Lighting Up Your Life

Tips for Lighting Your Home

There are so many interesting options to cover with respect to lighting, we could talk about it for several weeks. We’ll do our best to share as many options as possible in our two October editions.

It’s not difficult to freshen up some aspects of your home’s lighting, particularly if you’re feeling bored with it. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Table Lamps: You have a lot of options here. Sometimes we become so accustomed to things (lamps, in this case), that we don’t really see them, or how much updating they need.  Fortunately, just changing the lampshade can often give a whole new look and longer “shelf life” to your lamps. If your lamp base is not out of style (per your own personal taste in home décor), perhaps the shade is. This is an easy fix. From large discount stores to home improvement stores to thrift stores, you can find affordable options for adding a new topper to your lamp base.  And don’t discount painting your lamp base to match any changes you’ve recently made in your home’s décor.

Floor Lamps: For those areas where you need light but don’t have a surface or end table for a table lamp, consider a pole lamp or a torchiere floor lamp. These come in many beautiful styles, and just aren’t your mother’s old pole lamps any longer! They will provide 3-way indirect lighting, and some have an extra arm with a reading light, in case you need to set this lamp next to a chair. They take up very little space, and you get the best of both worlds.

Rope Lighting: Inside your home, you can create atmosphere and warmth with the indirect lighting made by rope lights. Place or attach strands of rope lights on your pot shelves or soffits, atop or behind tall bookcases, entertainment centers, large stereo speakers, under a bed frame–wherever the strands will be out of sight and there is access to electrical outlets. With varying lengths and colors, some with LEDs, some solar, you can get creative with rope lights, especially for outdoor holiday decorating. Line your windows, an outdoor garden path or walkway, wrap your house or plants.

Motion sensors: Not just for outdoor lighting any longer! You can put sensors in your hall lights, so the hall will light up as you enter it. For those insomniacs (and others) who wander from room to room at night, you can find plug-in LED night lights with a decent range that will pick up your movement and light your way as you wander.

Check in again next week for more ideas, and in the meantime, get creative!