Not all chandeliers are fancy or come with an abundance of decorative crystals.
Ceiling lighting in a room brings both illumination and character to a space; although light fixtures address practical needs, for a light fixture to fit into a room completely, it must also match the motif in the room. Fortunately, many different types of ceiling lights exist on the market, making the job of finding the right light for your needs an easier process.
Lighting Types
Before you can understand how best to use lighting to enhance your decorating motif, you might want to understand the different types of lighting in general so that you know use them. According to an article on "Home Decorating Made Easy," four different types of lighting exist ---ambient lighting, tasking lighting, accent lighting and natural lighting. Each of these lighting types serves a different function. Ambient --- also known as general lighting --- gives light to the whole room. Task lighting is just like it sounds; it illuminates little chores like bill paying or hobby work in a small space. Accent lighting brings light to decorative elements like artwork and windows, doors and skylights and represents the sources of natural lighting found in your home. Likely your ceiling lighting choices will most often affect the ambient light in the room, so be mindful of that when placing the light so that you receive maximum coverage in the room.
Theme Chandeliers
The word "chandelier" often conjures up images of a piece of lighting that drapes from the ceiling, possesses 8 or 10 mini-lights and has crystals hanging from it. That's one type of chandelier, but it doesn't represent the only type. When choosing a chandelier for your ceiling lighting needs, think about how the chandelier will fit into your decorating theme. For example, if you've chosen a French country decorating style for your kitchen, be on the lookout for a red rooster chandelier. Roosters are a common decorative theme in French country decorating, and the types of rooster chandeliers are many. They range from chandeliers with roosters painted on the lamps to roosters formed from iron.
Art Deco
According to "Decorator's Secrets," Art Deco lights became trendy again in 2010, and the trend continues into 2011. Art Deco come in a number of styles like the lights that hug close to the ceiling as well as those that hang on chains. The Tiffany company put out many light fixtures during the Deco era, and many Tiffany and Tiffany-style ceiling lamps exist on the market even today. However, Tiffany wasn't the only company to put out Deco light fixtures. If you're looking for ceiling lights in an Art Deco style, the BBC website recommends that you look for light fixtures made from chrome and glass decorated in subtle colors like pale greens and blues as well as pink, beige and coffee colors.
Japanese Lanterns
Japanese paper lanterns add soft warmth to the overall lighting scheme in a room, according to Apartment Therapy. These bulbs come in a variety of colors and can be easily recognized by their soft paper exterior and numerous folds. When using lanterns as your ceiling lighting source, you may want to hang several lanterns up throughout the room because the light that comes from these light fixtures tends to be muted. You may also want to augment the light with task lighting sources like floor lamps in key areas of the room.
Tags: light fixtures, ceiling lights, different types, your ceiling, lighting, ceiling lighting, country decorating