We’ve put together a lgood ighting guide that will teach you the best ways to light up your bedroom. We will go over basic bedroom lighting fundamentals and how to layer lighting using accent, ambient, and task lighting. Also we’ll cover choosing the best type light bulbs that will make sure the color and brightness will match your bedroom perfectly.
Layered Lighting For Your Bedroom
Layered lighting is important to create the best lighting for your bedroom, but striking the right balance is vital properly utilizing task lighting, ambient lighting, and accent lighting. By creating a good balance between the light forms your lighting scheme will please any activity and any mood you choose with the flick of a switch.
Ambient Bedside Lighting
Ideally you should layer the different types of lighting to go with the different types of activities performed in your bedroom, beginning with general lighting, or ambient lighting. Good ambient light starts with natural light by way of windows or skylights.
Artificial lighting is considered any light form that eminates light that will let you comfortably perform general tasks or chores.
As far as artificial lighting goes, good ambient light is created with ceiling lights such as chandeliers, pendant lights, flush mount ceiling lights, etc.or other forms such as floor lamps. These will provide a good amount of light for those activities that do not need brighter light.
Softer Overhead Lighting
Flushmount lights are versatile and best for lower ceilings or to serve as a single light source. Or you could go over the top bold, diffuse the light with a crystal chandelier.
Task Lighting
If you require more focus, such as reading, or putting on makeup, then you should consider layering your general lighting with task lighting. Task lights do not need be confined to a traditional task desk light. Think about going with either bedside table lamps, pendant lights hanging lower on each side of your bed, perhaps wall sconces, or adjustable wall task lights placed on each side of your headboard or placed above the headboard directing light downward.
Bedroom task lights can take on many forms, as long as they offer enough light necessary for focused concentration. Aside from the location and design, task lighting functionality can depend on the type of light bulb used. We’ll discuss that more below.
Accent Lights
Accent lights are used to focus attention and highlight things like framed wall art. Accent lighting for the bedroom can serve as a version of ambient lighting, with a nice glow which will create a warm and cozy atmosphere. You can also use recessed lighting in your bedroom, wall sconces are another way to incorporate this accent lighting in to your bedroom’s lighting scheme.
Choosing the Right Light Bulb
Color
The color if the light source plays an important role in achieving success for certain activities. Think about the types of bulbs: incandescent and halogen light bulbs generally emit a soft white light, CFLs will diffuse blue light, while LED bulbs offer a wide vaiety of colors.
Blue and white light hues promote alertness, and that color of lighting is best used with task lighting or directional lighting sources to assist in more focused activities. Because white and blue light promotes being awake and subsequently suppresses sleep, they are not a good choice if you want to calm down and relax in your bedroom after a long hard day. Although, lighting that emits warm colors such as yellow, does not interfere with your melatonin production in your brain. Warmer lights are a good choice for most activities in the bedroom like watching tv, reading or just relaxing.
Brightness
It’s important to carefully consider the type of light bulb to use for each fixture in your bedroom when layering the lighting. The light bulb’s ntensity and the color it emits has the potential to negatively or positively affect you and how you function with a given activity. You should consider what your preferred brightness level, should be or lthe umens needed. The suggested lumens for a bedroom is somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 lumens, this can change depending on what level or type of ambience you want for your bedroom.
After deciding on the lumens needed, you should consider if the type of bulb you are choosing is dimmable. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s) are more difficult to use with dimmers. As bedrooms evolve there is more of a need for lighting to better support these activities.
