Lighting Ideas For A Living Room

Living room lighting scheme

You spend a lot of time in your living room doing various activities: watching TV, reading, relaxing and entertaining. It is important that your lighting scheme facilitates all these tasks as well as contributes to your decor. There are several different types of lighting strategies appropriate for a living room space: general lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. A successful living room lighting scheme will combine all of these strategies.

General Lighting

The most basic type of living room lighting is general, overhead lighting. This can be satisfied in the form of a ceiling fixture in the middle of the room or recessed can fixtures spaced evening throughout the room. Before determining what kind of general lighting your living room should have, consider your furniture arrangement and circulation paths. It might not make sense to center the fixture in the room but rather center it over the main area of activity.

Often ceiling fixtures are mounted on ceiling fans in the interest of satisfying two needs in one piece of equipment. Other types of ceiling lights include fixtures that mount flush with the ceiling plane. These are often made of glass and metal and come in a variety of shapes including squares, rectangles, circles or ovals. Some fixtures are suspended slightly like a pendant, but you must consider how high your ceilings are and how much head-clearance that you need. For areas with low ceilings, recessed fixtures are a good choice.

Task Lighting

The term "task lighting" generally refers to lamps. You may choose to place lamps on an end table next to a chair or sofa for reading and other activities that require direct light. For example, you might choose matching lamps to place on either end of a sofa, or position a floor lamp with a swinging arm next to a recliner. Lamps come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials that work with any decor, from antique lamps with intricate shades to contemporary lamps with clean lines.

Accent Lighting

Accent lighting is used in living rooms to accentuate architectural features such as fireplaces or a textured wall, or art pieces such as a sculpture or painting. These lights come in the form of directional spot lights, track lighting with movable heads and cove lighting which is concealed behind a soffit or reveal to provide a soft glow. Typically these lights aren't for everyday use, but are turned on when one is entertaining guests for a party or tying to create a romantic mood.

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