Lighting is a functional element in any home, but ambient lighting also enhances the home’s aesthetic. While task and accent lighting certainly serve a purpose for critical spots in a room, the strategic placement of multiple sources will create a glow that illuminates the entire space.
Also called general lighting, ambient lighting “really sets the mood of the space and provides illumination for the room as a whole,” says Kathryn Linea Rund, strategic design and development advisor at real estate platform Real Estate Bees. It comes in many forms, from ceiling and wall-mounted fixtures to recessed fixtures in shelves or built-ins to soffit or valance lighting — all of which bounce light off walls and ceilings, she explains.
“This approach to lighting design is often used to highlight subtle architectural features, artwork or decor without overwhelming the senses,” Rund says. “It can play a vital role in a room’s aesthetic by focusing visual appeal on specific furnishing, creating a cohesive and stylish look.”
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The Benefits of Adding Ambient Lighting to Your Home
Ashley Yeates, founder of AYI & Associates, a sustainably focused design firm in the Monterey Peninsula, enjoys adding ambient lighting to new construction because you can “tuck it into the architecture,” she says. As such, she opts for trimless lights and has added discreet fixtures into countless coves and niches in her designs, like under the kick plates of bathroom vanities. She’s even added LED lighting behind the plaster within a wall and a gap in a toilet closet — take that, plug-in nightlights.
Yeates often refers to lighting as the “jewelry” of home. Accessorize as you wish, but she prefers warm white bulbs over cool ones — 2700K bulbs, to be more precise. Yeates notes that bulbs 3500K and higher are on par with store lighting, which is better for safety and brightness.
Ambient lighting isn’t reserved for indoors. Yeates’ own yard glows softly at night, with lights edging the patio and the fire pit, as well as the perimeter of a second-floor deck with an ocean view. Those deck lights are focused downward to create more of a glow than intense illumination, a task she reserves for motion-sensor lights. Otherwise, Yeates says, “If you’re out there looking at the stars, the light would take away from the view.”
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How to Add Ambient Lighting to Your Home
“Ambient lighting provides soft illumination to spaces, reducing shadows and bright spots, and can help reduce eye strain,” says Joel Worthington, president of Mr. Electric, a Neighborly company. And yes, it can be achieved on a budget.
Rund agrees. “The value of ambient lighting does not need to take a back seat to the cost,” she says. “There are many budget-conscious ways to profoundly impact the ambient lighting of your home, or any space, that greatly amplifies the human experience of interacting with our surroundings.”
Worthington recommends floor lamps, pendant lights, string lights or LED strip lights for starters. “These require minimal installation and can be placed strategically around the room,” he says. LED lighting is more energy-efficient, he says, and dimmer switches are an affordable option.
“Put a dimmer on everything,” says Yeates. Indeed, adding dimmer switches — to dimmable light bulbs, of course — make it easier to upgrade existing lighting, too. While a crawl space at the bottom or an attic at the top of your house makes it easier for wiring, she says you can add remote-controlled dimmer switches to any wall.
It’s fine for homeowners to install strip lights or hang string lights on their own, but wiring is best left to a professional electrician, says Worthington. “Electrical work must be done to code, so if new lighting is being added to the home that requires hardwiring, it should not be a DIY project,” he says.
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Ambient lighting can be as simple or as complex as the room allows. But the idea isn’t to land on just one type of light source — it’s about layering multiple types that are right for your space.
“Layering your ambient lighting can add depth to a space, so that it doesn’t feel flat or too bright in any one area,” says Rund. “This layering technique can also eliminate harsh shadows, which gives a more balanced feel and creates lighting flexibility at the same time. It can affect the perception of the space by making environments feel more dynamic and thus engaging.”
“My idea of ambient lighting is lighting that does not speak for itself,” says Yeates. “It doesn’t stand out. It’s just an afterthought. So if you’re in a room and you have a glow versus seeing the lighting itself, that is the perfect lighting.”
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How to Use Ambient Lighting for a Cozier Home originally appeared on usnews.com
