5 Common Lighting Mistakes And How You Should Avoid Them

Lighting is unarguably one of the most important elements of interior design. And it is one of the most misunderstood elements too. Lighting can have a profound effect on your decor, and it is essential to pay attention to the tiniest details in this particular domain. A perfectly illuminated space doesn’t come to life in an instant. Countless small decisions come into play when designing the lighting layout of your home. And even the smallest mistakes or misjudgements can take a toll on the aesthetics of your home.

Most of us make very common mistakes when it comes to lighting and end up hampering the aesthetics of our seemingly gorgeous abodes. Lighting isn’t just about installing a couple of fixtures in the space and getting done with it. It takes immense planning and patience to put together a well-lit decor keeping in mind the minute intricacies involved. It isn’t easy to achieve a lighting layout that is aesthetically pleasing and functional in equal measure.

Every little decision you make to jazz up your living space might be in vain if you don’t let lighting work its magic in your space. Just like every other element in designing, lighting should have a pre-determined purpose, or you could simply make a hash of things. The White Teak Company is here with a list of common mistakes that could potentially harm your decor and their remedies so that you can create a harmonious and cosy living space. This is the only cheat sheet you’ll need to design your new home or give your existing decor a gorgeous makeover with lighting and avoid all the blunders you can make with lighting.

Mistake #1: Installing A Wrong-sized Lighting Design

Not very long ago, the concept of statement lighting took over the design space by storm, and because people haven’t understood it well enough, it has led to many flawed decisions. Yes, statement lighting is intended to make a bold statement in your space. And yes, oversized lighting fixtures can be perfect statement lighting designs. But that doesn’t mean you can simply get an oversized lighting design for your decor. This is a very common mistake people make. Wrong-sized lighting designs can completely ruin the ambience of your space, and their glare can become overwhelming and uncomfortable in many ways.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

People mostly rely on their eyes to measure a space, and that’s where half of the blunders can be made. Before finalising and purchasing a lighting design for your space, it would be better if you could measure your entire space. This way you can avoid buying lighting designs that are completely out of proportion. The best way to see if a lighting design is perfect for your space is to make sure the diameter of your fitting is around 10% of the overall diameter of the room.

Mistake #2: Installing Just One Lighting Fixture In The Space

This is again a big misconception whose roots lie in the concept of statement lighting. Statement lighting can become a gorgeous focal point in your space and turn the ambience visually rich too. But you need other lighting fixtures to complement and complete your lighting layout. Statement lighting designs are mostly your standard overhead lighting designs including chandeliers, ceiling lights and pendant lights. These lighting designs add glamour to your space but at the same time, your decor looks one-dimensional. You do need to make your decor look good but you need to ensure that your space is functional enough to carry out simple everyday tasks.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

For this, we need to stick to the basic concept of layered lighting. Layered lighting involves balancing the three kinds of lighting - ambient, task and accent. Ambient lighting is the general lighting in the space, task lighting is much more practical lighting for a specific purpose and accent lighting is used to highlight certain features in your space. You can never go wrong with layered lighting in your living space. And the real reason why it works is because you need to incorporate multiple light sources to achieve the desired effect. For example, if you have a chandelier in the space, you can lend mid-level lighting to the area by installing a wall light or a floor lamp or both depending on the space available. You can also choose to install a table lamp to add a soft glow to the space.

Mistake #3: Overusing Architectural Lighting Fixtures

Architectural lighting designs have now become quite popular and mainstream too. This segment of lighting was earlier seen in commercial projects alone. But due to its versatility and higher functionality quotient, architectural lighting has become a common sight in households too. Now, one common mistake people make is that they end up overusing architectural lights in their decor. There are cases where people only install architectural lighting designs and completely avoid the use of any other kinds of lighting sources. The most common lighting design that is overused is a downlight. People get carried away and end up saturating their ceilings with downlights and that just kills your ambience. Not only do these downlights look unsightly and harsh but they can unnaturally heat up your space too. Downlights produce more heat than your conventional LED lighting sources and that can be a big issue when you use a lot of them in your space.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

Downlights or similar architectural lighting designs look good in your space if you have a false ceiling. And the spacing between the downlights can make or break your ambience. The key is to avoid creating shadows in the space. As a rule of thumb, divide the ceiling height by two and that should give you the right distance to space your downlights. For example, if your ceiling height is 7 feet then consider placing your downlights 3.5 feet apart.

Mistake #4: Using The Wrong Colour Temperature

Colour temperature can make a significant difference in your decor. If you’re not familiar with the concept, allow us to explain. For households, the recommended colour temperature lies between 2000K to 5000K. Whenever the temperature is below 3000K, the lighting is referred to as warm. A temperature around 3500K is referred to as neutral, while anything above 4000K is referred to as cool. Warm lighting, as it suggests, can exude a yellowish shade to your living space, while cool lighting lends a light bluish tint to your decor. Warm lighting is usually considered to create a relaxed atmosphere while cool lighting creates a much more focused environment. The common mistake people make is mixing up the two. For example, you can definitely not place warm lighting fixtures in your kitchen as it needs focused and bright lighting for every task you carry out there. And similarly, your lounge area can’t have really bright lighting as it will not cosy up the place the way you want it to be. In the end, it all comes down to your preference, but make sure you don’t mix up the two.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

Before installing a lighting design, make sure you test the space with smaller samples. You can temporarily use warm or cool bulbs to see how your space reacts to both and then make your decision. You need to understand that it's not just your mood that colour temperature affects, but even the smaller elements like the fabric of your furnishing, the paint colour of the room or other decorative elements in the space that may react differently to warmer and cooler lighting.

Mistake #5: No Dimmers Or Dimmable Lighting In The Lighting Layout

Dimmable lighting designs are very common now and it definitely is not a thing you may not have heard of. Dimmable lighting can do wonders for your space if used correctly. Why dimmable lighting is necessary for your space not just because of its versatility but also its functionality.

There are only a few times when you need your entire space lit up and we will assume that it only happens for a special reason. But what happens when you don’t really need the fully illuminated space? You simply switch off a part of the lighting and make do with whatever is the least bright of them all. This is a very common mistake most homeowners make. Dimmable lighting comes to your rescue here as it can beautifully personalise your space just the way you like.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

You can simply avoid this mistake by choosing lighting designs with dimmers or you can choose to buy dimmer devices for your existing lighting layout. Be it a bright and loud get-together when you need everything lit up or be it a quiet and sombre evening you choose to spend in solitude, dimmable lighting can complement them both.

Head on to our homepage to feast your eyes on some of the finest luxury lighting designs you’ve ever laid your eyes on. Also, keep an eye out on this space for more such tips and tricks to transform your beautiful abodes.