you will get everything you want.

Floor Lamps

These are generally pigeonholed to the task lighting category and also in the ambient light category. Floor lamps can be the perfect overhead lamps to add focused light and are also great to add extra lighting in rooms that need it. On an evening when you're not in the mood to sit in the main light, floor lamps are ideal for adding a small amount of light.  

Table Lamps

These are extremely versatile as you can place them anywhere to create task lighting in your room. Table lamps are also adaptable to allow for versatile use, for instance, adjustable for desk work and dimmable for a nightstand. You can also opt for an extravagant design to use as part of your room décor; there are endless options!

Spotlights

Spotlights come in handy when you want to increase the area's visibility; they work as ideal task lighting. These lights are either made of a singular bright light that stays close to the ceiling or several spotlights along a metal bar. You can adjust a spotlight to point in the right direction for your specific needs.

Wall Lights

When it comes to wall lights, they can do all, from highlighting focal points within the space beautifully to creating gorgeous accents. They can help brighten up hallways and bigger rooms and add to the ambience of the space. Wall lights are ideal to use as outside lighting, or you can also place them strategically to use as task lighting for focused reading. 

5. Decide your decorative theme

A thing that you need to focus on before selecting your light fixtures is deciding on the decorative style of your home; whether it's traditional, contemporary, or transitional, pick lighting that fits the space. Complementing your light fixtures with the home décor will set the right balance and make your home look more inviting.

6. Room size is important

Whatever type of lighting you may opt for, it must be proportional to space's size. Don't forget to ask your lighting dealer or the designer to prepare an image to help you visualise the proportion and synergy in the room. Knowing about the scale is extremely significant, and many people make the mistake of not considering it, which consequently wrecks the whole design.

7. The Scale of Fixtures

If your room size is larger, select larger fixtures. Consider installing wider fixtures to fill up a room with a high ceiling. You can use the diagonal of the room and convert it into inches or centimeters to find the room size to install fixtures accordingly.

Lighting can create a huge impact in your home, and when done correctly, it will provide a great ambience for each room in your house. If you're planning to take your lighting game to the next level, then you're in the right place!

At Brite Lighting, we have a beautiful range of designer lighting to suit each room in your home. Select the right type to set a great mood in every room to allow yourself to feel comfortable and relaxed.

Previous article What are The Best Types of Lighting to Use in a House?

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