Steps to Help You Choose the Right Lighting for Your Home Inside and Out

Lighting is an important part of home decorating and design. Not only is it functional, but it can also help create a mood and add to the beauty of your home décor. Here are some steps to help you choose the right lighting for inside and outside your home.

Step 1: Assess your home’s light needs.

When you walk into your home, what do you notice? Are some rooms dimmer than others? What about outside? Does your house seem dark and foreboding? Are there parts of the home that need general lights, and others that need task lights? Do you need bright outdoor lights for safety or to improve the look of your home at night? What about walkway lights or spotlights? There are so many different lighting options and what you choose will depend on your home’s needs. Determining what purpose each room serves is a good start to deciding on the right lighting for it.

Step 2: Assess how much natural light your space gets.

Each room will have different amounts of natural lighting. Observe each room during different times of the day. Try reading a book in the room or doing something basic with and without the lights on. Consider the location of the windows, and how much sun comes in during the morning and afternoon hours. The location of your windows is an important factor to consider when choosing the right lighting for your home. If you have a lot of natural light coming in, then you might not need as much artificial light. On the other hand, if there are areas of your home that don’t get much natural sunlight then you’ll need to add just the right light fixtures.  

Step 3: Establish a lighting plan.

Before you begin to shop for lights and fixtures, it’s important to establish a lighting plan. A good lighting plan will help guide you through the process of selecting the right fixtures for your home. A well-designed lighting scheme will make rooms appear brighter and more spacious than if they were left dimly lit. It also helps create an atmosphere that is comfortable and inviting for family and friends. You can create a lighting plan for indoors and for outdoors as well.

Step 4: Create a budget for your lighting needs.

Once you know what kinds of lights you want and if you need them only for the nighttime, you can create a budget for your lighting needs. Your lighting plan can help you determine how many lights you need to create a well-lit home inside and out. If you can afford to replace everything all at once, then great! If not, start with the most important areas.

Safety is a big need, so if you’re on a tight budget, consider what you can do without temporarily and prioritize the lights that add safety to the interior or exterior of your house. Having well-lit stairs is probably more important than recessed kitchen lights to start with. If you have more than enough money to spend, make sure that what you are buying is going to achieve what it needs to do for the space and its purpose.

Step 5: Choose lights that go well with your space.

When you’re choosing to light your home, it’s important to make sure that the fixtures you choose will complement the existing fixtures in the room or space. Or that they work with the aesthetic you are trying to create. If you currently have an overhead chandelier in the living room, for instance, and want to replace it with something more modern, you could select a metal that’s not as dated.

Conclusion

Choosing lighting for your home can be overwhelming without a plan. Assessing your home’s needs and then developing a plan and a budget are the best ways to create the best lighting inside and out. Whether you want year-round Christmas lights, lights for safety, or lighting for different tasks inside your home, you can get exactly what you need when you follow these basic steps. You’ll be amazed at the transformation in your home when the spaces are adequately lit for what you do in each of them.