Tag Archives: Lights

5 Aesthetic Lighting Techniques

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Lighting your home interiors should be approached as an artistic endeavor. The way you use light shifts the ambience, affecting your mood and how you experience your domestic spaces. Employing light as an element of decor is as sophisticated as it is simple.

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Whether electric, USB, or solar, lighting in the home should impart feelings of nurture, comfort, and the intimacy of personal space. Even the kitchen needs to feel cozy, while you’re in there slicing and dicing.

For all the areas of the home we’re going to discuss, lighting is about function as much as it’s about form. The function needs to be calibrated to its purpose, while illuminating the action in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Let’s discuss 5 aesthetic lighting techniques that impart both ambience and luminous functionality.

Technique #1: Layered Lighting for your Home’s Warm Heart

Overhead light in the kitchen is the default because it’s where we prepare food. You’re cooking, so you need to see what you’re doing but you’re also unwinding from your busy day in the sanctuary of your home.

While overhead lighting lets you see clearly, it can be oppressive and intense. Our first aesthetic lighting technique solves the problem by positioning light where it’s most needed—over the countertops, hidden under the cabinets.

Layer lighting in your kitchen with overhead, recessed lights. Positioned intelligently, these provide lighting which is both unobtrusive and miles more functional, focusing on the action.

Over the dining table, a low-slung chandelier creates warmth and intimacy, while lighting your evening or early morning meal. The idea is to deploy light for specific purposes that serve function while creating the soothing mood that makes your home’s warm heart even warmer.

Technique #2: Purposeful Lighting for your Home’s Hub

The living room is where most people spend the bulk of their time at home, hosting friends and family, relaxing with a book or movie or just hanging out. A lot goes on in living rooms, so your lighting needs to acknowledge that multi-functional intent.

The living room is the repository of beloved decor like paintings, often elevated to the status of heirlooms with fine art framing. Accent lighting showcases your treasures attractively. As in the kitchen, recessed lighting illuminates without breaking the mood. The light deployed has a specific purpose: to give pride of place to that heirloom painting or your collection of handcrafted swords.

Strategically placed task lighting provides illumination you can read by. With a standing lamp or a minimalist table lamp fulfilling a specific purpose, the mood of the room is enhanced, honoring function while maintaining the calm aesthetic you desire.

For entertaining, wall grazers add drama, highlighting architectural elements and revealing beautiful textures on walls, floors and even your furniture. Grazers tell an aesthetic story about the space itself, bringing it to life.

Technique #3: The Transforming Bathroom

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In the morning, it’s “go time.” You’re transitioning from sleep to the busy day ahead, so you need lighting that’s energizing but gentle. Choose lighting that’s diffused and more closely resembles daylight.

Wall sconces on either side of the mirror with a third sconce positioned over the bathroom mirror create this effect, especially when positioned close to the mirror. Another solution is a mirror equipped with LED lighting, casting an even, diffused light.

But because the bathroom is also the site of relaxing evening baths, a dimmer switch is in order. The daylight illumination of your busy mornings can be readily transformed with a dimmer, creating two moods that align seamlessly with your lifestyle.

Technique #4: The Intimate Bedroom

Ambient lighting that imparts a soothing environment is ideal for the home’s most intimate space. While you need to see while dressing and perhaps to read before bed, the bedroom is a sanctified space, demanding a unique lighting approach.

Those who read before bed will appreciate the presence of task lighting for that purpose. This is best achieved with small, wall-mounted fixtures or pendant lights that leave the bedside table clear for a stack of books.

The ambience of your bedroom is enhanced with moody lighting that provides illumination without bringing daytime intensity into your sacred sleeping space. Light which is soft and adjustable may be provided by a statement standing lamp, or an overhead fixture that emits a calming, low light. The primary goal of bedroom lighting is keyed to its purpose, which is sleep and, of course, intimacy.

Technique #5: The Right Bulb

Once you’ve selected your aesthetic lighting schemes, choosing the right bulb for the light fixture and its purpose is your next task. With ecologically-sound solutions readily available and bulbs for all purposes, the bulb is the finishing touch, providing exactly the right intensity and mood.

