At The Light Center in Fort Collins, we want every customer who comes to our showroom to find the perfect fixtures for their home. However, when you’re coming up with a new lighting design, you may be focusing on only one aspect, such as your ceiling fixtures or your floor and table lamps. When it comes to lighting, it’s important to find options in all three categories — ambient, accent, and task lighting.
When you understand these three types of lighting, you can create a cohesive design for any room. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at each one and how you can incorporate it into your home.
Ambient Lighting
Ambient lighting refers to the general illumination that you find in your home. The lights on your ceiling, such as a chandelier or a ceiling fan with a light kit, provide ambient lighting for a particular space. This light often begins at the ceiling and shines downward into the room, making it so that people can see as they walk through or enter the room.
Ambient fixtures are designed to illuminate the majority of a room, but they don’t often reach every corner and crevice. Since they create the top “layer” in a room’s lighting plan, there are going to be shadows and dim spots. These areas are taken care of by accent lighting.
Accent Lighting
When it comes to accent fixtures, the possibilities are nearly endless. In the living room, for example, you can place a lamp in the appropriate spot to help brighten an otherwise dark corner. Wall sconces can be installed to illuminate a particular wall or hallway, and their light can be focused upward, downward, or both.
Accent lighting creates the middle layer of illumination in a room, bringing the light down to where you sit or sleep. It makes a room more comfortable and inviting, and should make your house feel more like a home. Everything from the lamps on your end tables to the track lighting in your dining play an important role in the overall design.
Task Lighting
Task lighting pretty much speaks for itself — it’s there to help you accomplish something. If you’re going to be working in the kitchen or reading in the living room, then you need task fixtures. Lights such as table lamps or under cabinet fixtures can help you avoid eye strain as you read or prepare a meal. If you work from home, then your office needs a desk lamp that helps you see as you use the computer or read through paperwork.
Task lights are often smaller and provide more direct illumination. The bulbs tend to be brighter, and as you use them, they complete that bottom layer of your lighting design. Some fixtures, such as table lamps, can function as both accent and task lighting, and it’s essential to have them in the right places throughout your home.
Find Your New Lighting
Now that you know a bit more about the three types of lighting, you can begin looking for new fixtures for your home. If you’re building a new house in the Fort Collins area, then we can help you come up with a design that includes ambient, accent, and task lights in every room. If you’re renovating your home, or you just want to update the lights you currently have, then thinking about each category and the layer it creates can have a profound effect on your design.
Come to the The Light Center today to see what we have to offer. You can also look through our online catalog and build a wish list that you can send to and access in our store. From that list, we can help you choose the perfect lighting for any room.