4 Tips For Laying Out Your Recessed Lighting
Recessed lighting is a very versatile method of providing task lighting and ambient lighting to almost any area of your home. As its name suggest, recessed lighting fixtures are sunken into the ceiling or wall so that just the light is being thrown out and no other part of the fixture is visible. When positioned correctly, recessed lighting can make your rooms look bigger and more open or provide spotlight for any areas of your home that you want to draw special attention, but when they are laid out incorrectly, they can actually have the opposite effect, creating patches of shadow and making your room look smaller. This is article is aimed at providing you with several helpful tips to attain the perfect level of brightness in your home when you are investing in recessed lighting.
Get Your Sketchbook Out
Taking the time to sketch out a blueprint of your room and pencil in exactly where you want your lights to go can save you a lot of headache down the road. Before you start penciling in light fixtures, however, it can be extremely useful to take measurements of your furniture and cut out properly scaled paper shapes to place on your blueprint. This will allow you to see exactly where the light will fall and make any adjustments accordingly if you need to.
Decide On Any Focal Points
If you have an area of your room that you are looking to highlight with lights, it is important to plan those out ahead of time. If you have a spot in your room that you know needs a light directly above it, make that your starting point and work out from there. If you are looking at adding recessed lighting in the kitchen, it might be a good idea to start your design by positioning one directly above the sink. On the other hand, if you would prefer that your lights are evenly spaced around your room, start in the middle and work your way out from there.
The Ceiling Height Rule Of Thumb Can Be Helpful
If you are looking for a quick and easy way to determine how much space you should put between your recessed lights, you can divide the height of the ceiling by 2, and use that as a baseline. For example, a room with 8 ft. ceilings would have the lights spaced 4 ft. apart, and so on. This is just a baseline for normal lighting, however. If you want to make your room brighter or darker, or you need to highlight certain areas, you may want to space them closer together or farther apart depending. A smart alternative is to actually over light your room, and install dimmer switches so you can adjust the brightness as needed.
Avoid Shadows In The Corners
If your recessed lights are not placed the correct distance away from your walls, you can have shadows in your corners which can have the visual effect of making your ceilings look lower than they are. To avoid this, you want to place your recessed lighting approximately 3 feet away from any walls. Contact Parme Electric, your Coraopolis electrician, today for professional recessed lighting installation.
