That’s it, you have the furniture, you have chosen the color of the walls and bought a bed. All that’s missing is the right lighting. And it’s good that you are looking for clarification on the question! Because in most construction projects, homeowners tend to overlook the importance of lighting and how it will affect the spaces created.
Whether you are planning an extension or adapting existing interior spaces, any change in the shape and size of your room will affect the lighting in your room – whether natural or artificial. Even simple changes such as a new choice of furniture, wall colors or floors will have some impact on the final lighting. So, if you’re planning on making changes to your home, here are 7 common lighting mistakes to avoid in order to light your bedroom right the first time.
1 – Choosing the wrong size or style of fixture
This very common mistake can have a huge impact not only on the final lighting, but also on the overall look of your room. Installing a small pendant light or a large chandelier above a modestly sized bed just won’t work. The key is to understand the proportions. A small light will barely illuminate your bed while a large chandelier will just overpower the lighting space and make your bedding look really tiny.
2 – Stick to one light source
Placing different lighting options in your room is a great way to create different moods. So think of ways to add lamps, ceiling lights, or wall sconces to separate areas of the room for different uses. There’s nothing like bad light for your make-up corner or bad lighting above your bedside table if you’re a book lover.
3 – Swear only by recessed spotlights
Recessed lights and spotlights have been a very popular lighting option for many years now, but it’s quite easy to fall into the trap of installing them improperly. In most cases, homeowners install as many as possible in the ceiling, believing this will provide the correct level of lighting. This is completely false because recessed spotlights do not illuminate the walls because the light produced is a focused narrow beam. This thus leads to your well-lit bedroom floor space with dark walls. For a room to be fully lit, light must reflect off the walls, so ceiling lights alone will not suffice. Use ceiling lights only where they work best and add additional lighting options such as wall sconces, floor lamps and pendant lights when needed to supplement them in places where you want more light.
4 – Ignore natural light
Sometimes lighting a room isn’t the solution when daylight provides brightness (and warmth) at a lower cost. If you can afford it, installing windows, or skylights in the roof or ceiling is the perfect way to bring natural light into a room. Obviously, you will still need lighting for the evening, when you go to bed, especially on winter evenings.
5 – Not considering the “color” of the light
Many bulbs now come with different color ‘temperature’ options, which means that the light they emit can be an extremely bright white or a warm yellow. Choosing the wrong option can drastically change the feel of your bedroom and make it too bright and dazzling, or too dark inappropriately. The colors of the walls and the size of the room also play a role. So the best way to get the right result is to think about the brightness you want in your room and the types of bulbs that will give you the end result you want.
6 – Forgetting to install dimmers
Sometimes you want to control the amount of light in your room to change the mood? The simplest solution is to install dimmers. Many owners forget to install them and this results in very binary installations. Either the room is fully lit, or nothing at all: it is completely in the dark. A dimmer can solve all your problems by giving you the ability to choose how you want the room to be lit, when you want it. It would be a shame not to enjoy !
7 – Do not leave room for bedside lamps
Who said that the bedside lamp was necessarily on the bedside table at the head of the bed? There are so many other possibilities. Lack of space is therefore no reason to do without bedside lamps. You can install a lamp behind your bed, directly above the headboard. It thus projects its light directly onto your pillow or your open book. You can also install suspensions hung from the ceiling: they illuminate the objects placed above the bedside table without taking up space. You can take the luxury as far as installing tracks in the ceiling, which will allow you to move your ceiling lights as needed.