Lighting serves many functions in our home from helping us to see better while doing certain tasks to creating different moods. Where you place lighting in your home can have a big impact. Here are 10 tips on where to position lighting in your home. 

Use warm lighting in rooms where you want a relaxing atmosphere

Lighting can be classified as either warm or cool. Warm lighting has a color temperature 2700°K and 3500°K, which gives it a more yellowy, orangey or reddish tint. Such lighting may not be bright enough to use as task lighting, but is great for creating a cozy and relaxing atmosphere (it creates the same glow as an evening sky). It’s ideal bedroom lighting, and also suitable for living rooms where you want to create a soothing atmosphere. 

Use cool lighting in rooms where you want to energize people

Cool lighting has a color temperature of 3500°K to 6000°K, which gives it a whiter or bluer appearance. This lighting is ideal task lighting when you want to see what you’re doing clearly (i.e. in the kitchen to help with food preparation or in the bathroom to help with shaving). Cool lighting can also energize a room and the people within it. It may help encourage conversation in a dining room. In a living room where you’re typically entertaining guests rather than relaxing alone, cool lighting may also be better suited than warm lighting. 

Add a floor lamp behind a corner TV

Floor lamps are ideal for brightening up corners of rooms. They’re sometimes placed beside sofas for helping with tasks like reading or knitting. They can also be placed next to desks to provide focus lighting. However, a place where they can have a surprisingly beneficial purpose is behind a TV in the corner of the room. Such lighting can improve image quality, reduce glare on the screen, and importantly reduce eye strain. You can shop for floor lamps at various online stores such as this Sunmory home decor site. Backlighting on wall-mounted TVs can have a similar impact. 

Hang overhead lighting 30 to 36 inches above a dining table

Hanging lighting above a dining table can help people to see their food more clearly and can even make dishes look more appetizing. However, you need to be careful as to how low you hang lighting - get the height wrong and the light may get in people's faces or shadows may be cast on people’s faces instead. Just what is the perfect height? It depends on the height of your ceiling and the size of your table. But in an average 8 ft high room with an average 30 inch high dining table, it’s best to aim for a height of 30 to 36 inches above the table. 

Use wall sconces in your bedroom for reading

Many of us use table lamps beside our bed. These are fine for general lighting, but don’t make great task lighting for reading unless you’re willing to lie on your side with the book close to the lamp. If you want to sit up and read your book in bed, and you don’t want to strain your eyes, it’s better to install sconce lighting directly on the wall above your bed. This provides focused lighting from above straight onto the pages of your book. 

Add a desk lamp to your home office

Work from home at a desk? If you’re working early in the morning/late in the evening or it’s a gloomy day, it could benefit you to add a lamp on your desk. A lamp can provide focused lighting for preventing eye strain. Some lighting experts suggest placing a lamp on the side of your desk opposite to your dominant hand (so if you’re right handed, place the lamp on the left hand side of your desk). This gives you elbow room when using a mouse. Check out this post at Tom’s Guide to compare some of the best desk lamps. 

Place lighting around a mirror, not above

How you look in a mirror is greatly affected by where the light is in the room. If lighting is shining down from above, it can often create unflattering shadows on your face which can enhance wrinkles. Placing lighting behind or around your mirror helps light up your face more evenly. This can provide better quality lighting for tasks like shaving, applying make-up, brushing teeth or applying contact lenses. Backlit mirrors and Hollywood mirrors are some of the best options. Alternatively, you can install wall lighting either side of a mirror. 

Install lighting under kitchen cabinets

Countertops under kitchen cabinets can sometimes get quite shadowy, which can provide inefficient light for tasks like cutting vegetables or measuring ingredients. Passionate home chefs could benefit greatly from installing lights below kitchen cabinets to light up each worktop. These could be wired in or battery operated. 

Practice safety when using candles

Candles are a form of warm lighting that can create a rustic intimate atmosphere (as well as introducing scents to rooms). Of course, you need to be very careful where you place candles. In the US, over 5000 home fires are caused each year by candles. Keeping an eye on candles and putting them out when leaving a room/going to bed will typically prevent a fire occurring, however you can also reduce the risk of a fire by avoiding placing candles in the following locations:

• Under shelves
• Next to paper items
• Close to or behind curtains
• Near flammable liquids
• On unstable surfaces (such as a wonky coffee table)

Don’t forget exterior lighting

Lighting shouldn’t just be for the inside of your home. There are many reasons to install lighting outside of your home too. There are many places in your backyard where you may want to place lighting, allowing you to sit out in the evenings. Lighting above your front door can meanwhile help you to find your key and unlock your door easier, plus it can help to deter burglars (most burglars prefer to target homes with no exterior lighting so that they’re less likely to be seen). Motion-sensing lighting can help save power by only turning on when people are around. Alternatively, you can use solar lighting.