How To Create Atmospheric Lighting At Home
Switching on your lights, you shield your eyes as the blinding light fills your living room. It’s far from the relaxing, softly-lit sanctuary you wish you were returning to after a long day at work, so you pull out your phone and search for tips on how to create atmospheric lighting in your home.
Looking around the room, you realise how easy it would be to incorporate mood lighting into your space. From changing the colour of your bulbs to layering your lights and lamps, there are so many ways to make your home feel more inviting through lighting.
Discover how to create calming spaces that you can’t wait to come home to with our atmospheric lighting ideas.
What is atmospheric lighting?
Atmospheric lighting is used to set the mood in a room. It makes your home feel more comfortable and inviting, helping you to relax and unwind, so you’re most likely to find this type of lighting in the living room or bedroom.
Lighting plays a huge role in creating atmosphere in the home and should never be an afterthought. When planning your lighting scheme, you should always aim to include all of the following elements to set the right mood with ease.
Image courtesy of @renovationhq
5 ways to introduce atmospheric lighting into your home
1. Install dimmer switches
‘To create atmospheric lighting in your home, you really only need two essential things: warm-toned light bulbs for a cosy, relaxing feel and dimmer switches to control their brightness’, says Ally Dowsing-Reynolds, lighting expert and co-founder of Dowsing & Reynolds.
Dimmer switches are great for controlling your atmospheric lighting, allowing you to adjust the brightness of your lights depending on the time of day, the mood you want to create, and your personal preferences.
With dimmable light switches, your wall or ceiling lights can serve multiple functions. Increase the brightness when you need extra visibility for performing tasks, then turn it down in the evening to create a more relaxing and intimate atmosphere.
2. Choose the right bulbs
When it comes to creating atmospheric lighting, making sure you’ve got the right light bulbs is essential. You should always choose bulbs that have a warm colour temperature, as these give off a soft and cosy glow that naturally helps the body to relax and unwind.
The colour temperature of light bulbs is measured in Kelvins (K) and warm bulbs will typically have a colour temperature of around 2700K. By contrast, cool light bulbs have a colour temperature of around 4000K and produce a whiter light that is designed to help us stay alert rather than relaxed.
Not sure whether you have the right type of bulbs to create atmospheric lighting in your home? Have a read of our Light Bulb Colour Temperature Guide to discover all the information you need.
3. Layer your lights
Layering your lighting is another great way to create an atmospheric lighting scheme. By combining ambient lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting, you ensure the atmosphere of your space can be adapted to meet your various needs throughout the day.
To create a layered lighting scheme:
- Start by adding your ambient lighting, such as ceiling lights. These provide the overall illumination in a room and can be put on dimmer switches to easily control the atmosphere.
- Add in some task lighting. This type of lighting provides you with good visibility when carrying out tasks, and ranges from pendant lights suspended over a kitchen island to table and floor lamps positioned next to a reading chair.
- Finish with accent lighting. This type of lighting is great for drawing attention to key features within a room, but can also be used to create atmosphere – wall lights are a good example.
If you’d like to find out more, take a look at our guide on How to Create a Layered Lighting Scheme.
4. Create focal points
Using accent lighting to highlight architectural features and statement pieces of art or furniture is another great way to make your home more atmospheric through lighting.
Bring lighting to a lower level via table lamps and floor lamps and angle multi-directional wall lights or spotlights towards areas or objects in your room that you want to show off.
Product pick: The gold Waldorf wall light has a sleek and stylish design that will make a big impact when placed on either side of your favourite piece of artwork.
Image courtesy of @our_greenhouse_reno
5. Opt for decorative lighting
Choosing decorative lighting for your home is an excellent way to make spaces feel more atmospheric. These pieces will not only help bring a warm and relaxing glow to your room, but will also add visual interest and character.
Opt for something that adds a pop of colour to your space like the Cinnamon cylindrical table lamp or go for something eye-catching that’s sure to become a talking point, such as the Savannah Ostrich wall lamp.
Show us your atmospheric interiors
We’d love to see how you’ve used these atmospheric lighting ideas to make your home feel more relaxing, cosy, and intimate. Tag us on Instagram @dowsingandreynolds – we can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!
