How to Choose The Best Ceiling Lights For Your Home 2020

June 16, 2020 jake ovenden 0 Comment

The first step in interior design and decorating your home is lighting. The lighting can impact the brightness of the room, the comfort, and depending on the CRI of the bulb, the colors within the room.  The recent trend in generic dome lights for indoor ceilings maybe not be the most suitable fixture for your home. With the wide variety on offer, you can try rustic farmhouse designs, pendants, vintage, or simplistic brutalist designs! The point is the options are there and depending on the room and size of it we can help guide you towards your best choice! 

Choosing The Right Size Light

Interior designers and lighting experts have various formulas and ways to determine the ceiling light fixture in a room. It's important to note that these calculations are for more dramatic and striking ceiling lighting fixtures. Chandeliers, pendants, flush mounts, etc. So let’s take a look at these general rules of thumb:

The diameter of A light Fixture

Within an empty room say a living room, for example, you will need to measure the length and width of the room first:

Example: Length= 12 feet Width=15 feet

Length + Width= 12+15= 27 feet

Swap the feet value for inches: so 27 feet= 27 inches

The idea diameter for the light in this room will be close to 27 inches wide

Height of a light fixture:

Measure the height of the room (floor to ceiling): 11 feet high

Then multiply the height by 2.5 or 3 = So a height range of 27.5- 33 feet

Swap this value to inches: 27.5-30 feet= 27.5-30 inches

27.5-30 inches is the height range for a lighting fixture in this size room

These are general formulas used by interior designers and lighting experts who want to create specific lighting moods and ambiance. So using these formulas will give you a pretty good idea of the type of fixture your room will need.

What Type of Lights Should You Use?

The type of lighting fixture you choose depends on the room and the function you need from the light. There are three types of lighting; accent, ambient, and task. Different rooms in the home have different requirements for each type of lighting. A kitchen may require a mixture of accent task and ambient lighting however the ratio for task lighting may be higher in a kitchen in comparison to a bedroom. A bedroom will just require ambient or accent lighting.

The best way to achieve the most optimal lighting within a room is to mix the three types of lighting and arrange the ratio to fit your needs.

Types of Ceiling lights

Ambient Lighting

Chandeliers bring a classic touch to the room. Chandeliers have various shapes and types now due to the rise in art décor and modernism. You can have candle-shaped, drum-shaped, crystals even geometric. Meaning the bulbs used inside each different type of chandelier may be different too. Some may need LED candelabra bulbs and some may need regular-shaped LED bulbs, depending on their design. Decorative ambient lights are great for living rooms, dining rooms or entryways.

Flush mounts: For Flush mounts, there are two types, flush and semi-flush mounts.

Flush-mount: Minimalistic in their appearance and sit flat on your ceiling. Mainly used in hallways and for rooms with lower ceilings as they’re not a long ow hanging fixture.

Semi-Flush Mount: They have a short down rod that extends them from the ceiling and is decorative without hanging too low. These are more simplistic smaller replacements for chandeliers and can be used in various rooms around the home. They provide wide coverage and like regular flush, mounts are for rooms with lower ceilings.

Recessed Lights

Retrofit LEDs are a great way to add energy-efficient light to your room with minimal interruption. As they’re inserted into the ceiling, they produce light while being unnoticeable. They’re fantastic indoor home lighting options. 

With recessed lighting again there are many options available. However, for this blog, the most common types will be listed.

Adjustable recessed LED lights: These are one of the most practical lights you can buy especially for ceiling lighting. They’re undetectable but bright and provide warm yellow light for your room.  For accent lighting, these are one of the best options.

Open Trim LED Recessed lights: Open trim look like a baffle, another type of recessed light but they don’t have a ribbed interior. Without the ribbed interior, they provide brighter light for larger areas.

Wall-Washer: Wall-washer recessed lights are a versatile accent lighting option as they’re adjustable. The half shield they have can cause the light to produce a beam on the left or right side of the light. Leading to better shadows and accent lighting.

Task lighting

Pendants: Pendants work similarly to chandeliers; however, they usually hang much lower. They provide bright directional light that helps in the kitchen, office, or dining room. Getting a good-looking pendant light will really separate your home from others.

Accent lighting: With accent lighting again, there are various options. Track lighting is the most common way of accent lighting a home or room especially. These also come in varieties but standard adjustable track lights seem to be the most common. This is because they offer bright practical lighting.

What is the Correct Bulb?

Depending on the lighting you are trying to achieve will determine the bulb you need. First of all, LED bulbs appear to be the most cost-effective purchase to make long-term. Due to the fact they’re brighter and use far less energy. Saving you money on your electrical costs.

SANSI 13W LED bulbs

These bulbs come in both 3000K & 5000K. Making them bright and applicable for all over the home. What are the advantages of this light?

This light brings with it energy and cost-saving benefits as well as a super-bright beam.  These are 100W equivalent but come in a very small size. One of the smallest 100Watt equivalent bulbs. They output 1600lumens at 3000k or 5000K, meaning they can be used in any room around the home. With their small size and bright beam, they can be installed into hanging pendants, lampshades, and any room around the home. Used in combination they can aesthetically light any room around your home and make it comfortable while saving you money!