10 Tips for Creating the Perfect Ambiance in Your Home
Whether you live in an apartment with terrible lighting or your home’s décor doesn’t make the most of natural light, your surroundings can have a major impact on how you feel and behave at home. Fortunately, creating the perfect lighting ambiance isn’t difficult if you just follow these 10 tips. Your home will be more relaxing, romantic, and conducive to productivity than ever before!
1) Decide on your lighting style
When you’re designing a room, think about whether you want it to have more of a natural feel or an artificial one. Natural light is usually best for areas that will be used frequently, such as your living room. Artificial lighting is better suited to those rooms where you don’t spend much time, like your home office. But if you really can’t decide, go with a mixture of both.
There are also different types of lighting fixtures that work well with certain kinds of rooms and floors. If you want to see how each kind looks and works in your space before buying, head over to Lowe’s or Home Depot and take a look at some samples before buying anything permanent (and expensive).
2) Get rid of clutter
Cleaning up clutter can improve your mood, as well as make a room feel more spacious. Try keeping clutter to a minimum by using boxes and bins to organize books, papers, knick-knacks, and other small items. For bigger pieces of furniture or appliances—from couches to TV sets—find a tidy place where it can rest out of sight (like behind doors or cabinets) until you’re ready to use it again. The less stuff there is on surfaces, floors, and walls around your home, the cleaner they’ll stay—and so will you!
3) Light up your space from all angles
Although most home interiors are perfectly lit, getting enough light into every corner of your house can make a significant difference to its overall feel. Whether you’re dealing with dark corners or dim passageways, there are ways to improve your lighting in all rooms of your home.
Make sure you have at least one light source that illuminates from above, below, and either side—ideally using different types of lights for each angle. Natural daylight is also crucial for interior design—keep as many windows as possible on every wall and make good use of mirrors; they’ll help bounce light around even more.
4) Don’t forget about accent lighting
Lighting your home is crucial to creating a comforting, engaging space. Lighting can set a mood and turn a good room into an incredible one. When lighting your home, it’s important to have both task lighting (for reading and cooking) and accent lighting (to set a mood).
Accent lights should be dimmer than overhead lights or table lamps; they need to be bright enough to provide some ambiance but not so bright that they compete with overhead lights. Dimming down your house lights adds atmosphere while making you more relaxed. Good mood lighting is also crucial when entertaining guests—dimmed light bulbs create an air of sophistication and elegance that makes guests feel welcomed.
5) add candles or another mood lighting
Using candles or other lights to create a certain mood is not only an easy way to add some flair but also an easy way to improve how you feel. Adding lighting will help set your mood and provide a relaxing and stress-free environment, which can be beneficial when trying to take it easy after a long day.
In addition, light therapy has been known to help people suffering from a seasonal affective disorder, which can make all of us a little more sluggish during the winter months. Candles are relatively inexpensive and come in many different sizes so there’s sure to be one that fits your space perfectly. Incorporating candles into your decor isn’t as difficult as you may think either!
6) Play with different light bulb types
Changing up your home’s lighting can have a big impact on its look and feel. Incandescent bulbs are a great place to start, but you can also mix things up with dimmable CFLs or LED lights that come in different colors. These options may be pricier than traditional light bulbs, but they’re also more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Plus, they last longer than older options. So if you install one now, it should be kicking out light-years from now—or at least until our solar system goes dark when we run out of fossil fuels!
7) Invest in a dimmer switch
Want to create a more soothing atmosphere? A dimmer switch can help you do just that. You can adjust your lights to create either an active or relaxed environment based on your mood or activity at home. For example, dimming lights while reading a book by a crackling fire is calming, whereas turning up lighting when cooking dinner creates an active vibe in your kitchen.
If you’re unsure about what kind of dimmer switch is right for you, contact an electrician or contractor and have them assess your wiring situation. Many have lighting experts on staff and can recommend what will work best. Alternatively, if you’re not interested in changing any wiring, try using lower watt bulbs or light fixtures instead; they cast softer light than bright bulbs or lamps.
8) Choose the right lighting fixtures
To create a comfortable ambiance and illuminate every nook and cranny of your home, your lighting needs to be distributed across a spectrum of intensities. From candlelight to overhead lamps, make sure you have an appropriate selection of light sources to choose from. If there’s one rule you should follow, it’s The darker, the better. Properly lit rooms can feel cozier while bright spaces might look sterile and cold. You want lighting that adds comfort to any space by combining warm and cool hues.
9) Add mirrors to reflect light throughout your home
Lighting is integral to creating a sense of space and is one of your best tools for visually expanding small spaces. Add mirrors (preferably large ones) throughout your home to reflect light and add visual interest to ceilings and walls.
Not only will these light-reflecting surfaces help boost light levels, but they’ll also create open, airy spaces that feel much larger than they are. In fact, according to designer Jennifer Adams, every time you double your square footage with mirrors or reflective surfaces you can reduce required lighting by 75 percent! That means less power consumption as well! This is definitely one of those cases where more really is better.
10) Use lamps, floor lights, and wall lights to create unique spaces
When used creatively, lamps, floor lights, and wall lights can create unique spaces that are warm and inviting. Create a soft glow: Incandescent lighting is flattering to most skin tones, And when combined with strategically placed mirrors (in dark corners), you can hide less-than-perfect design elements behind a cozy glow.
Note: It’s not necessary to use special bulbs or LED light strips to achieve incandescent lighting; all you need is a plain old lamp or overhead light fixture. Keep it simple: Regardless of what light fixtures you use—or how many—keep it simple. Adding too many dramatic elements will confuse your space and make it feel chaotic instead of calming.
