Quality lighting that suits the needs of a room is essential to the overall design of your house. Without light, the rooms in your house can look cramped, and you won’t be able to see all of the beautiful furniture and accessories that you’ve so lovingly chosen for your home. Light fixtures can also be pieces of art in their own right, and when you select the right fixtures for the space that you’re trying to fill, you’ll have lighting that best showcases the entire room and makes work more comfortable because you can see more clearly. There are many types of lighting fixtures that you can put in your home, and here are five contemporary light fixtures that you can consider.
Oyster Lights
Oyster lights are mounted directly to the ceiling of a room. They’re usually circular, and they have a glass enclosure that surrounds the bulb. They also provide a clean aesthetic and hide the bulbs underneath. This type of lighting is excellent for almost any room. For instance, if you have a room that has minimal head clearance, this is a unique type of light fixture because, compared to a pendant light or chandelier, they don’t come down very far from the ceiling. A low-hanging ceiling in a basement is one example of where you could put this light. Other places where these lights work well are in the center of a kitchen or bedroom. This type of lighting fixture has been around for decades, but you can choose a style that suits a more current aesthetic.
Recessed Lights
Recessed lights, otherwise known as canister lights, are cylinder canisters that are installed into the ceiling. They provide a very clean aesthetic, and they also are great for rooms with low ceilings but can be put anywhere in the house. Not only are they great for many basements, but they’re even the perfect source of light in many types of kitchens and living rooms. One caveat to installing recessed lights is that you need to make sure that you have space in the ceiling. Your ceiling also needs to be made of a material that can be cut into, so cement ceilings won’t work unless you install a drywall ceiling. You also might need to change up some of your electrical wirings. Although canister lights might require some work, for the right room with the right needs, the result is worth the extra work.
Track Lighting
This light fixture has made a strong comeback, especially in kitchens. It’s highly functional, and it can provide a clean appearance. Track lighting is a track you affix to your ceiling with several lights on a single track. The classic type of track light fixture is a single straight track with between three and five lights, but track lights today come in several other shapes, including a wavy track and a set of four tracks that are pieced together in a square shape. Each light on the track can be swiveled so that you can direct the light to your workstations. Other rooms that this type of lighting is commonly used in include home offices and different workspaces because of the ability to move the direction of the lights.
Pendant Lighting
This type of lighting is great if you want to add some pizzazz to your room. They come in many kinds of styles and colors, so you can pick the type that fits the existing aesthetics of the room. Modern designs often have glass shades in bright colors and funky designs. These are beautiful because the light illuminates the glass shade, and the colors pop when the fixtures are turned on. Another option is traditional light pendants. Pendant lights often work well over a kitchen island or a bar. They provide enough light that you can see, but they also create a sense of intimacy that’s great for conversation with a small collection of friends and family at a party.
Wall Sconces
Wall sconces are a type of lighting fixture that is attached to the wall. They usually have a shade that can either direct the lighting up toward the ceiling or down toward the floor. The shade can be made of fabric, metal, glass, or many other types of materials. Most often, wall sconces are installed in sets of two, and they frame something in between, such as a piece of art. Wall sconces can be used in living rooms and kitchens to mount a piece of art, or they can be used in a bedroom, flanking the bed and providing lighting that is easy to reach while in bed. When used in this context, they produce light for reading and doing other leisure activities that people do directly before bed. Although most people use them inside the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms, they can be used in almost any room in the home. If you have an unusually large bathroom, for instance, you can have a seating area, and the wall sconces can flank the bench.
When you’re choosing light fixtures, think about the needs that space presents. Some light fixtures will emit a small, localized source of light, and others will give off bright lighting to the whole room. The location and the distance from the ground where you place the light fixture will also play a role in how much area a particular light fixture gives off. Whenever you’re planning your sources of lighting, make sure that you have multiple types in a single room so that you have the light that adds dimension to your room and minimizes harsh shadows. When you put some time and effort into choosing your light fixtures, they’ll illuminate the room and show off your furniture, accessories, and other parts of your design aesthetics more clearly, and you might even have a light fixture or two that you begin to see as a work of art in itself.
