Interior design

Lighting is one of the most important and often under appreciated aspects of internal décor which can make or break all the other elements. It is also extremely important to match the lighting with the mood and the theme of a particular room, which is where we often go wrong. Take a look at the following tips to know how you can avoid common lighting mistakes and make your living room shine.

Three Different Types of Lights

The general rule is that a room as large as the living room requires three different types of lighting, which are categorised as ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. While you can get away with skipping the accent lights (especially when the space is quite small), ambient and task lighting are essential.

Ambient lighting 

This refers to the general lighting in any living room that acts as the primary source of illumination. There are many ways to go about it, but pendant lighting works particularly well for ambient lighting, given how many widely varying options you get with the ceiling fixtures here. There are tube LED lights, pyramids, cubes, birdcages, disco balls, chandeliers, cluster lights, classic round bulbs and so many other options that it is easy to get spoiled for choice, irrespective of the décor you have going on in your living room.

The ambient lights in a living room are responsible for creating the primary atmosphere, so choose carefully and in the right numbers. What this implies is that a particularly large living room may benefit more from multiple smaller pendant lights, than just one big chandelier, while one small chandelier with a mirror on one wall could actually make a small room look bigger than it is.

Task Lighting 

Just as the name suggests, task lighting refers to specialised light sources that serve to aid in a particular function. For example, a reading lamp or a recessed cabinet light meant for lighting up the kitchen counter is known as a task light because it helps the inhabitants of the home in performing certain specific tasks better.

Accent Lighting 

The job of accent lights is to highlight points of interest in the room. If you have ever seen cove lighting or tray ceilings, you know what accent lighting is. Alternatively, you can use sconces to accentuate a photo wall or a piece of art that you proudly own and would like to show off to your guests.

Dimmer Switches are EVERYTHING!

The brightness control which dimmer switches allow are a game changer and until the days come when we can use smart lights everywhere, they are a must for any living room. Not only do dimmer switches allow for perfect ambience control by enabling people to adjust the brightness in accordance with the available natural light, as well as the occasion at hand, they also help in bringing down the power consumption quite a bit over time.

Consider Colour Temperature

It may not look like it at the time of the purchase, but rest assured that unless every lightbulb that you are buying is of the same kelvin colour temperature, the whites and the yellows will differ from each other once you fit them into the fixtures and turn them on. Since a mixture could look quite clumsy, make sure that every bulb you buy has the same rating as the others, especially when dealing with pendant lights.

Making a living room shine isn’t about making it as bright as possible, but more about filling the entire room with just the perfect amount of light which it needs to look bright, inviting and cosy at the same time.

There are many different motivations for completing home improvements and these will range from complete makeovers and projects to simple, cheap things that will make a difference.  Generally when changes are made, this has a positive impact – not only for those living in the house but sometimes for the actual value.

You will find that people will complete some simple interior design work when they are on the path to selling it.  The photographs for selling the home are crucial to get people in the door and the good quality interior can help make a sale go through a lot easier. We have come up with a few things you should consider if looking to improve the interior of your home.

A splash of colour

Once of the most effective way to improve the interior of your home is to give it a lick of paint.  Here you will be able to give the walls a refresh with as much plain or vibrant colours as you choose.  It is becoming more and more common nowadays for people to have painted walls in their home rather than wallpaper.

This then makes it all the easier to have a change. In addition to painted walls, you will find that some people actually follow through with some stencilling on the wall.  This could be a picture or a word. If you do decide to go for the painted walls route then be sure to consider allowing a painter and decorator to do this for you (unless you deem yourself an expert).  Not only can this be messy but it’s generally not an enjoyable task.

Switch up your doors

When shopping around, you want to make sure you get the best priced doors for your home.   You can do this online or at local retailers where checking out the prices from different stores will be an exercise worth pursuing to save a few quid. There are many things you can do with interior door to painting the ones you have to changing them to more modern ones. If you think of places such as bathrooms and kitchens, there are more unique options you could go for which include sliding doors.

Adding some warmth

In the UK it is specifically important to ensure you have a credible heating system.  One of the most common ways to heat the home is via central heating.  Over the years the efficiency of these techniques have improved drastically and with better efficient radiators and boilers there is money to be saved in the long term if you choose the correct package.

In addition to this, the actual radiators in some homes (especially if the home is old) are pretty ugly and do not look appealing. You could consider keeping the current central heating system that you have but renewing the actual radiators.  In the bathroom, a simple change you could make is to change the radiator in there to a towel rack radiator to give a little bit of modern spin to it.

Upgrade your windows

Most modern homes will be fitted with double glazed windows that are as secure and heat efficient as you can imagine however not all homes have this.  By upgrading the windows you have to double glazed ones, not only are you improving the look but you are most likely improving the security of your home and the heat efficiency.

This option is not cheap and depending on the size of your home could set you back a good few thousand pounds. Make sure that if following through with this option you shop around and don’t jump with the first company you make contact with as the range in prices will vary quite significantly.

Refresh your floors

If you have a carpet in certain areas of the home, you may wish to consider changing the carpet so it is something a little more vibrant.  Carpets can sometimes look pretty worn quite quickly depending on how much it is used.

If you have children or pets then you can expect it to only have a specific lifespan.  Carpet laying isn’t too difficult however if you mess this up then you could find yourself to be short of carpet. Where you purchase the carpet, they are more than likely to offer a laying service which is generally not expensive depending on the area.

Another consideration is to actually do away with carpets completely and opt for flooring. You will find that this is a much more common option nowadays and a lot of homes will have this in many or all rooms. A big advantage of going for the flooring options is the maintenance.  These generally have a long lifespan (if they are of good quality) and require very little upkeep.