Interior Lighting » Living Room

Interior Design – Picking a Color Palette For Rooms in Your Home

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:34:35 +0000

This is an interior decorating project you can do. Your color palette is what makes the rooms in your home come together. Well designed homes always have a beautiful color palette that flows between rooms from the entrance to the living room, family room, kitchen, powder room, stairway, etc. This flow is the relationship created from one room to another. A color palette is not the same as a paint color. The palette incorporates various paint and room colors. Not every room needs to be the same color or shade thereof though they do need to relate to one another. Good interior design begins with a well thought out color palette.

Start with the colors you already like. What do you gravitate to? What colors are in your closet? What colors are in your garden? Think about how certain colors make you feel this will send you in the right direction. Be confident and don’t apologize. Your room and home colors should reflect you and your personality, not your neighborhood design trend.

Maybe there is a particular color or combination of colors you like. Look at a paint deck or around your house and note all the different colors of these favorites that appeal to you. Now you have a starting point to which you can add other colors.

Study your environment. Do you live in the woods with windows that look on to the many different shades of green leaves or a fifth floor condo with the view of the urban building landscape? Determine how important your view is and if you want to make it part of your interior space. This can give you a clue to selecting colors. If the view is important to you consider your window as blocks of existing color you need to coordinate with.

Consider adjoining rooms or areas you can see from the room you are working on. In most cases, you need to make a visually coordinated connection with any adjoining space. Pull aside any existing furniture items, artwork, area rugs that you are not changing as these may give you a color clues for a particular room. Artwork and area rugs are great places to create a color palate from because it is already there.

Tools to create your color palette:

o Determine what colors you like
o Colors from environment
o Adjoining rooms
o Existing furnishings

Your interior color palette is the coordination of the colors you like. How you coordinate the colors is important. The following example is how a favorite color of combination is royal blue and light grass green work in a home.

The rooms on each side of the living room are open to or visible from it. Guests would enter the great room first and then go left or right to the other rooms. In this example the public rooms on the main floor are (from left to right) a kitchen, dining room, great room, and TV room. As we start in the kitchen all of the cabinets are royal blue with a neutral countertop. There is a multi-color tile backsplash above the stove (lime green, lavender, orange, yellow, pink, blue/green and royal blue). The kitchen which is open to the dining room share the same white walls (in different materials) and ceiling. The same neutral light bamboo floor flows from these areas flows into the great room. The blue glass light fixture in the dining room is the only dominant fixed color. With white walls and ceiling, light green is the dominant color in the great room furniture with major accents of royal blue followed by other colors (pink, orange, lavender and shades of blues and greens). On the right, the TV room is primarily a neutral color (same on walls, ceiling, floor and furniture) with the next largest color being a vivid pink with small amounts of lime green. These colors appear on back cushions and pillows on the sofa, one chair and in the artwork.

From this example you can understand how colors flow and relate from one room to another. The colors aren’t the same in each room but they come from one palette: royal blue and light grass green. Green is the one color in different shades and intensities which appears in each room. Though it doesn’t appear in fixed form in the dining room it appears in various table linens, dinnerware and accessories.

Our homes are about relationships, the relationships of the inhabitants, the room functions and the visual relationships that create warmth and comfort to all those who enter. The d

Flex Track Lighting and the Key to Domestic Tranquility

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:42:09 +0000

Through a little bit of luck and a long love of art we decided to invest in some art work just before the market took it’s nose dive. We were on an Alaskan cruise and not only got a good deal on the pictures but got some ideas on how to display them. The auctioneer had installed track lighting in both the area where the pictures were sold and in the onboard gallery. When the lights were adjusted to focus on the pictures we were interested in you could see what a difference the right lighting had on each picture.

FedEx delivered our pictures and when we took them out of the box my wife declared they were not the ones we purchased. The brilliant colors had somehow faded from what she remembered on the ship to what was now in front of her in our living room. Not having flex track lighting in our home I had to make do and direct one of my photography lights on the pictures. She immediately noticed the difference and moved flex track lighting to the top of her “honey do” list.

