While decorating your home, do you ever notice that your decisions about little things make the real differences? This is why it’s very important to choose a lamp for your room as carefully you choose wallpaper, wall color and the floor design. The lighting that lamps create sets a tone and creates mood for a room according to its design. Changing in lights can shift the look of your room from dull to cheerful.
There are four main places to use different variations of lamps: wall, ceiling, floor and table. Each place has a different tone to set with a particular kind of lamp. It can create a comfortable yet cherished look in the room when you know what lamp you want to select. Are you searching for the perfect lamp for your room? Let’s take a look:
Ceiling Lamp
Ceiling can be considered as the 5th wall, which is often ignored. If lighting is used as a tool of art, ceiling lamps can be your trump card. A vast space with great potential should not be remained underutilized. Ambient light can help humanize a space. Indirect lighting by ceiling lamps can soften hard shadows and draw people towards space, and creates the best look. Also, there is an opportunity to use the ceiling as a creative canvas which adds a layer of visual appeal.
Most of the cases, clarity of pattern and projection depends on the clear bulb. There are also LED versions, including filament too. This can create a look of vintage bulb. At the same time, you get the crispy patterns with saving energy.
Wall Lamp
Wall lighting gives a practical decorative touch to your room by enhancing its ambience. Overhead lights are usually harder, where the wall lamps provide a source of soft lights as you need. Many kind of wall lights has been evolved since the time of kings. A touch of nostalgic art with a distinctive look is something you would want to get in your room.
But the style should be chosen according to the decoration. If your room looks modern, an antique looking wall light won’t be the appropriate one. On vice versa, if your room is furnished with antiques, a contemporary style wall lamp won’t be a good fit. Again, wall lighting has different styles which you may consider if:
Downlights –illumination within a limited area.
Uplights –providing indirect light to a more limited area.
Throw lights – provides medium light to a wider area.
Combined styles are also available.
Bulb is another major thing to be considered. Incandescent bulbs create a lot of heat and often have completely transparent glass. Fluorescent bulbs create less heat, are translucent, and are not always bulb shaped. LED lighting has the lowest energy consumption and lowest heat output of all the options, but are most commonly used in hand-held lighting applications.
Floor Lamps
For ambient lighting, floor lamps are placed at the corner of a room, usually. Torchiere
floor lamps diffuse light by throwing it to the ceiling which creates shade. It should be strong and directed outward and upwards.
In your room, if you want to use a floor lamp for reading, the best place for it should be the side of your table. Usually, they are more decorative and less functional. The lamp shade can add color to your room. Also the base of the lamp is something else, which will certainly matter to be counted as a décor. So, if you have a small or averaged size room, one complementary floor lamp is good. But a medium or larger room requires more than one.
Selection of floor lamps requires consideration of overhead central lights, wall lights and others. Depending on the time you spend in your room at night, selecting the lamp would be wise. So, it depends if you need more light downwards or upwards to create your cherished mood.
To help with reading, a dimmable LED floor lamp head and perhaps a full-spectrum light bulb would be a good option to assist with vision. Position it beside your chair, that will help to adjust the shine. Otherwise for brightness, positioning a floor lamp more towards a corner should work. For a family room, they can provide atmosphere and ambiance. If you are reading in bed, a full spectrum floor lamp is a good choice.
Table Lamps
Right use of a table lamp can create color, contrast, texture and illumination in the room. But, as table lamps are special, there are many things which should be noticed when placing a single table lamp or two.
A perfect place for your table lamp should be figured out before you decide to buy or place a new one. Table lamps are usually used to illuminate books while reading, studying, or sitting in your living room or by the bed. So, it’s important to figure the height and distance from your sitting position. If you are thinking of buying a table lamp first and then fit it somewhere on your table beside your couch, chair or bed, you need to make sure to find that perfect space combination by measuring it earlier. Plan ahead!
Table lamps need to be fit with the decors of your room. Having a taller bedside table will require a shorter lamp, where a short table will require the table lamp to be taller. Generally, the light the lamp gives is supposed to be down from your eye level, focusing on your book and creating just enough light to help you see what is in your hands and on the table.
Body of a table lamp can create a different appeal along with it’s beautiful shade. There are different looks of table lamps which can easily create lines and forms when you light it up. Even a table lamp can play well with backdrops too. Wallpaper and paintings can have a new look with the light and shade created by table lamps. But it is important to measure the shadow and body ratio of the lamp, as a narrower shade will produce a less illuminated area.
Of course, most of the lamps will allow you to change the height and shades. But you must be confirming your choice as there are variations of bulbs, as mentioned above. Such facilities can help you to create the ambience and atmosphere in the room. One more thing, the table lamp must be complementing other existing light sources. Usually they can highlight a particular portrait or area, but it is always enjoyable to try mixing up two completely different lamps.
Equation of your Lamp
Usually, for two people sleeping in a bed, there needs to be two lamps where a single lamp can work for a person. But if you have a big room with multiple places where lighting is needed, you may find the perfect balance using two lamps. Obviously, your table or bedside lamps should not be the only source of light in your room. If you are not interested in using ceiling light, you may want to go for a floor lamp.
How Wide and Tall Should Your Lamp Be?
The wider your mattress, the wider the nightstand, so the lamp atop it. Your nightstand should measure between one-third and two-thirds the width of your mattress, and the bedside lamp should be roughly one-third the width of the nightstand when measured at the lamp’s widest point. So for your 27-inch nightstand, 30-inch-tall lamp is perfect. In case of Lamp Shade,
Height: 2/3 the height of the lamp.
Width: Twice the width of the lamp.
Mistakes during selecting lamps
WRONG CHARACTER OF LAMP
A wide lamp visually anchors space. Bedside table lamps often need to be rather wide, as tables are 16 inches deep often. Then your table lamp should not be more than 1 ½ times the height of the table. Heavyweight lamps will be safer if you have children or pets.
WRONG COLOR OR TOO MANY COLORS
Too many colored or unmatching colored lamps are not good for room ambience and feel. It is important that your lamp goes with the texture of your room. You may use a complementary colored light but a cohesive consistent look is not always the best choice. When choosing lamp color, typically use no more than 3 colors. Just using 2 complimentary colors with your main color is a good rule to follow.
RANDOMLY MIXING LAMP STYLES
It’s not necessary to match your lamps. It’s completely your choice. But don’t mix random lamps. Have something common in them, like shades, metal finish, color or shape. Matching any one key element will help to mix them. Or maybe you use two ginger jar lamps with a sculpture lamp, which may have a common color, maybe shades of dark or light.
MISS-MATCHING METALS
If you want to mix bronze with copper, you are most welcome. They are two metals with the same elements. Nickel also can look good with bronze shades. Same goes for silver and gold. But if there are too many metals in the room, it looks horrible.
Now you know the pros and cons of the perfect lamp for your room. With various designs, shapes, colors, dimensions or lighting abilities, lamps create one of the most convenient methods to alter the tone of your room. The lighting of your room can ultimately affect a person’s state of mind. Whether you are looking for a little romance, relaxation, fun, or sophistication, the selected lamps can improve a room’s decoration and give the feeling you are looking for. Decide and create your own art.
