How To: Effective Lighting

Every room in your house should have something in common; spectacular lighting!  In living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, and kitchens, you should have three types of lighting:General Lighting: This is the general light that highlights the size and use of the room at hand.  Pot-lights, ceiling fixtures or even chandeliers may serve in this purpose.  Always have your general lighting on a dimmer switch so you may control the ambience, then your dining room table can serve as a craft table or to set the stage for a truly romantic evening.Task Lighting: This type of lighting refers to reading lamps, stair marker lights, under-cabinet lighting, and basically anything that will help you see better for performing a particular task.

Accent Lighting:  This is one of the most important but most over-looked types of lighting. Accent Lighting is what makes your space pop.  Forgetting this type of lighting is like leaving the house with-out mascara or eyeliner *gasp*. This is also the best way to get creative; think of a well placed candelabra, hidden up-lighting, cove-ceiling lights, down-lighting in a wall notch-out, even chromatherapy options in your tub.  Directional Ceiling lights that you may use for general lighting can be used in combination as accent lighting by simply positioning the heads towards artwork or other focus points.