Lighting Solutions is an important part of every room’s atmosphere, especially in the home office where you are expected to be efficient but also to create an elegant, soothing atmosphere. Here’s how lighting can help you with that.
1. Play with the angles
Playing with the angles is a big part of using the light, especially natural light. You will have to have in mind the purpose of your home office. If you are a designer or an architect working on sheets and paper a lot, the abundance of natural light will be extremely handy. It would be great if your office is positioned in alignment with south, so there will be no shadows at all.
2. Task lighting
Task lights are the most important part of your home office because it will help you get your work done easily and precisely. There are various modern table lamps that you can pick out that will provide you with focused illumination. Not every task will require the same intensity of lighting, so consider installing a dimmer option, too. The thing that many people don’t know is that task light also gives better contrast while you’re reading. It reduces the strain on your eyes, and as many jobs include a lot of reading, it’s a great bonus.
3. Combination of gloss and glare
One layer of lighting won’t cut it if you want to have a playful combination of gloss and glare. Think of the lighting in your office as several layers, the first one being the ambient light as the base, the task lights ensuring functionality and accent lights used to highlight interesting or important features in the room. Don’t try compensating two missing layers with the one you have – it won’t look good. It’s also a nice trick to use a height-based approach – if the layers are on different levels, they won’t interfere with each other.
4. Put shades
Sometimes a lot of natural light can be too much to bear, but you shouldn’t block the sunlight completely from your office. Instead, find elegant and practical curtains – you can choose between roman shades, adjustable louvers or practical blinds. That way, you will be able to control how much sunlight will get into the office. If you also mind the glare from the window, place a tall plant outside the window to reduce the glare and add some natural atmosphere to the room.
5. Economizing through the lighting
As said before, natural light is good for the eyes and also the best way to economize – if the room is positioned well and you have large windows, the only thing to do is to use the curtains to control the intensity of light.
Of course, you will most likely need some sort of artificial lighting, so a better alternative to the conventional light bulbs and lamps could be eco-friendly high- quality LED products that last more and save energy. They are proven to save even more energy than compact fluorescent bulbs. Another way to save energy is to have a task light on the desk instead of just having the overhead light, and what’s more – it also saves your eyesight.
6. Accent and decorative lighting
Home office also need to say something about you, so make it more appealing by adding some decorative and accent lighting to highlight the interesting parts of the office. For example, in case you have fine pieces of art in the office, a sculpture, an exotic plant or photos of your family, put them into focus by using mantel or picture lights to draw a person’s attention to them. Decorative lights like wall sconces serves as decorative items themselves, just find appropriate spot for them.
All in all
Installing proper LED light in your home office shouldn’t be a quick process, done without any planning. It is a way to create the right ambiance for you and to show others that you pay attention to the details and value good style.