Lamps

Lamps provide the ultimate finishing touch in any lighting and decor plan. Lamps are a great way to introduce your personality and style and also to set a particular mood. Brighten a darkened or unused corner with a table lamp sitting on an occasional table perhaps with an interesting accent chair. Adding a sofa table with an interesting table lamp behind your lounge will break up a large room , create a warm ambience and provide practical soft light. A striking designer desk lamp is not only practical but will also relay a message about your taste and style. Different styles of floor lamps placed carefully throughout a room will soften any dark corners and provide a warmth and ambience that can rarely be achieved by ceiling lighting alone.

In the bedroom a stylish bedside table lamp can really set off your bedroom as well as providing practical light for bed time reading. Think about the amount of light you need and ensure that you select a lamp that will accept the appropriate wattage light bulb. If you have a dresser or tallboy on the room you might also consider adding a third lamp to balance out the light sources and provide additional warmth.

And don’t forget the kids bedroom. There is nothing nicer than seeing your kids snuggled up in bed with a good book. To ensure they have ample light to read by ensure you provide lamps that will be safe and practical. Some metal bedside lamps will heat up and may create a burning hazard for kids if they accidentally touch it when turning off the lamp. For small children, lamps that can be fixed or have a control switch on the cord can be helpful. There are also lots of lovely decorative lamp shades that can be interchanged with different lamps enabling you to update the look and feel of your room quickly and easily from one season to the next. By simply matching new lamp shades with new cushions – your room can undergo a complete transformation on a minimal budget.

How to calculate the amount of light you need for a room?

There are a lot of different ways to calculate this, starting with how you measure the available light. The three main ways of measuring this is either using footcandles, candlepower or lumens. Once you've picked how you want to measure the available light you'll have to pick which calculation you'd like to use - either the zonal cavity method/lumen method, point by point method or by calculating the room index. If this all sounds like too much hard work, then you can use an online calculator that will do it for you or opt to just go by gut feel.

One method that we have found useful (and far simpler) is simply to multiply the dimensions of your room (to get square footage) and then multiply this number by 1.5 to get the total number of watts needed. So if your room is 15' x 15' you'd be looking at a square footage of 225' and (225 x 1.5) 338 watts of illumination. So to light the above space you'd be looking at three 100 watt and one 40 watt fixtures (or any combination of fixtures to bring you to a rough total of 338 watts). The above calculation doesn't purport to be very accurate but it might give you a good starting point.

One of the best ways to come up with an interior lighting plan for your home is to talk to an interior designer. They'll be able to help make sure that the lights, colours, furniture and natural light works together to make the most of the space you have.