There are a range of different types of lighting in interior design. Finding the right one for your space is important for a number of reasons, in addition to actually providing practical illumination to the room.
If you’re struggling to keep track of the different options in interior lighting design, we’ll summarise the options here for you, allowing you to make a more informed choice for your home.
Tips for Finding the Best Interior Lighting
What To Do
When you’re comparing the different types of lighting, make sure to consider what you will be requiring your lighting to do. That might seem obvious but it isn’t always.
Are you hoping to incorporate a dimmer functionality? Are you going to rely on the lighting to set the ambiance of the room? Or do you simply need the strongest type of interior lighting available to facilitate family meal times?
Remember to consider all aspects of the lighting. There are aesthetic features and functional features, but there are additional considerations as well. From the thickness of shades to the location of the lighting in your ceiling or on your walls. The best interior lighting solution for you should work on every level to the greatest extent possible.
Lastly, remember to ‘dress’ your interior lighting. Bare light bulbs and lamps should be concealed with diffusers or shades to ensure that it offers as complimentary and complementary an aesthetic to the room in which it is in.
What Not To Do
If possible, the best interior lighting design utilises more than just one central light source. Using multiple lighting can help to avoid unflattering and unsightly shadows appearing around the space.
To do this, you will need to ensure that your room has a sufficient number of powerpoint outlets allowing you to place your lamps and lighting in the optimal places. Remember, however, that you’ll want to conceal cords to the greatest extent possible because you won’t want to ruin your interior lighting design with ugly wires snaking all over the place.
Exploring the Types of Lighting
In general, there are four main types of lighting in interior design. Each type can be customised to suit your particular home and the rest of your interior design aesthetic. But to get started, here’s an overview of the different lighting types.
General Lighting
Simple general lighting is pretty self-explanatory. It is designed to provide direct, adequate lighting to a space that can be used for the purposes required.
From a central pendant light or down lighting which is plain (in a good way) and understated to luxury chandeliers designed to function as both a practical feature and as an artistic expression, there is a wide range of general lighting types.
Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to tailor your general lighting according to your preference. Dimming, colours and other lighting effects are often even controllable from an app on your smartphone, making general, simple lighting far less simple and more useful than in days gone by.
If you’re trying to achieve something more with your interior design lighting–i.e., creating an ambiance–you’ll need more than just general lighting.
Ambient Lighting or Mood Lighting
Ambient lighting doesn’t work on its own; It works in conjunction with general lighting. Not focused on providing functional illumination, ambient lighting is all about creating the right mood for your living room, dining space or even bedroom.
When you’re considering your interior lighting design, ambient lighting should reflect your intentional use of a space and enhance the type of experience you, your family and your guests will be having.
Depending on the space, you might want to incorporate ambient lighting in wall sconces, or corners of the room, or even as a backlit feature to wall paneling. There’s a ton of flexibility in how ambient lighting can be used to enormously beneficial effect in your home.
Task Lighting
Task lighting is pretty self-explanatory as well. It’s designed lighting to provide directed, adequate illumination in a particular area for a particular task. Some of the more common uses of task lighting include reading lamps in a book nook, staircase lighting or overhead lighting for a stove or kitchen counter.
In general, task lighting needs stronger wattage than ambient lighting but not harsh lighting that will undermine its ultimate purpose. When you’re putting together interior design lighting, consider how your task lighting can work in conjunction with the rest of your lighting features.
For example, under cabinet spotlights can help provide adequate illumination in darker spaces of the kitchen while ill-chosen lamps can over-saturate a relaxed reading nook and undermine the ambiance you’re trying to achieve.
Accent Lighting
Accent lighting is a type of lighting in interior design that is used to highlight a particular feature in a room. For example, you might have a spotlight over a particular sculpture or a backlit lighting system behind a feature wall.
Accent lighting can be used to great effect to complement the aesthetic impact of feature statements in your living room, dining room or hallways.
It is important, as with task lighting, to consider the wattage needed for the particular accent lighting under consideration. You don’t want it to be too subtle that it fails to adequately highlight the decor or too harsh that it undermines the rest of the space or makes it difficult to look at.
There are a range of lighting effects that can be used in accent lighting design:
- Spotlighting
- Downlighting
- Uplighting
- Pedestal lighting
- Perimeter lighting
- Wall lighting – washing or grazing effects
Find the Right Natural Stone to Match Your Lighting Design
At Euro Marble, we source the highest quality and most beautiful natural stone from around the world for use in your home.
No matter what type of interior design lighting you’re looking to install and no matter which room of your home you’re wanting to transform, make sure to reach out to the Euro Marble team today to find the perfect natural stone to reflect your choice of best interior lighting.