Thinking of lighting as an element of decor pushes your interiors to the next level, recreating them as functional oases of domestic beauty and bliss.

Author Bio:

Carolyn Mitchell is a freelance writer and content strategist with a passion for home décor. She can often be found re-painting and updating the furnishings in her home, and she is also a dedicated cat mom to two adorable kitties.

Thanksgiving Day Pumpkin Lights

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Who said pumpkins can only be used for Thanksgiving? I founds these and thought how great it would be to have several lining a pathway to your home, have one or two snuggled into a garden or to have one or two in your home. Remember, you don’t have to use candles – there are many battery operated options to use now. You prepare the pumpkin the same way you do for a pumpkin you are going to carve. Use various drill bits to crate patterns like seen above or use a sharpie marker to draw your own. Two tips I will give: 1:take a large cup and turn it so the drill bit goes through it and covers a portion of your drill and 2: use the lowest speed on your drill. Best to use an old drill for this and use lots of caution. They are really cute and unexpected and guests will love them.

Summer ‘Christmas’ Tree

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So it’s not Christmas of course. But who would of thought to use your Christmas tree during the summer. Here the designer used white lights, sunflowers, yellow bulbs and champagne colored ribbons to make garland and little bows. Heck, if you have have the room you should just go for it. The skirt is made from potato sack material and a cinch bag was placed besides the tree to give it a finished appearance.

Simple Ways To Fight The Summer Heat At Home

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The summer heat seems unbeatable. It’s like you’re always sweating, no matter what you do. Taking three showers a day doesn’t help, and neither does sleeping without covers at night. Not all of us are lucky enough to fight the summer heat from a tropical location, so we have to resort to at-home cooling methods. Spending the summer at home doesn’t have to melt you like a popsicle, though. With these simple methods, you’ll chill in your apartment in both senses of the word.

1. Switch the lights

Traditional light bulbs tend to warm up the place and increase your electric bill. By switching to LED or fluorescent lights, you’ll be saving energy as well as cooling the place down. LED lights don’t emit the warm yellow light that traditional lights do.

The price of a LED light bulb might be more expensive, but it lasts a lot longer and saves you money on the electric bill, so it’s definitely worth it.

2. Maintain your AC unit

Air conditioning might be a saviour in the summer, but it won’t be able to do its job properly if you don’t maintain it regularly. At the beginning of each season, you should call in a professional who will check the unit for you.

It might cost you some money, but it will be worth it. You’ll know your AC is running the way it’s supposed to and will be able to enjoy the summer in peace. It’s much cheaper than paying to fix or replace the whole unit, anyway.

3. Use ceiling fans

According to some experts, ceiling fans don’t really lower temperature that much. Still, the do kick start and maintain air circulation. This can make living at home in the summer a lot simpler. One of the biggest problems is that air seems to stay still most of the time. You can’t open the windows up to air the place out, because the air outside is just as stale. You’ll even end up introducing more heat into the room.

That’s why you should turn on your ceiling fans counterclockwise. Do this especially when there are more people in the room. When you leave the room, you can turn them off because they won’t have much effect. Still, when there are people actively living and breathing in a closed environment, ceiling fans make things much more comfortable.

4. Shade it up

The sun is the main culprit when it comes to heat in the apartment, obviously. Even though natural light is a plus in any home, it’s a huge minus in the hot summer days. The temperature inside is even higher when the rays of the sun are constantly hitting your home. The best way to solve this is to introduce some shade into the room. Without the sun basically paying half the rent, it’s going to be much cooler.

You should invest in a quality shade solution so that you’ll beat the heat for years to come, not just this year. As one of the nations who fight the worst summer heats, Australians would definitely back this claim up. Dealing with extreme heat levels all these years has made them experts in finding the right solution, too. It’s no wonder then, that local experts like Shade Solutions in QLD so popular and loved. By opting for a trusted company with a good reputation in your area, you’re ensuring that your shades do the job they were made for and significantly lower the temperatures in your home.

5. Limit appliance usage

No matter how much you love them, your appliances tend to warm up your home significantly during the summer. Because of the higher temperatures outside, they too tend to get hotter when they’re running all the time. You probably notice this by the heat of your phone when you use it for a prolonged period of time.

