Layered lighting brings your home’s lighting design plan together. It removes unwanted shadows and glares while increasing the overall lighting scheme. By layering light, it adds texture and depth to your indoor living space while elevating the ambiance in your home.
What is Layered Lighting?
Layered light uses multiple types of lighting to design a balanced and well-lit home. There are three main types of lighting used: ambient, task, and accent lighting.
Ambient lighting
Think about the overall illumination in your home. It covers more extensive areas of your house. Ambient light is the light that sets the tone. This type of light typically involves the lights that are placed at the ceiling of your home. These include chandeliers, mount fixtures, and ceiling fans with attached fixtures.
Task lighting
Task lighting illuminates areas where you work, like your kitchen countertops or a desk or reading nook. Wherever you do most of the activities in your home, you need direct lighting or task lighting. Typical activities that require task lighting are cooking, putting on makeup, working on your hobbies, or reading. To best focus on the task at hand, this lighting solution should remove glares and shadows while offering enough bright light to accomplish your work. Pendant lights, under-cabinet lights, and desk lamps are good examples of task lighting.
Accent lighting
This is the layer of light that’s more indulgent and fun. It highlights specific areas of interest, like a wall of artwork or a cabinet of collectibles. It’s the opposite of ambient light, covering a smaller area and selectively focusing on particular items. Accent lights add drama and flair to the area of focus. Recessed lights, track lights, strip lighting, and wall sconces are standard accent lights. The American Lighting Association says that accent lights should be three times brighter than the surrounding space.
A lighting designer can help you choose the right light fixtures to match your preferred style and budget. A proper mix of the three types of lightings will pull the overall lighting design plan together to complement and complete your home.
Other Things to Consider in Your Home’s Lighting Design
- You and your family’s lifestyle. What types of things do you do in the home? Do you cook and prepare meals a lot? Are you into a craft or do you watch a lot of television? Is there a student in the home who has to work on assignments? Do you work from home? These are important questions to consider. You want less light in areas like where you view the TV and more focused bright light where you work on projects.
- The ambiance you wish to create. What type of mood do you want in your home? Do you want a relaxed and cozy atmosphere? Or do you want something bright and energetic? A lighting designer can help you determine the color temperature of the bulbs you need to create an environment that suits you.
- How extensive you want your lighting project to be. You may be thinking of a simple remodel of only one area of your home. Although you might think it’s easier to focus on adding or replacing a few fixtures, truthfully, it may be easier to just redo the entire lighting design in your home. But, again, you could always keep it focused on a specific area.
- Your personal style. Every element of design in your home should reflect the things you love. Lighting design should also highlight the things you enjoy that are already part of your home’s interior. For instance, do you have a prized art collection that you’d like to display like an art gallery? Then, you may want to install track lighting. On the other hand, if you spend 12 hours a day around the island in your kitchen, a pendant light with an eye-catching design might be in order. Also, consider the types of light fixtures you like and avoid those you don’t. If you really hate chandeliers, don’t have one installed. But, if you’ve always wanted one, here’s your chance. Stick with what appeals to you so that you end up with a lighting design you love.
- Incorporate dimmers into your lighting design plan. Dimmers are great for controlling the amount of light at various times of the day. They’re especially great for the bedroom when you’re ready to wind down with a book in the evenings. The living room is another favorite spot for dimmer switches. If you and your family love to watch movies together, dimming the lights adds to the movie theatre-style experience. In the dining room, light a couple of candles and use dimmers to set a romantic mood. Having the ability to dim the lights in just about any room of the home gives you extra control of the level of light you want at any given time.
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The Takeaway
The TakeawayIf you want to add a layer of comfort, style, practicality, and beauty to your home, layering the light in your home does it all. Ambient light will add general illumination for your home, while task lighting adds a layer of focus to your lighting scheme. Accent lighting is like the icing on the cake – it dresses up your rooms and gives it a sense of style and ambiance. Layered light is simply arranging multiple kinds of lighting to blend together.
Illuminations Lighting Design has been at the forefront of the professional lighting business since 2004. We’ve helped thousands of homeowners in Houston and the surrounding areas in Texas design the perfect layered lighting design for their homes. We can do it for you too. Give us a call at 713-863-1133 to set up a consultation.
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