I can't stress this enough: good lighting in every room is far more important then the furniture you'll choose. Good lighting makes everything look better! As an interior designer, I had the chance to see how good lighting makes the room look so much better without a single change in furniture or colour construction made. Can we say it's a whole new and a lot cheaper way of redesigning your home? Definitely. You just need to know a few basic things as not to mix apples and oranges and make the decision to bring a change. Afterwards just sit in front the computer and look to buy lighting online Australia sites have such wide offer of lighting products. So, lets start with the basics:
Know the difference
You should know what to look for before you decide to buy lighting online Australia stores offer. The most important thing is to be able to differ the light. There are a few light sources important for interior design:
- General service incandescent bulbs – these come in relatively low voltage of mostly 100V and produce the simple type of light – yellowish, spread across the space.
- Reflectorized incandescent bulbs – these give a little stronger light and a little brighter than the general service ones. The difference is that they focus the light instead of spreading it, so you might find these more suitable for lighting a stand, a picture on the wall or the kitchen counter.
- Fluorescent bulbs – you can find these in a lot of colours, which means they're very adjustable to your overall room design. The most commonly used ones are the warm white tones which produce strong, bright light – almost like daylight, enhancing the colours of your walls, furniture and decorations.
You can study the matter in more details here.
Mind the colours and room style
The style of your room will be the biggest decision maker in choosing the type of lighting. Is it traditional, with furniture in warm yellow tones, brown details and a lot of wooden elements? In that case, always choose the general service incandescent bulbs, as their yellowish light will provide the much needed warmth and coziness a traditionally designed room is suppose to emit. The other category is bold, timeless elegance, colours dominating in your rooms, like black, red, grey and white, decorated with a lot of metal elements and simple, minimalist decorations. This style goes perfectly with the stronger option that delivers daylight type of light, like fluorescent bulbs. These colours and metallic details simply don't go with yellow light from incandescent bulbs; they instantly lose their beauty and their point of emitting modern, powerful, kind of cold and yet cozy atmosphere.
As much natural light as possible
There's nothing better than having the sun lightening your rooms from the moment it rises up till it goes down, especially in summer. That's natural lightening at its finest, and if your home is facing the southern side, you should take advantage of it by having one side of your rooms made of glass walls. Glass walls are probably the best thing to happen to modern architecture and design – you can get a massive amount of sun into your rooms. And if you can't have glass walls, aim for bigger windows with a nice decorative frame so you don't need curtains. Get rid of curtains in any case; they're outdated and in the way of sunlight and beautiful views.
