Lighting Explained- sharing our favourites and even what light bulbs you should get!

Lighting! A piece of the puzzle that is often overlooked when it comes to designing and decorating our homes. Boob lights being case in point. I have always described lighting to my clients in that it is akin to that statement piece of jewelry that can take an outfit from ho-hum to fab! Lighting can do the same in a space.

First, let’s talk about recessed lighting.

I am going to start off saying that recessed lighting should not be your only source of lighting in the space. I often hear from clients that they do not require table or floor lamps because they have recessed lighting. That is so far from the truth. In any space, you need general or ambient light as well as task and accent lighting. So no, recessed light is not all you need in your space.

I feel a home shouldn’t just do recessed lighting as the general /ambient type of lighting and in this post I’m going to share some of my favorite alternatives to recessed lighting. However, this is our FAVORITE recessed lighting! These are great for retrofits as well as new construction in that no housing or j-box is needed and their canless LED lights ultra-slim design goes where can lights can’t. They’re 4″ in diameter and you can even choose the color temperature you want. ( I prefer 3000K) These are super easy to install and I love that the edging surface is really flat and doesn’t jut out.

Semi flush mounts are a great alternative to recessed if you’re wanting to switch things up.

Have fun with the lighting in your space, you can mix metals and even varieties!

What light bulbs should I get?

Have you ever walked into the light bulb aisle of your big box home improvement store to be completely overwhelmed? We are inundated with a plethora of choices and then we have to wrap our heads around the terminology. Getting the correct light bulb is important. Because you can spend all the time in the world outfitting your spaces with cute lights, but if you are using the incorrect type of light bulb for the space, then you can make or break the overall look and feeling of the room.

We’ve all heard of watts, but fortunately almost every bulb has become more energy efficient so while a box will list the watt equivalent conversion, what you should really be looking at is Lumens!

What the heck are Lumens?

Watts measure the amount of energy required to light products, whereas lumens measure the amount of light you are getting from an actual bulb itself! The more lumens in a light bulb, the brighter the light. For decades, we have been buying light bulbs based on how much energy they consume (Watts) — no matter how much light they give us (Lumens). We’ve been taught the higher the wattage the better the light. That’s just not true. Every box will tell you how many lumens the bulb will put out.

Since the energy bulbs use are now all significantly lower, it is very important to become familiar with how much brightness you want. For example, an 800LM bulb might be great for a lamp in the the corner of the living room, but I like something softer, like a 400 for the bedroom. Or even a 200 for an exposed bulb! Less lumens for an exposed bulb is ALWAYS best.

Which brings us to the next big component when choosing a bulb–Kelvin, or temperature!

You’ve probably noticed some light bulbs look a lot warmer, or orange even (think: typical edison bulb) while some look so blue! That’s Kelvin color in a nutshell and you have power over that. Color temperature is a way to describe the light appearance provided by a light bulb, it is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000–although typically you’ll find 2000-5000K available in stores for you to buy for your home. The color of a bulb can affect everything from mood of an entire space to the way a paint color looks–it’s really important.

Lighting can truly make or break the look and feel of a room overall. A beautiful light fixture isn’t going to solve anything if your light bulbs are too orange, or too florescent, or too dim, or too bright. So I would say if you’re struggling with lighting in your home, maybe start with your light bulbs. It could change everything.