Top Tips for Placing Lighting in Your Bathroom

Carrying out a home renovation can be an exciting time for all homeowners. Along with choosing your new furnishings, wall colours and flooring materials, careful consideration also should be given to your lighting choices in order to make the best of your space.

Although many typically give more thought to choosing lighting for bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens, the bathroom is definitely one space where lighting features should not be neglected. With this room being used routinely in the mornings and evenings, as well as when a member of the household wants to enjoy a soak in the tub, getting the lighting right here definitely pays off.

It is important to get the task lighting right in your bathroom first of all. Task lighting simply means lighting that makes sure that everything is sufficiently illuminated so that you can carry out all the tasks that you need to in this space, whether it is getting changed, brushing your teeth or hopping under the shower.

Simple answer to task lighting is to provide a row of spotlights - such as GU10 light fittings - down the centre of the room, giving sufficient light to all corners of the space. As we use our bathrooms in both the mornings and evenings, bright overhead lights can be a fantastic functional option.

They are, however, not right for all spaces, as overhead lights in some places can easily cast shadows on the areas where you most need light to be.

One of these places is in the shower, as people will often find that when their shower curtain is drawn, not enough light makes its way through to light up the shower area sufficiently. Bright ceiling spotlights such as the GU10 light fittings mentioned earlier can be ideal here, as they are directly placed in the ceiling for safety's sake and will provide enough light for showering purposes.

The other area where task lighting is particularly important is any space that you use for grooming, such as in front of your bathroom mirror. Here, overhead lights cannot light up the face sufficiently, meaning that applying makeup, styling the hair and shaving can become a lot more difficult.

A solution here is to place wall lights on the sides of the mirror in order to light up your face well. A more natural solution is to place your mirror near your bathroom window so you have plenty of natural light flooding in and lighting up your face. The latter solution, however, is not so effective in the early mornings and evenings when it is dark outside!

In addition to making sure that your bathroom is filled with plenty of light from some spotlights such as GU10 light fittings or an attractive pendant lamp, as well as ensuring that you have adequate task lighting for your shower and your bathroom mirror, it is also a good idea to introduce some accent lighting.

The purpose of accent lighting is purely aesthetic - this can turn any bathroom from a functional room into a truly captivating space, and is especially a good idea if you have invested in some beautiful artwork or bathroom furnishings.

Some examples of accent lighting in action include the carefully placed spot light over a sculpture or expertly crafted sink, some beautiful wall lights next to a vast mirror, or a gorgeous pendant lamp hanging over an exquisite bathtub. Use lights to draw attention to the areas that you want people to look at and you can dramatically change the appearance of a room.

By following these tips it is not hard to get your bathroom lighting just right. Give thought to providing ample overhead lighting and efficient task lighting, but do not forget to enhance your favourite furnishings with some strategically placed accents either.

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Tips on Installing Bedroom Lighting for a Good Night's Sleep

Lighting in the bedroom serves a multitude of purposes, ranging from illuminating our wardrobes so that we can find a matching pair of socks to wear that day, right through to helping us wake up and find the will to roll out of bed in the morning. What lighting also does, however, is determine whether or not we get a good night's sleep.

There are two basic categories of lighting, the first being natural light and the second being artificial light. Both of these have an impact on the quality of sleep due to their effect on the levels of calming melatonin in the brain, so if you are looking to improve this aspect of your life, here are a few tips on creating an environment that is conducive to sleep.

A piece of advice that is often given is to install a pair of good curtains on your bedroom window. As you may well have already heard, the presence of light can confuse your body into thinking it is daytime, and therefore your bedroom should be kept as dark as possible throughout the night. A pair of thick curtains certainly helps in this respect.

In addition to choosing some good curtains to keep external light from entering your room, pay attention to the lighting in the bedroom too. Although some people like having a nightlight in the room to help them feel comfortable enough to sleep, this is not advised, as although this soothing light can help you fall asleep, it can ruin the quality of sleep if you are exposed to it all night long.

One solution to this is installing good lighting in your room that will relax you before you go to sleep so you will not need a soothing nightlight on all the time. A very effective way of doing this is by installing dimmable lamps in your bedroom so you can turn down your lighting to a relaxing level until you fall asleep.

Dimmable LED candle bulbs are an excellent option as they can be used in many different light fittings, ranging from your bedside table lamp to your ceiling lights. These dimmable LED bulbs will give you the possibility to have task lighting to illuminate your space when you need a high level of light, and also give you just enough light to relax in the evenings.

The candle shape of dimmable LED candle bulbs is also a bonus as these can truly imitate a real candle, but without the fire hazard! Look online or enquire at your local store to see if they have dimmable LED bulbs in stock that you can use in your home. You will of course, need to install a dimmer switch too, so ask for the advice of a lighting specialist for best results.

For those that like the security of having ample light when they move around at night, one solution is to instead keep a dimmable lamp on your bedside table. If you need to get up to go to the bathroom at night, you can turn the light on just ever so slightly to give a gentle light by which you can function, without waking you up too much.