To lower the temperatures inside, you should limit your appliance usage. When you’re not using your laptop, if you know you’re not going to watch TV for a long time, and if you don’t need half the kitchen appliances you used in the morning- turn them off. This means completely off. When they’re not plugged in, they’ll cool off and unclog the hot atmosphere. A bonus is that you’ll be prolonging their lifespan and taking better care of them.

Conclusion

No longer will you have to be envious of those who are lucky enough to fight the heat of the summer in a remote location with the sea or ocean by their side. Staying at home won’t be unbearable and you’ll love spending your summers in the comfiest environment. These simple tips will come a long way in the increasing heat. They won’t let you down regardless of how high the temperature gets.

Liam Smith is a young and aspiring Australian blogger with a passion for everything related to home, design and lifestyle. He has a B.Sc. in Interior design and is an avid reader.

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Ways to Make Your Front Yard More Social

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When thinking about exterior renovations, most people think about introducing changes to their backyard and spicing it up a bit. While this makes a lot of sense in the long run – after all, the backyard is where most of us hang out with our friends and spend quality time with our families – it’s still not the only exterior space that needs your attention. The front yard could use some love and care as well, and that’s something people rarely do in this day and age. So, instead of focusing on your backyard only, you could find ways to make the space in front of your home more special and inviting as well, and here are some of the best ways to do that.

Do Some Regular Maintenance

Before you can use your front yard and invite people to visit you, make sure your front yard is in the best shape possible. Luckily, these things are easy to handle, and it’s all about mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, cleaning the trash, and decluttering the entire area from time to time.

What’s great about these things is that you don’t have to do them every single day, but you will need to dedicate your time and patience to them at least once a week. So, figure out what needs to be done, create a mowing schedule for the entire year, find time in your daily agenda, and start handling these things one by one.

Extend Your Patio

Most of us already have a patio in front of our houses, but the problem is that we don’t make the most of it at all. Instead of actually spending time here, we just use the patio as a welcoming area for all our visitors and guests, but that’s just not enough if you want to turn your front yard into your primary outdoor area for socialization.

What you can do, though, is extend your patio into the yard, and basically turn it into a continual space that will connect your home to your front lawn. It goes without saying that you need to maintain it first and make it ready for hanging out there, but you should also think about a pathway. If you choose to do that, use the same material as for your patio – whether it’s concrete, stone, bricks, or tile, using the same material is always better and easier than looking for another solution.

Build a Deck

This is probably the best and most effective way to introduce a massive change into your home and your front yard as well – building a deck is ultimately what’s going to turn the space in front of your home into a space where you can socialize with your friends and family. This deck doesn’t have to be too big, of course, but it needs to be stable, durable, and actually useful.

Even though building a deck on your own sounds like the most creative way to spend your weekend, it still isn’t the best idea in the world, especially if you have no skills, tools, ideas, and previous experience. That’s why hiring a professional who can build you a great deck is the way to go – not only is your deck going to be visually appealing, but it will also blend into your exterior style rather seamlessly. So, take this idea into consideration, and you’ll be able to throw parties on your deck sooner than you’ve thought.

Be Creative with the Lights

Spending time in the open usually means hanging out with your friends all day long, but that doesn’t mean your get-togethers need to stop. On the contrary, nobody can stop you from staying there until morning, if that’s something you love, but you will need to take care of your exterior lighting first.

Whether you have a deck, a patio, or a porch, there are a few easy solutions you can look into – for instance, you can add as many candles as you can, light them, and you’ll create an amazing atmosphere in a matter of minutes. This will create a great vibe for you and your friends, and that’s something you can’t put a price on. You can also invest in a great walkway, and thus take the look of your outdoor space to a whole new level. From solar lamps and string lights to lanterns and accent lights, there are lots of ideas you can choose from, so don’t be afraid to turn the ones you like the most into reality.

 

Spicing up your front yard isn’t as difficult and challenging as most people think, and it’s all about giving it the love and attention it deserves – in the end, if you do everything right, you can spend hours and hours there whenever you want, socializing with all the people you love.