What can we use to light up our bedroom, to make it welcoming and warm? Sometimes a wrong light point is enough to get just the opposite of what we wanted: a large chandelier – instead of a small comfortable light for reading – may not please anyone and makes us feel like in a hotel room. So here is a brief guide on what to use and what to remove among wall lights, chandeliers, lampshades, spotlights and LED strips.
How and where
The first question we must ask ourselves is: how and where do we want to illuminate? When it comes to bedrooms, the optimal solution is usually found with lights that are soft, not too strong, nor direct. However, keep in mind that in some cases the power may not be sufficient: when there is a wardrobe in the room, we will have to take into account that we need a light source that is much more powerful to allow us to search among the clothes -unless you want to install small lights on the doors.
The second question is: which parts of the room do we want to highlight? Usually, one tends to focus on the headboard area because at the end of the day we go to bed – and it should be e a comfortable one as ours! – we open a book to read something or just relax. And it is no coincidence that appliques, lampshades and LED strips dominate behind or above the headboard or on the bedside tables. They are all good solutions: but to really understand which one is best for us we have to look for the one that best suits our needs.
Solutions
Chandelier.
It is certainly ideal for more classic rooms, but it has a big disadvantage: it almost always diffuses a light that is too strong – even if it really should illuminate the whole space – or too weak – if we don’t want it to bother us at a time of day when we would prefer soft lights only. This is why even if we choose a chandelier that does not bother us too much, we will inevitably have to add other light points.
Lampshades or wall lamp.
Whether they are in pastel colours and gentle lines, or with bright colours and a jaunty look, if well chosen, they can be a piece of furniture that revives or adds something more to the comfort and spirit of our bedroom. Advantages: with such a limited beam of light you can easily have enough to be able to read your book, or find the remote control that is hidden in the covers.
Wall lamps obviate the limits of the lampshades: a lampshade will always clutter up a minimum of space behind the headboard or on the bedside table, but if we do not have this space, we can fix a lamp to the wall, adjust it to our liking and we will have solved the problem.
More solutions: spotlights and led strips.
Spotlights: it is a solution usually considered outdated as a choice of look and design because it reminds us too much of the 80s, but it is by no means to be discarded: there are spotlights for all tastes, of all shapes and colours. Obviously, the risk – as with chandeliers- is to have too strong or too direct light, but choosing the right power and carefully adjusting the surface to be illuminated – better the wall than directly the bed-, this can be a good solution.
Another valid alternative are LED strips: very comfortable as they are sold in coils to be unrolled, cut and joined at will, they can be easily positioned in any point of our bedroom and cover any corner or surface, and we can hide them behind any furniture. Another great point in favour is their versatility: most of the LED strip models can in fact be adjusted by intensity or by colour. Last but not least, thanks to their low energy consumption, LEDs are convenient for the environment and for our bills.
Target Point, Italian Ideas