We do not have an electrical outlet store in our county and I had no idea where to find or how to install flex track lighting I turned to the Internet. Much to my relief I was able to find not only lighting outlets but written instructions on how to install it myself.

The track, as the name implies, is completely flexible and can be formed to fit the pattern that best handles your lighting needs. I followed the instructions and carefully drew a diagram of where I wanted the lights to be mounted and how many I would need at each location. We knew where the pictures were to be hung so it was a matter of determining where the lights should be mounted. We had to have several consultations until we decided which finish and shade colors best matched the room and location. But at last we were in agreement and were ready to place our order for flex track lighting.

Because of the length of track involved and the number of lights we were going to need we were not able to order a flex track lighting kit. Instead we ordered the parts individually and now have our own happy marriage and a well lite miniature art gallery.

By: Simon Harris

Installing Monorail Track Lighting is Easy

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:01:57 +0000

We got this house that had been passed down from my parent’s to my husband and we started renovating it a year later. As we dove into the project we had lots of choices to make. Many we didn’t even realize we had to make. Having choices to make is a good thing if you have the right information. Style and color were the biggest problems we had. Not that we didn’t have a style in mind but that when we chose one style or color we ultimately changed our minds a few times before we were finished the project. Renovating and upgrading a cabin into a home is a huge undertaking to say the least.

When it comes to lighting we didn’t make good choices. After reading up on monorail track lighting and seeing how easy it is to install them, I am thinking about adding them now. There are several areas of my living room/kitchen area that could definitely use the monorail track lighting system to accent the dark areas and corners of the room. Those hanging lamps are as colorful as you want and they give off a softer light then do ordinary table lamps. The tracks are so easy. They are bendable so that we can put them anywhere we want. We can use them to accent special areas and brighten up a plant or two and to allow for more light over the shelves that we have books and nick knacks on. We can even put one over the roll top desk.

Oh and I can just imagine what a track light would do for the picture of our first daughter’s wedding. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one showcase the new fireplace we have. A soft light would just bring out the many colors that are in the stone and the glitter in the stone would actually show up. That would look awesome. I really think we are going to be dong this type of lighting in our home in the near future. When you are renovating your home don’t forget to look into the styles of lighting and remember to look into monorail track lighting as your choice of lighting. They are so versatile and can bring out the best things your have and showcase them.

By: Simon Harris

Professional Lighting in Your Home

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:22:52 +0000

In your home you may have a traditional chandelier and you may not even know it. Many people are sometimes confused as to what the term “chandelier” means. The idea of a vintage chandelier has changed into a new modern chandelier. When you think of a chandelier you may think of a very large crystal or glass figure hanging high from a ceiling but the truth is that not all chandeliers are like that. Many chandeliers are made simple for kitchens or living rooms or even bedrooms. Some chandeliers are not made to be elegant but they are simply made for lighting purposes only.

Kitchen chandeliers are a great example of practical light fixtures with an elegant flare. Kitchen lights are meant to light and warm the entire room and to create an inviting atmosphere. Kitchen chandeliers are usually not made of glass or elegant crystal but more so out of different copper or metal tones that coordinate with the other appliances within a kitchen. Newer chandeliers tend to match up with stainless steel appliances or even black appliances. The other important aspect of kitchen chandeliers is that the lights do not have a white tone. The lights usually have a more yellow light, and that is where the warm lighting comes from.

A living or sitting room chandelier is a little more elegant than a kitchen chandelier, but they still do not have to be an above and beyond light fixture in your home. A living room chandelier should have an elegant design, but should also have a warming and inviting light, like that of the kitchen area. A living room chandelier should be big enough to light the room and make a statement, but it should not be the main event of the room. The more modern styles of chandeliers tend to carry a little more flair in the art realm and so you can find light fixtures with a cool shape or design that is far beyond the traditional.

