When decorating or redecorating your home, people consider the most important aspects to be the colours of the walls, the style of flooring and the furniture you wish to place in that room. For many, the decision for the type of light you wish to have in the room usually gets given little thought. However, the way in which you light your room can make a significant difference to the overall feel and atmosphere you create. Like paint colours, there are an endless number of designs, styles and fixtures to choose from including everything from spotlights to chandeliers.

To assist in the decision of which type of lighting will suit your room, there are three main points to consider.

What type of space are you lighting?

There is a huge difference in requirements of lighting for say a hallway compared to a bedroom or bathroom. In a hallway or landing, the lighting used is usually functional. When you use lights in a hallway it is because you need to see where you are going to open the front door or on a landing to ensure you don't fall down the stairs. Therefore these lights will need to be simple and give off the maximum amount of light possible. If you are lighting a bedroom, you may wish to make the lighting more creative or set a mood using a variety of lights and lamps. For example you may have one main light and a series of lamps to alter the light depending on the task in hand. You will need to consider the functions of the room you are lighting and this will help you decide the type of light.

What do you want the lighting to achieve?

This is more of an emotional aspect of lighting. So you have considered the functional uses of the room, now you need to identify what you wish to achieve with the lighting. Some rooms may use a light fixture as a focal point. This is especially true of modern lighting fixtures such as a chrome chandelier or set of spotlights. These can be very decorative pieces and are there mainly to make a statement rather than simply light the room. You may want to set a mood with the light and therefore choose a variety of lights to vary the amount of light available. Lanterns and pendant lights can be used to add a finishing touch to your room as an extra to the furniture.

How will you control your lighting?

As important as every other aspect is how you wish to control the amount of light you let into your room. This is mainly a decision between dimmers or switches. If you have several lights within a room, you may want to separate them out onto different switches to allow you to choose the number of lights turning on at any time. Alternatively you can use a dimmer switch to allow you to vary the amount of light given off by the fittings you have chosen. This type of lighting is usually used for its mood enhancing abilities. If you require full light you adjust the switch to allow for this, whereas you also have the ability to dim down to a very subtly light to create an atmosphere. This is especially useful for decorative lights such as a chandelier.