Home Lighting Design Guide

General

• Consider installing motion sensors in spaces where you want the lights to come on automatically when you walk in the room - and off when you leave the room.

• Dimmers give more flexible lighting, but is recommended only for incandescent and halogen lamps. Dimming will make lamps last longer.

• For general illumination, bright reflector ceiling spotlights, tracklights or recessed downlights (with semi-wide beam angles) will project the light down to the floor or work surface where it's most needed, if angled downwards.

Contemporary Home Office design by Las Vegas Interior Designer Knudson Interiors

• For home environments, light quality may be more important than quantity if you value vibrant colours and a warm and natural look to your home.

Traditional Kitchen design by Dc Metro Kitchen And Bath Kleppinger Design Group, Inc

LED light = lower colour accuracy = greyer colours

Traditional Dining Room design by Kansas City Interior Designer McCroskey Interiors

Incandescent light = best colour accuracy = vivid colours

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Living Room

Photo from aftonbladet.se

• A flexible living room has many different types of lamps of different brightness, placed at different levels in the room, which can be turned on or off depending on activity, e.g. socialising, relaxing, reading, watching TV, playing, dining or cleaning.

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se

• Incandescent or halogen incandescent light creates a warm, welcoming and relaxing atmosphere.

• Coloured LED lamps can have decorative effects.

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Kitchen

• Halogen ceiling spotlights or recessed downlights can give a warm and sunny impression and at the same time top quality light for good vision.

Traditional Kitchen design by New York Interior Designer EB Designs

Halogen recessed downlights and under-cabinet lights

• Halogen under-cabinet downlight will often be the best light for seniors who need a bright, crystal clear light with perfect colour rendition in order to see well enough while when preparing food, cooking and cleaning.

• For some, an LED strip might work, though it will give a more a flat light and lower colour rendition. Choose warm-white if you want a less clinical impression.

• Pre-installed fluorescent tubes can be OK when you want a simple utility light - if they are reasonably new and bright - and clean!

Luminaire images from clasohlson.com

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Dining table

• The ideal pendant lamp over the dining table spreads the light downwards, protects eyes from glare, can be adjusted up-down and is connected to a dimmer switch so it can be tuned down for more romantic dinners.

Luminaire from belysningsdesign.se

• If the bulb is well shielded from glare, a clear halogen Eco ligtbulb, e.g. 42 or 53 watt will give a warm and brilliant white light.

• If you can see the bulb, it needs to be frosted, gold- or silver-capped or decorative so as to not be too glaring. If frosted incandescent or halogen lamps are unavailable in your country, use a combination lamp with a halogen mini bulb inside.

• A frosted warm-white 12 or 17 watt LED lightbulb can work if you don't mind the slightly unnatural light colour and lower light quality. But LEDs and CFLs have zero romance factor and the few models that are dimmable tend to turn bluer or greyer when dimmed.

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Bathroom

Contemporary Bathroom design by San Francisco Architect Sutro Architects

• Frosted lamps placed at each side of the mirror give the best illumination without glare.

• Incandescent or halogen lamps have a bright clear light with perfect colour rendition for makeup.

• Good quality LEDs can work but will have poorer colour rendition and take about 100 years before you make your substantial investment back, due to being used for such a short time per day.

• CFLs are the worst possible choice in the bathroom due to a) poorer colour rendition; b) lighting up so slowly that one is likely to be already done by the time they reaches full brightness and c) being designed to be left on for several hours at the time, so their life may be shortened down to a fraction of promised life if turned off after only a minute or two.

• Make sure luminaires (light fixtures) are approved for bathroom use! (Ask in the shop if unsure.)

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se and ikea.com 

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Bedroom

Modern Bedroom design by Other Metro Interior Designer Fowler Interiors

• Ideal lighting for bedrooms is a combination of soft bedside lighting and dimmable ceiling lights which can be tuned up when dressing, cleaning and down before going to bed.

• Frosted or reflector incandescent or halogen eco retrofit lamps will give a warm and romantic, as well as nicely dimmable, light in the bedroom.

• CFLs are not recommended in the bedroom for health reasons due to UV radiation and mercury.

• LEDs will probably not be used for enough hours per year to be worth the investment, only kill romance and relaxation and be too harsh to promote good sleep.

• The most useful bedside reading lamp has a long flexible arm so that you can direct the light to your book without causing glare to yourself or any bedmate.

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se and ikea.com 

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Children's Room

Modern Kids design by Atlanta Interior Designer Cristi Holcombe

• Children's eyes need much less light than adults to see well, so the younger the child, the lower the watts (or lumens).

