Interior Lighting - Picking the Right Lights and Lamps

Choosing the right lighting for your home can be quite a challenge. Lighting can serve many purposes in a room, visibility, safety and mood are few of the important tasks required by our lighting. Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can use to determine the best lights and lamps for your space. Determine the function of the room, and discover the objective of the lighting: The best step to take first is to determine the function of the room at hand. Does it require a certain amount of light for safety reasons, or will you require enough light to read, and where in the room will these activities occur in the room. What fixed lighting is already built into the space is also something to consider at this point. What mood do you wish to portray in the room, and what existing style does it have: Lighting will ultimately set a mood in any room, going of your objectives and function of the room you can now determine what mood you want to portray in this space. Sitting rooms and lounge rooms are often a place to relax so generally a soothing warm mood is the best for a room such as this, while a rumpus room often has a bright, fun or light mood and feel. What decor is already in the room: If your room already contains furniture, rugs or other home decor, this may need to be considered when choosing a lamp. Often a contrast is great, (brown couches following a white with black trim lamp is great). Keep your lamp colours neutral compared to the room contents, unless you're looking to make a feature of the lamp itself. Highlight room features, or use lights and lamps themselves as a feature: This is one of the most important steps to consider. You must decide if the lamp will be a feature of the room, and stand out somewhat, such as large brightly coloured lamps, or designer lamps that match the room decor but still add their own flare to the room. Alternatively you might wish your light or lamp to blend in with the decor and slide neatly into the visual space. Coloured lighting and bulbs: Lights or shades that are coloured can portray a different colour or feel as the light shines through the coloured material, consider this when looking at items. Bulbs are equally important as they often come in a warm yellow light or a brighter white light. White light is generally used when bright viewing conditions are required, and the warmer yellow light is often used as a back light such as a lamp in the rear corner of a TV room. Contrasting the yellow and white bulbs can look awkward so one needs to be careful of this as well. Quality: Needless to say, sometimes you cannot suffice for quality lamps. Finding a good lamp supplier at a decent price can be troublesome. Large Designer, hand made floor lamps (standard floor lamps are around 150 centimetres tall) can cost upwards of $400 (AUD) so its important to choose the right lights, that will last. Handmade lamps and lighting are starting to become rare, being replaced by often inferior machine or factory made items which unfortunately have lost that unique touch that really adds to a rooms feel. Thankfully in Australia our close proximity allows decent import prices for Lamps and Lighting from South East Asia. There are many online lighting retailers that offer great discounts compared to local home wares stores. Lamps and Lighting Australia is one such website that offers an interesting range of hand crafted designer lamps. Hunt around and find a good importer or manufacturer of lighting in your area and go for the quality items that will compliment your space.