Light up your home anew this Christmas

Beyond just buying Christmas lights this festive season, you could go an extra mile and change the light fixtures around the home for a fresh feel. Consider replacing the old light fixtures with trendy, modern ones. You could go beyond just functionality and include ideas for aesthetics, decoration, artistry and ambiance. By so doing, you may just light up the festive season for the entire family.

Types of lighting

A good place to start would be to understand the difference types of lighting before deciding which types go where. Interior designers agree that there are mainly three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent lighting.

Ambient lighting

Ambient lighting is what most homes have. It is another term for general lighting, which is the main source of illumination for the room. Picture a bulb hanging down the ceiling, in the middle of the room.

Types of ambient lights include general purpose pot bulbs, chandeliers, track lights, recessed ceiling lights, wall-mounted lights, and down lights.

Task lighting

To instantly understand task lighting, picture the light that comes on when you open the fridge. That is a task light. Task lighting is meant to make particular tasks easier to do around the home. It’s the opposite of ambient lighting.

Examples of task lighting includes table lamps, cabinet lights, pendant lights, vanity lights or mirror lights, etc. 

Accent lighting

Accent lighting is decorative in nature. It is for drawing attention. You have a special family picture or painting you want accentuated? Accent lighting helps with that. These particular lights are meant to create drama around particular aspects of ones interior designs. A common example is the outline lighting in gypsum ceilings.

Some examples of accent lighting are, candle light, direct track lights, wall sconces, floodlights, tree floor lamps, recessed strip lights, etc.

Living room

The living room is the public relations manager of the home. This is where opinions of your home are crafted. A good place to start is a chandelier. Because they tend to be ornamental and pleasing to the eye.

Tree floor lamps are also great ideas for the living room.  These are tall lamps that provide soft light within a room, for times when you don’t want harsh overhead lights.

Get pendant lights for the living room to accentuate the floor design or your carpet game. They are low hanging fruit in home décor. Literally. If you have a kitchen island, try to accentuate that with pendant lights.

Wall lights are unbeatable when it comes to making a living room warm. They are also perfect for low ceilings that would not support a chandelier. They complement the main light in the centre of the ceiling but if you want a mellower ambience, turning them on minus the ceiling light should do wonders.

Bedroom

Because this place is for sleeping, having just the ceiling light is counter intuitive. Soft, upward facing floor lamps are more welcome. This ensures that when you are sleeping, turning on the lights won’t give you a rude awakening. And if you don’t have space to accommodate a floor lamp, wall sconce lights are a great alternative. Table lamps in the bedroom means that you dowwn’t have to light up the whole room just to find your way to the bathroom. It also means you won’t have to wallow in the dark looking for the light switch.

Bathroom

While old bathrooms are places where you rush in to clean up before living the house, modern bathrooms are places where you can relax and unwind. For that, the right lighting is needed to make it an enjoyable experience. Over and above the ceiling light, think of adding some vanity lights. Having wall mounted lamps on both sides of the mirror should simplify shaving or make up.  They can be complemented by mirror lights.

Kitchen

Other than ambient and natural light that makes cutting onions safer, there are other lights that can make the kitchen even safer. Include some cabinet lighting to help you find crockery faster, just like the fridge light does. Pendant lighting should be able to transform your kitchen island into a place where bread can taste the way it used to when you were growing up.

Shopping

There are great places to shop for modern home lighting fixtures in Kampala and other major city of Uganda. Window shopping should yield some results. Sometimes In Kampala, Nakasero Market and the adjacent Kiyembe Lane are replete with hops to check out. Some of the bigger companies include Chint, Tronic, Lighting City, Noor Lampshades, etc.