The bedroom is another important area where lighting is an important aspect of the feel of the room. The bedroom is an intimate place where colors are important as well as the general atmosphere of the room. The bedroom should never have bright white light because it can be incredibly overwhelming. In all three of these cases the lighting should be warming and inviting. The rooms in a home that have less light and a warmer feel tend to be the more popular rooms of the house.

The lighting within a home is very important depending on what you value in your home as far as appearance and the feel of the home. A chandelier in your home can be fancy, bright, and elegant, but it does not have to be. A light fixture is a light fixture no matter what kind it is and they all share the same purpose but some are better fit to a room in a house than others. Compare your traditional fixtures to a modern fixture and improve your interior design.

By: Connor R Sullivan

Attractive And Energy-Efficient Home Lighting Options

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:08:01 +0000

The art of creating elegant,applicable and sustainable lighting options for the home is a very interesting as well as a thought-provoking process. Lighting is an important element in home décor, because not only does it highlight your surroundings, it also enables you to perceive color and texture.

When you have spent some time choosing which fixture to purchase, what colors and accessories to blend, it’s now time to use these lighting options to help maximize their impact in your home. There are a lot of guidelines in creating lighting schemes, and the ides noted on this article will hopefully help add to your own ideas for creating attractive home lighting patterns and options.

Home Lighting Should Complement With A Home’s Existing Furnishings

The colors,as well as the other furnishing present in your living room and other rooms, should effectively complement each other perfectly. Once you’ve arranged the accessories to suit your preferences, and the furniture is deemed comfortable and attractive, what else is there to arrange or fix?

When you feel that the room still lacks the inviting atmosphere you imagined, think of the aspects that you failed to consider. According to home lighting experts, attractive, well-lit rooms most often combine the four types of lighting:

- Natural lighting includes sunlight, candlelight and fireplace light. The quality of natural light however varies, depending on the time of day, weather, season and the room’s location.

- Ambient or general lighting helps provide a safe and comfortable level of light.

- Task lighting supplies the intense directed light needed for detailed work.

- Accent lighting helps highlight interesting features in your home’s decor.

What To Take Note when Planning About Home Lighting

Here are some helpful hints to take into consideration as you plan the lighting throughout your home. Whenever your deciding on the lighting options for a room, consider these concerns like, What kind of mood should they create?, what type of activities take place in the room?, and what decorative elements do you want to attract attention?

Generally, to create an inviting atmosphere, the experts suggest using three to five light sources in every room. To simplify your decorating options, there are home lighting designs and items available with the same finish and style for chandeliers, wall-mounted sconces, pendants, floor and table lamps. Using the lighting fixtures from the same collection within a single room will help to create a more unified look.

To make your rooms look more interesting, vary the height of the light sources in the room. The differing height patterns will help to add depth and glow, by creating separate areas of light and shade. Usually in most rooms, you need to allow for varying intensities of light. You could do this by adding dimmer switches or three-way bulbs in lamps. It’s also good to have alternate switching patterns between general lighting, task lights, lamps and accent lighting.

For instance, while you are preparing for a dinner party, you’ll need task lighting instead of accent lighting, However, when your guests arrive, you’ll probably want to be able to switch off the task lights and turn on the accent lights. You should also remember that since darker colors absorb light, you’ll probably need to use more lighting in rooms decorated with dark colors than rooms with light colors.

Green, Eco-Friendly Lighting Options

In todays eco-conscious and earth-friendly lighting markets, as the focus on living “greener” has become the popular ideal, more consumers are demanding, and receiving, lighting options that are energy efficient for home interiors.

From energy-saving light bulbs to lighting materials produced with the least amount of negative environmental impact possible, many manufacturers and designers are responding with earth-friendly fixtures for ecology-conscious consumers.However, there need not be a compromise on style, either, as some of the most elegant and desirable lighting fixtures are the most visually appealing as well.

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By: Vanessa A. Doctor