When you start to consider the lighting in your home, you may think that the most common mistakes revolve around overloading your circuits. However, a simple search for an “electrician near me” should help you to avoid the potential snafus that can arise when you fiddle with your own wiring. It’s always best to call in the pros when you’re installing new lighting fixtures.
That said, there are still a variety of common mistakes you can make when it comes to both practical and aesthetic concerns. Here are a few lighting blunders you’ll want to avoid.
A single light source from a practical standpoint, you might think a single overhead light in each room is sufficient to meet your illumination needs. Heck, maybe a candle or a flashlight will do the trick. The point is that there are many types of lighting that can provide the basic illumination you need to navigate your house after dark, but you want lighting that is functional and aesthetically pleasing.
On both counts, multiple lighting sources will ensure that you have the options you need to optimize the light in your home. A dome light in the living room will certainly provide a uniform wash of light, but having lamps near seating areas not only provides more direct lighting for reading, just for example, but it also helps to create a warm and inviting atmosphere that stark, overhead lighting might not.
Wrong Lighting Fixtures
The size, scope, and directionality of lighting fixtures are all important features to consider. A large lighting fixture is necessary and appropriate in an expansive room with vaulted ceilings, but it could be overwhelming in a smaller space. On the other hand, small or dim lighting fixtures, and especially directional lighting, could be inadequate to light a large room and create strange circles of light rather than an overall wash.
The wrong lighting choices can detriment the functionality of lighting in a room and create unintended aesthetic consequences like overly bright or dim interiors or pools of light that stand out like a sore thumb and create a discordant or disturbing atmosphere.
Lack of Task Lighting
It’s certainly a good idea to inundate certain areas like your kitchen with a bright wash of lighting thanks to recessed lights, but this is one area where having appropriate task lighting on food prep surfaces is essential. Under-cabinet lighting or directional lights that target food prep surfaces can help to deliver the functional illumination you need in this area. Consider task lighting in rooms like your home office, laundry room, and other functional areas in the home.
Foregoing Dimmers
Dimmers are not a necessity, but they can definitely help to increase your options for illumination. It’s always a good idea to add dimmers to overhead lighting if you don’t want to blast your eyeballs every time you turn on the lights, and they can be useful in other fixtures, as well. Dimmers for task lighting, pendants, recessed lights, and even lamps can ensure that everyone in your home has the level of lighting they’re comfortable with and the perfect illumination for any activity.