Shedding some light.

Decorating Diva sheds some light.

One of the most important aspects of a well designed room is the lighting scheme. You may have more beautiful things than the Louvre in your home but if they are not properly lit - they might as well be in storage. Their beauty and potential will be overlooked without good lighting. There are three different types of lighting: General, Task and Accent. They are pretty self explanatory. General lighting performs as a replacement for sunshine in your home. It provides most of the illumination in your home. General lighting is supported by Task lighting. Task lighting is where most people go wrong when trying to light their homes/offices. Task lights are usually table lamps and floor lamps, and used for better illumination to perform tasks like reading, sewing, etc. Unfortunately most homes don't have enough task lighting. Lastly, we have accent lighting. Which does what it says. It accents your favorite piece of art - treasured portrait of those darling children - or the vase that has been passed down from your grandmother. It is used as an up light in your larger plants to add drama to your foyer and so on.

Do you need to create more visual space in a small room? Here is a lighting tip. Place lighting around the perimeter of the room. A lamp on a table, a floor lamp in a corner and plug a sconce in on the wall. This will draw the eye out to the corners of the room and increase the visual space. The same can be done with a large space to make it more cozy. Only now bring the lighting in towards the center of the room on the corners of your conversation area to draw the eye in.

In the bedroom...try different colors. Light bulbs come in different shades, and all colors don't look good on all skin tones. Stay away from brassy bulbs that are too bright and create too many shadows, instead use a pink/peach bulb at a softer watt beside your bed where we could all use better lighting!

So look around your rooms. Do they have enough light? Does your large space look too open? Does your small space need to be opened up? Then turn on the lights!

I will be answering your decorating questions in upcoming issues of The Trails Newsletter. So email me your questions at hollyulmer@comcast.net and I will be happy to answer them.

Ciao!