6 Lighting Mistakes You Should Avoid at All Costs

Lights serve a number of purposes. They can make it easier to use space the way it is designed. The right lighting can set the mood or destroy the atmosphere of the room. We’re all guilty of little mistakes. However, it is the major ones that can interfere with our lives and quality of life, and they are the hardest to correct. Here are six lighting mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

One Room, One Light

No one wants to enter a bedroom or workspace when the only overhead light has burned out. Then there’s the fact that one light rarely provides enough task lighting, no matter where you are. If you have a room that’s in this situation, you should invest in a few lamps until you can update the lighting in the room. You might find the beautiful pendant lights from lights.co.uk, which are available in a wide range of styles, are the right balance between beauty and functionality, and you could probably hang more than one above a work table. Or little work lights easily mounted below bookshelves and cabinets could give you the extra light you need without having to rewire an entire room. In other cases, simply changing lampshades or light fixtures to something that better suits your room is enough to give it a whole new feel.

Inconvenient Light Switches

It should never be a hassle to have to turn down or turn off the lights. Yet a surprising number of homes have light switches in inconvenient places. This causes people to reach into a room and literally claw until they find the switch. Or they run into things searching for the light switch. Light switches in illogical places leave guests frustrated. You certainly create problems with light switches that are not ergonomic. Children who can’t reach their lights cry for a parent to turn them on. Guests who struggle with light switches will be uncomfortable. Always have an ergonomic plan in mind when installing light switches.

Ignoring Natural Light

Natural light provides warmth and brightness at no cost. Wherever possible, bring natural light into your home. These rooms will still need lights, but these can be secondary and supplemental. If a room feels dark and dingy, consider whether or not you need a new lamp or different curtains or blinds on the window.

Too Bright Overhead Lights

A different mistake people make is thinking that overhead lights need to be as bright as possible. In reality, daylight imitation lights are as bright as you really need. Some think this is necessary to adequately see in a room, though several scattered lights may be better. If you truly need brighter light to work by, have work lamps nearby you can turn on as required. Another option is installing square ceiling lights and long ceiling lamps that provide better overall lighting than a single, extremely bright bulb.

Too Much Recessed Lighting

Recessed lighting has become popular, but some homes have too much of it. It may not provide enough light for the main living areas, and it adds to the complexity of installation. It can backfire, too, creating an overly bright focal point while the rest of the room looks dark. You can have recessed lights to accent particular features or add lighting to a specific area, but it shouldn’t be the main light source for a room. Nor should you try to light a room entirely through recessed lights; half of their energy is wasted, so you’d need too many to match the performance of conventional wall lights, floor lamps, and overhead lights. Another option is putting in under-unit lighting, whether it is under a cabinet in the kitchen, so you have extra light when working on the cutting board, or lights mounted under a bookshelf to make it easier to see.

Incorrectly Sized Lights

While a pendant lamp may look lovely, it isn’t going to provide enough light for a dining room table. A chandelier over the same table is overkill. The solution is properly sized lights located throughout your home. The hard part for many is admitting that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Rooms with little natural light will need more lights and brighter lights than those where sunlight streams most of the day.

You want to be careful of the wattage you use. In many cases, you don’t need bright energy hogs to light up a room. In other cases, you could get these lights but connect them to a dimmer so that you don’t use more energy than necessary. Upgrading to high-quality LED lights at the same time will cut down on energy costs, and they reach the same brightness as traditional lights with a much lower wattage.

If you don’t have enough light in a room and don’t want to replace the existing lighting, supplement it with lamps, wall lights, and downlights. You can even use these lights to section off parts of a room for different uses.

Avoid making these lighting mistakes in your home, and you’ll find that it is easier to relax at night, work during the day, and find what you need. You may even save on your energy bill, as well.