Keeping low level lighting around your home - such as a nightlight in the bathroom and in your hallway - can also avoid the negative effects of light that is too bright, all whilst providing sufficient illumination for you to do what you need to do.

Our final tip is to remember that the colour temperature of the light that you use can make a big difference. The whiter the light, the more similar to daylight it is, which will in turn switch on your brain rather than relax it when you are settling down for a good night's sleep.

Make sure that your LED bulbs are of a warm white rather than a cool one, and you will be well on your way to a deep sleep that will leaving you feeling refreshed upon waking.

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An Insight Into Interior Lighting and Its Types

The concept of life is incomplete without light. It brightens up our mood and mind. For centuries, sun has been a source of natural brightness and there is no substitute for it. A well-constructed premises allows a sufficient amount of it, to every corner. However, buildings devoid of it mostly depend on artificial sources like lamps, chandeliers, wall sconces etc. Even the architecture, which allows plenty of radiance at daytime, needs proper illumination at night.

The amount of required light varies from room to room. In the bedroom, serene and soft ambience invites you for a peaceful cozy sleep. Play-rooms with strong and bright glow invigorate the little ones with energy.

A dull and poor lighted room snatches away the zeal of work and thrust the individual to laziness. Brightness is must in study room so that you may not suffer from eyestrain. Living room could be made more interesting by the use of various accent lights. So long and so far, luminescence of any edifice plays a vital role in enhancing its beauty and comfort. Even for a non professional it is important to have the basic idea of lighting types. However, an expert consultancy is always beneficial in the end. Usually artificial lighting is divided into three types:

1. Ambient Lighting
2. Task Lighting
3. Accent Lighting

Ambient Lighting

It is also known as general lighting, which is used to illumine the overall atmosphere without a glare. Chandeliers, ceiling or wall-mounted fixtures are its most common examples. Chandeliers are hung in large open foyers, entryways and rooms because of their centrally themed position. A poor lighted room looks small, shabby and cramped, so general lighting brightens up the entirety of a room.

Task Lighting

The object of such lights is to perform specific tasks comfortably providing sufficient brightness. Recessed or track lights are used for it. These lights focus the luminosity to a particular area, making it brighter than the rest of the room. While studying, painting, making or cooking food these beams help the individual to work. Pendant lighting, under cabinet lighting, portable floor and desk lamps are its examples.

Accent lighting

Accent lighting draws the eye attraction to a specific point. These are meant to highlight the beauty of any painting, sculpture, prized possession, plants or decorative handicraft in the rooms. Sometimes they are also used to highlight the texture of a brick wall. It is necessary that the strength of an accent light must be three times more than the ambient light so that it may attract the attention to a particular object.

Lighting needs to serve a purpose or it simply wastes electricity. Decorative lighting creates moods while functional lighting meets the needs of individuals. Nowadays wall sconces with various shapes, sizes, colors, and styles, pendants with regular flair and chandeliers like a cascade of crystals flowing from ceiling serve both aesthetic as well as functional purposes.

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8 Useful Benefits of LED Kitchen Lights

LED kitchen lights have seen significant progress in recent years and provides far more options compared to the traditional fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. When searching for the right light, you are certain to get a variety of advantages that aren't available elsewhere. They come in plenty of color ranges, from warm white, natural white (daylight), and cool white. This versatility in color temperatures makes it possible to match the shade of light with the style of kitchen cabinets. For instance, cabinets with a high-gloss finish can benefit from the cool white bulbs, while it is possible to highlight wood grain with a warm white bulb.

Here are eight of the benefits:

1 - Durability

The bulb is made with a polycarbonate enclosure which makes it highly durable and break resistant.

2 - Easy to install

They are simple to install and naturally work with the existing fixtures in the kitchen and throughout the home. Also, there are dimmable lights available on the market that still operates with any pre-installed dimmer setup already in the home.

3 - Energy savings

LED kitchen lights use significantly less energy compared to the incandescent bulb which is usually in the region of a 75% to 80% reduction. This is certain to help reduce the cost of the annual utility bills.

4 - Environmentally friendly

This offers a perfect opportunity to lower the cost of the energy bills while also reducing the family's carbon footprint. Plus for families with ever-tightening budgets, these long life bulbs are the most practical option to avoid waste and keep the household bills managed.

5 - Low maintenance

These bulbs are rated to last 40,000 to 50,000 hours and the potential to provide a lifespan that runs up to 50 times longer than the short life of the incandescent bulb. After the initial installation, there is much less need to change or purchase replacement bulbs.

6 - Low voltage

The bulbs are designed to operate at low voltage which means very little heat is generated and safe to touch. This low heat is a major positive for those wishing to install lights at low levels.

7 - Small and flexible

They come in plenty of different sizes and shapes which makes it easier to emphasize a particular area of the kitchen. Plus, it gives the option to install lights in an area of the kitchen that wouldn't normally accept the traditional bulbs.

8 - Waterproof

The bulbs used in the kitchen can come with a waterproof coating for extra safety. This is especially useful if placing the lights close to a cooking area or near sinks.

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