Friday, October 19, 2012

How to Spice Up Your Livingroom with Lighting


A lot takes place in the livingroom, and trying to decide the perfect kind of lighting for it can be a little challenging. You can check out some established lighting companies, like Meyda Lights for their awesome livingroom selections.

If you don’t have a family room, the livingroom usually serves as the ultimate convening area for all important activities, whether you’re discussing the details of your latest family vacation, entertaining guests, discussing the details of your latest family vacation, or simply relaxing on a Saturday night for some popcorn nights.

One of the primary things you need to know is that livingroom lighting is not constant, that is, you’ll need to utilize various types of lighting to achieve both a functional and stylish effect. This doesn’t mean to say that the more layers of light you use, the better. Strategic layering is important, but you wouldn’t want to overwhelm your eyes with too much glare.

An excellent source of lighting would be a floor lamp situated just off to the side of your chair or sofa. If you do a lot of reading or sewing in your livingroom, that big old chandelier just won’t do the trick, at least not for activities that tend to put a strain on the eyes. Placing a lighting source directly in front or directly behind will cause shadows, stressing your eyes out even more.

Entertaining guests warrants a more special kind of lighting, and this is usually the time to dim down the overhead lights and whip out ambient lighting fixtures, like table lamps and other similar lighting. You could also use the chandelier for ambient light, and several manufacturers, such as Meyda Lighting have chandeliers that allow you to install a dimmer switch or adjust the different lighting levels.

Installing light for watching TV can be a little tricky. Because a home television is a lot smaller than a widescreen in the cinema, your eyes need to adjust a little more to the glare coming from the screen, as well as the lack of light around the TV set. The combined effect can be strenuous. . This is usually no problem if you keep the lights on during movie nights, but if you’d like to replicate a theater feel (complete with popcorn and soda), you’ll need to keep the lights off.  Howeer, this is easily solved by placing a floor lamp directly behind or to the side of your TV set to ease the strain on your eyes.