Contemporary and Traditional Living Room Lighting

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The living room is often the heart of the home where you spend most of your time relaxing, so it is important to ensure that the lighting you choose here not only meets your light level requirements but is aesthetically pleasing to you.

A good idea for this room is to use lots of different sources of light creating pools of light around the room. Not only will this ensure that all areas of the room are adequately lit but they add an additional dimension to the feel of the room. This is enhanced when you add dimmers to your lights as it gives you the ability to lower or increase your light levels as required.

In addition to installing dimmer circuits why not put in a 5 amp circuit of plug sockets operated from a single lighting switch on the wall, this makes life a lot easier as the lamps will all turn on from one wall switch instead of your having to manually turn each lamp on.

If you have a central ceiling fitting in the room it is important to choose a fitting that not only complements the style of the room but is neither too small nor too big. Measure down from the ceiling to assess the maximum height fitting you require and do the same with the width. Too small a fitting will look lost in the space and too big a one will overpower the room.

If you have the wiring for matching wall lights check the dimensions of single or double fittings to find out what would best suit the space available. A double wall light gives you the option of much more light, which can be lowered using a dimmer switch or lower wattage bulbs where as a single wall light will have a maximum wattage and this will not be able to be increased. Think about the overall wattage you require in the room and check the maximum capacity of your chosen fitting.

If you use wall washers or uplighters remember that they throw all their light upwards, when the light hits the ceiling it is reflected back down into the room giving the area an ambient wash of light.

Strategically placed table and floor lamps will open up the room and enhance the fixed lighting design to create a different mood within the room. This will create a different atmosphere in the room and is useful if you want to highlight certain features of interest or you want to add lamps for functional purposes such as reading or close work.

Halogen floor lamps are ideal if you want a flexible light which is discreet and can be placed behind a chair or sofa and used for close work as the light given off is sharp, crisp and bright.

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