5 Top Tips for Choosing the Right Lighting for Your Living Room

For those looking for bright ideas (pun intended) as to how to best light their living room, here are just five tips worth considering.

Don’t be a Dummy: Fit a Dimmer Switch

Kitchen’s require bright lighting and benefit from over table and under unit lighting that illuminates workspaces and so makes cooking easier and even safer (such as when using a knife). Bedrooms make the best use of warm and soft lighting as they are spaces in which we relax and prepare ourselves to go to sleep. Meanwhile, living room lighting is trickier to get right because living rooms are almost always used as multifunctional spaces. That is, almost every living room within the UK will be used as a space in which people socialise, read, watch TV and even work. Hence, the level of lighting needs to be adaptable. Then, to instantly turn a living room into a room with adaptable lighting, one quick and inexpensive way is to install a dimmer switch.

To learn how to safely replace a standard ‘on off’ switch with a dimmer switch, head over to the Dummies website and give their guide: How to Replace a Light Switch with a Dimmer.

Let there be…Lamps

Lamps are a must have in a lounge space, whether you choose to install a dimmer or not. The average, modern lamp will provide enough light to enable a person within a living space to everything they need to do from reading to dunking biscuits in their  tea without creating a mess – provided the lamp is well positioned and fitted with an appropriate bulb.

Then, for a guide to light bulbs and which to use for different fittings and lamps, visit the Which Website. After all, get it wrong and at best you’ll be left in the dark, but at worst your bulb could set your house on fire.

Because Size Really Does Matter

Bulbs aren’t the only way in which a person or family can go wrong when using lamps to light up a lounge or living room; opting to purchase lamps that do not fit the space or purpose they are intended for can cost a person or family far more than the price of the wrong bulb. Then, it pays (literally) to know when to opt for a bow lamp over a club lamp and a torchiere in place of a table lamp, all of which you can get to grips with as well as learn how they differ by reading the advice provided by the About Home website.

A Lighting Option for Dadaphobes

Whilst there is yet to be an official name for the phobia or hatred of lamps, dadphobia is the name given to those suffering from a fear or intense dislike of torches, and this is a condition that actually quite a few people have; in fact, thousands of people within the UK are right now opting to sit in a poorly lit or dark living room simply because the alternative is to buy a couple of lamps. Most of those who dislike lamps are united in doing so because the addition of more wires trailing about their living room annoys them or compromises ‘the look’ of a room. Meanwhile, some might simply not have the plug sockets, though with lamps such as those featured as part of the Ebay Ugly lamp Collection actually existing (and being bought, more worryingly) and the Annual Ugly Lamp Competition being a well established thing, there is perhaps a genuine cause for a fear of lamps – at least if you have encountered any of the lamps featured in the Ebay Ugly collection or to win the Ugly lamp competition so far.

beautiful-innovative-chandelier-lighting-design

Fortunately, whatever the reason behind your fear or hatred of lamps, it needn’t mean sitting in the dark. Rather, consider introducing LEDs into your living space – especially if what puts you off lamps is their awkward and unsophisticated appearance or fact they trail wires; LEDs unlike lamps can often light up a corner or provide enough of a glow to rival that provided by a plug-in lamp relying only on batteries.

To learn more about LEDs and their potential to revolutionise (or even just illuminate) your living space, give these 50 Reasons Why LEDs are Great a read via the Oberoi Brothers Luxury Lighting website.

Go Old School

Finally, this is a top tip provided that works in addition to using lamps and a dimmer switch and not in place of; to create truly ambient, atmospheric or romantic lighting, you cannot beat candles – even in 2016. In use for over 3,000 thousand years, according to the National Candle Association, candles and have since the birth of man captivated an enchanted us, and when used safely and appropriately within a living space can create the perfect atmosphere in which to enjoy a romantic evening or even a horror movie.

Of course, it is important when introducing fire indoors to play it safe; then, for those wanting to use candles in the safest way, invest in a few holders that effectively surround a flame, such as the ‘candle shades’ sold by and for use with official Yankee candles or consider a bowl of floating candles. Meanwhile, for those wanting to replicate the atmosphere and cosiness provided by candles without any of the danger, there are of course artificial candles, such as those sold in the UK via the Lights for Fun website – which are, unlike the tacky child-safe Halloween tea lights, very realistic and rather aesthetically pleasing.


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Matthew Okafor