Is the living room a place where you love to be? Is this where your family meets and does most of its activities? This therefore requires well-thought-out lighting that is suitable for all times of the day, whether relaxing on the sofa after a hard day’s work, watching television together, reading, playing – if you have children or listening to music. the music.
1 – Think unique lighting
Do not bet only on the general lighting of your living room. While comprehensive general lighting that provides even brightness throughout your living room is essential, it shouldn’t be limited to just that. General lighting is perceived as soft and – assuming the appropriate light color – as comfortable. This type of light can be considered basic lighting, from which all other lighting requirements are determined. General lighting is mainly used for orientation and good visibility of furniture, corners, edges, floor obstacles and the furnishings of the room as a whole. In terms of lighting, different living room activities call for different lights. It would be unfortunate to have only one light source in your living room. It is better to combine several: general lighting, zone lighting and task lighting. In addition to the practical use of lighting in the living room, light is also a way to effectively stage the room. Light concentrates, punctuates, divides the room and helps highlight structures.
The general lighting of a room ensures a pleasantly bright living room. But that is often not enough. On the one hand, a room looks relatively simple with only one general lighting: there is a lack of zones and structures. Nothing particularly stands out. And then, it is just not possible to cope with all the situations mentioned above (reading, watching, television, etc.) with a single light source. If this is the case, there are necessarily gaps, if only for reading. We could say to ourselves that we illuminate strongly in case the requested spot requires a lot of light, but the rest of the time, it would be too bright.
2 – Misplace your lighting
As we know, once you have hung or fixed your lamps, they will probably stay in place for a while. It would be a pity in this case to discover that here the light abounds and that it is not necessary and that there on the contrary it misses, you would need more of it. The test would be to see just by moving your furniture, if in terms of lighting the room still meets your needs. If you have a desk in your living room, you need to align the desk lights so that they don’t create annoying shadows when writing. Right-handers place their lamp on the left, left-handers on their right. In addition, you should of course prevent the light from falling directly on the computer or television monitor and causing unpleasant reflections.
3 – Not lighting enough
Having the right amount of light is essential for the health of your eyes. Dim background lighting is definitely comfortable, but reading a book or magazine with small print will strain your eyes unnecessarily. That’s why you should have a dedicated light source for reading by your couch and a table lamp for office work. Make sure the light is emitted without glare, as too much light naturally strains your vision. This also applies to television. Make sure that you don’t have too strong a contrast in brightness between the TV and the environment, that is, don’t watch TV in a dark environment. Ideally, you indirectly illuminate the wall behind, for example with LED strips. Some televisions also have a backlight installed.
4 – Not choosing the right light color
One value to look out for when buying your lamps and light sources is the light temperature or light color. This indicates whether the light is ‘warm’ or ‘cold’, expressed in Kelvin (K) units. The lower the Kelvin value, the more reddish the light, the higher it is, the more blue it contains. A candle flame emits about 1500 K. Under the midday sun with a cloudless sky, the light has a value between 12000 and 15000 K. This is important because the color of the light has a strong effect on our mood, our well-being and our sleep/wake cycle.
5 – Disregard natural light
Everyone knows that when you work, you are much more efficient when lit by daylight than by artificial light. So, especially if you want to learn or work creatively, you need to make sure you set up a workplace where as much light as possible comes through the window. Regardless of the Kelvin number of the light source, the healthiest light is daylight. Therefore, you should avoid setting up your office in the windowless basement or in the attic. Instead, place your workspace as close to the window as possible. And make good use of daylight, because at no other time are you so productive. A great way to create more light in a room is to add mirrors.