The Only Room-By-Room Lighting Guide You’ll Need In 2023

Since you’re here reading this, you might wonder why we’re taking you back to the basics in 2023 instead of familiarising you with the lighting trends doing rounds across the globe. The answer is pretty simple. For long, lighting has been treated as an afterthought despite being one of the most important elements of interior design. Many of us fail to understand that no matter how much we splurge on our interiors, all that will go in vain without the right illumination. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in interior design never works. Every room in your living space serves a different purpose, and it is important to install a bespoke lighting layout in each area after careful consideration.

Forget the ambience and the appearance of your home, lighting can have a profound effect on us too. Lighting affects our mental and physical well-being, and it is an essential ingredient of our beautiful abodes. Optimum illumination will lift your spirits, while a dimly lit room can leave you feeling blue. Now that you understand the importance of lighting, you’ll also understand why it is necessary to outfit each part of your home separately. The White Teak Company gives you a simplified breakdown of what kind of lighting each space in your house needs. Whether you’re designing a new home from scratch or planning to give your existing decor a makeover, we assure you that this mindfully curated list will help you just the same. Now sit back and relax and take a look at everything we have for you.

Living Room

Let’s begin with the living room as this is one of the areas where you spend quality time with your family, and it is also the space where you entertain yourself and your guests. Planning the lighting layout of your living room can get slightly tricky because it is a multi-functional space. You’ll need a different intensity of lighting while watching television, a different intensity of lighting during a get-together and a different intensity of lighting when you choose to spend some alone time in the space.

A layered lighting layout is the best choice for your living room as it will enhance not only the ambience of the space but also the functionality quotient. Layered lighting is also a good solution for your living room as you might end up spending long stretches of time in this space and you’ll be able to customise the lighting just the way you want.

Our idea of an ideal living room is quite simple.

1. If you have a decent ceiling height, then do not miss out on a chandelier. A ceiling height of 8 to 10 feet is enough to install a chandelier comfortably in the space.

2. For anything less than that, you can choose to install a small chandelier, or you can go with a ceiling light. Chandeliers can beautifully light up your room and do wonders for your ambience.

3. For a little more focused lighting, consider installing downlights on the perimeter of your ceiling. It will not only create a functional space but also lend symmetry to your living room.

4. For those sombre evenings, you can get a floor lamp to complement your seating arrangements.

5. Although not quite necessary, if your living room still feels empty, you can install a wall light in the space to lend mid-level lighting to your space.

Dining Room

A dining room is considered the heart of the home, and rightly so. This is the space where countless conversations take place and socialisation happens. Being one of the most important spaces of your home, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to light up a dining room. Your dining room may be used by you much more than people actually use it, and it also might be used for many purposes. But for lighting up the space, we’ll stick to the one true function of the dining space. And that only requires your dining table to be adequately lit up.

Whenever you hear the word ‘dining room’ you always visualise something special because so is the importance of this beautiful yet functional space.

1. The one lighting design that can truly complement and resonate with the grandeur of your dining room is a chandelier. A chandelier is a beautiful omnidirectional lighting design that can light up every nook and cranny of your dining table.

2. Our recommendation would be to go with a crystal chandelier as its reflective nature would simply bring the best out of your dining room.

3. Only for the dining room, we will avoid installing any lighting fixture on the floor as it may hamper your movement around the room and it may also make your space look cluttered. However, if you have a corner that can house a floor lamp then definitely go ahead with it as long as it doesn’t block your space.

4. You might not always need the full illumination of the chandelier and that is why we suggest going with a wall light on the wall adjacent to the dining table.

Bedroom

Now this is definitely one of the spaces of your home where you simply can’t go wrong with the lighting. A bedroom is your sanctuary, and this is the place where you begin and end your day. Every lighting design you install in this space has to exude a sense of tranquillity and make this space your soothing respite. Your bedroom has to be properly planned especially if there is more than one occupant as you wouldn’t want to switch off every light in the room just because the other person was sleepy.

1. The best idea is to create a symmetrical or mirrored lighting layout in the space. What that means is that you divide the room into two with the bed as the centre. Whatever you choose to install on one side of the room, do the same with the other.

2. Our bedroom, as you can see, houses two identical pendant lights right above the bed.

3. The bedside table lamps are to accentuate the ambience and the functionality of your bedroom.

4. And for any shortcomings in the illumination, you have the downlights above to compensate for the same.

Kitchen

Undoubtedly the most functional space in your house, your kitchen needs much more attention than the other parts of your home. If you love cooking and love to host guests for lunch or dinner, then you know how important it is to light this beautiful space properly. Where multiple lighting sources are a choice for other parts of the house, they become a necessity in the kitchen. You have to make sure that every nook and cranny of your kitchen is lit up well.

The most important part of the kitchen is the cooking area and this should be your priority at all times. After the cooking area, the kitchen island which is usually the preparation area becomes the priority.

1. In our ideal kitchen, we have three pendant lights placed close to the cooking area and the preparation area. Pendant lights are just wonderful task lighting designs that can lend focused lighting to the desired space.

2. To complement the pendant lights, we recommend going with downlights in the area and also with under-cabinet lighting to complete the layout.

3. If you also have a seating arrangement in the kitchen, and if the space allows, go with a floor lamp.

4. Too much focused lighting can get a little overwhelming when you’re simply whiling your time away in the kitchen and that’s when the floor lamp comes to your rescue.

Home Office/Library

This again is a very functional area of your home and the lighting layout has to be planned carefully. For your home office or library, we’ll stick to adding functional lighting designs. You may choose to install functional lighting designs that double up as ambient lighting fixtures too. Dimmable lighting designs are capable of doing it and they can produce the desired effect in an instant.

1. For our ideal space, we have a chandelier placed right over your seating space. As we mentioned before, there’s absolutely no match for a chandelier as it can give omnidirectional lighting to your home office or your library.

2. If there is something you want to highlight in the space like a cabinet or a bookshelf, then we suggest going with a wall light.

3. Refrain from using very bright lighting next to your books, as it might cause damage to your entire collection. Exposure to bright lighting causes books to age faster than normal.

4. We’ll finish this space with a floor lamp next to your seating space for times when you don’t need an entire chandelier to light up the space. A floor lamp will beautifully cosy up your reading nook too.

Bathroom

Bathrooms are definitely the most ignored parts of our homes. And that is a blatant mistake. When you think about it, bathrooms, just like your bedrooms are your sanctuary too. A bathroom is a very important and personal space and it is essential to keep that in mind when you design the lighting layout of this space. We will take a similar approach as your bedroom here and create a mirrored or symmetrical lighting layout.

1. The idea is simple here and we don’t recommend creating an overwhelmingly bright bathroom.

2. Stick to the basics and just flank the mirrors with wall lights. Wall light are just bright enough for you to carry out your tasks there.

3. If need be, you can also install a pendant light to lend the desired illumination to the space.

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.