Ways to light your home

Lighting is often an afterthought, remember it's actually the light that shows off a space in the most effective way. Good lighting will make your home feel spacious, clean and welcoming and add that special wow factor to your garden lighting scheme.
 
Light up your best features, such as a good fireplace, by installing tiny uplights either side.
It provides a focus to a room even when the fire is not lit.
 
Make your kitchen look contemporary while also saving money by installing hidden fluorescent lights at the top of the units. These bounce an attractive light off the ceiling and cost little to run.
It is a trick used by many of the most expensive kitchen designers.
 
If you want to make a room such as the sitting room look bigger, put an uplighter in the corner.
It will pool light on the ceiling and increase the feeling of space.
 
Achieve a contemporary look by replacing table lamps with recessed light strips, or horizon lights, at the back of a long bench built along a wall. Cover with frosted glass for a wonderful, soft light.
 
The underside of stairs is always dark, but you can increase the feeling of space in your hall with clever lighting. One solution is to conceal a light behind a batten four inches away from the wall and painted in the same colour. This creates a lovely, soft light. Uplighters in wall recesses create a dramatic look.
 
Put uplighters on the top of cupboards or tall chests to silhouette objects or create a secondary source of light in, say, a bedroom where bedside lights are insufficient.
 
LED lights sunk into the walls alongside the stairs can work wonderfully.
 
Place a downlighter or other light source directly over the dining table to create pocket lighting.
It looks really dramatic.

Dark colour schemes will absorb light requiring a higher wattage requirement for the room. Very neutral or white schemes will have high reflective qualities reducing the wattage requirement.

The light colour properties of the bulbs a fitting uses is most important. Fluorescent light is cold and inhibits the natural colour of objects making it more suitable for utility type purposes. Incandescent and halogen light sources are preferred for the main living areas of the home as they are warmer in colour making the environment more comfortable, and allow the objects they illuminate to be shown in their natural colour.

If your ceiling height is low use Flush and Semi Flush fittings that are designed with low ceiling heights in mind will always look better than a fitting that is forced to fit.

Separately switching the different layers of light (ceiling, wall etc) and the use of dimmers will add an invaluable degree of flexibility to your lighting scheme by allowing control of mood ambience.