• Around children, I’d use only incandescent or halogen eco lightbulbs, preferably frosted. If unavailable in your country, try and find a frosted combination lamp with a 20W or 33W mini halogen bulb.

• CFLs contain toxic mercury vapour and should never be used in a household with children (see Health page).

• LEDs may harm children's eyes which are more sensitive to blue light than adult eyes (see Health page).

• Halogen light is better, but clear halogen lamps can get very hot and glaring and should only be used in luminaires designed for children to prevent burns and glare, such as IKEA's series Snöig:

Luminaires from ikea.com

• For younger children, wall-mounted lights can be safer than free-standing.

• Ceiling spotlights with reflector lamps directed down to floor or desk play area is another alternative. Ideally on a dimmer switch so they can be turned up when cleaning and turned down for relaxing or towards bedtime.

Luminaire from belysningsdesign.se

• A ceiling pendulum which is open at the bottom can also be fitted with a medium base reflector lamp such as an R63 or PAR38.

• For children afraid of the dark, an orange LED nightlight may be ok, if the model is unbreakable.

• A non-electric glow-in-the-dark nightlight can help the child fall asleep without glowing all night.

Glo (via Houzz)

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Hallway, Stairs, Corridors

• Besides ceiling spotlights or downlights, wall sconces or wall-washers are often very suitable for hallways, stairs and corridors.

Luminaire images from belysningsdesign.se

• When you need bright light instantly and only for a short time (such as when going up stairs or looking for something in a storage area), halogen or standard incandescent light is recommended.

• LED lamps light up instantly too, but will only be worth the investment if left on for many hours per day.

• Warm-white or coloured LED strips can be used to accentuate stairs.

Photo and DIY tips from lifehacker.com

• CFLs should be avoided for safety reasons, unless left on all day (such as in a public or residential building corridor), as they often take too long to light up.

• Fluorescent tubes in the garage, basement, storage or washing area will not be saving anything unless one spends many hours per day there, e.g. as in a hobby room, only make the area look unnecessarily harsh. Unless you prefer it that way. Fluorescent tubes are in that case more effective than CFLs, and usually very bright if you keep them clean and replace them when they start to flicker, hum or turn dim.

• Be sure to treat burned-out fluorecent tubes with care and take them to a recycling station for hazardous waste as they contain mercury, just like CFLs!

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Home Office or Reading

Contemporary Home Office design by Boston Interior Designer Terrat Elms Interior Design

• Make use of natural daylight from a window if possible, but avoid glare from the sun in eyes or personal computer screen.

• As computer and TV screens are light sources in themselves, less light is needed compared with reading or writing on paper. Only some ambient light to diminish contrast and eye strain.

General Guidelines

Best reading or working light depends on age and task:

• The older you are, the more light, and the higher light quality you need to see well.

• The more detailed the task, the brighter the light needs to be.

Individual Preferences

• Some people need the room very bright and evenly lit to stay alert and focused. Others find bright light stressful and work best if the light is directional and fairly dim.

• Some work best in warm-white light, others prefer white or cool-white light.

Recommendations

• Bright LEDs (10-17 watt) can give a decent work- or reading light with less heat output and a choice between warm or cool light. For those who prefer a daylight-simulating light, white LEDs are naturally cool-white and need no special phosphor mix like CFLs to achieve a daylight look. But colour rendition is always a bit lower than real daylight.

• Some of the newer integrated LED luminaires take advantage of the tiny size of the diodes and either uses just one power-LED diode for a very small lamp head, or has long rows of them side by side to spread the light evenly over a larger area.

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se and ikea.com

• For tasks requiring perfect colour rendition and clear light, e.g. when working with colours or fine details, real daylight, halogen or incandescent light will be the best choice.

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se and ikea.com

• 12V Halogen lamps usually work well both for general lighting and task lighting but can be a bit sharp and may cast small circles of light onto the work area or the book if the arm is too short or the beam angle too narrow.

Luminaires from belysningsdesign.se

• CFLs are not recommended for health and environmental reasons, but if you prefer fluorescent light, covered CFL bulbs (which look similar to standard GLS bulbs) are safer to use close to the body than naked tubes.

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Outdoor Lighting

• If the light is left on all night, LEDs (or even CFLs) can be worth the investment, and save the trouble of replacing them often.

• If only switched-on briefly, standard incandescent lamps light up instantly.

• Outdoor lights should preferably be well shaded or directed downwards to prevent nigh sky light pollution.

• If you have a garden, small solar-powered warm-white or coloured LEDs can create nice effects as well as illuminate paths and driveway.

• Avoid cool-white light outdoors. It only looks strange and adds more to light pollution.

Summary Overview