Interior Decorating Ideas

Purchasing new light fittings for a home can change the way the interior design of a home looks and how the occupants function within it.

There are styles of light fittings available for your style of home, whether you need a fluorescent overhead for a kitchen or work area, functional lighting for a kitchen area, or recessed floor or ceiling lights.

With the success of retro lighting stores, quality chandeliers, wall sconces, and drop pendants are readily found for homes such as an Arts & Crafts bungalow. In the past, owners of these unique homes would have to scour antique stores or garage sales for fixtures that fit the period of their home. However, a homeowner looking for a quality solid brass or cast iron light fitting for this type of home can now visit stores like Rejuvenation, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware for all their lighting needs.

These stores are a good starting point, but be prepared to pay anywhere from $400-$3000 for your perfect chandelier, and $100-$500 for period specific sconces. Much less, expensive light fittings can be purchased at stores like Home Depot, with less attention to design, and sometimes a noticeable difference in construction quality. For the prices though, anywhere from $30-$400, this could be an ideal option.

With the advances made in energy efficient fluorescent light fittings, classical pieces as well as contemporary pieces can use standard fluorescent bulbs, which save energy and money. Fluorescent ceiling light fittings are now made in several residential sizes as well. Today's fluorescent lighting can be offered in wraparound style, wall brackets, and under cabinet solutions, to name a few. Fluorescent lighting solutions and bulbs are economical upfront and over the long term. Ceiling light fittings may start at less than $50, and bulbs average $6. That is a great deal when you consider that fluorescent bulbs outlast incandescent bulbs 10 to 1.

When people think about what a chandelier is they usually think of something grand and expensive. Crystal chandelier lighting is quite simply the queen of the chandeliers, and it will make any room in your house look very grand.

Getting one of these lighting fixtures really is the height of interior design purchasing, and you can be sure that your home will look really great with one in it. There are lots of different modern chandelier designs that you can choose from. It is the classic style however, that most people desire. This could mean buying a really old second-hand one that could prove to be a very expensive endeavor. Or it could be going for one of the many affordable new classic designs that you can get hold of these days.

So how do you choose whether to go for a modern or classic design? This is down to a number of factors. First, I would suggest that you need to consider the budget you have to spend on this lighting type. This will soon weed out the designs that you can realistically choose from. You must also consider what the best chandelier lighting will be for the room.

Is the rest of the decor in your room modern or classic? Have you got traditional colors or modern design features such as chrome and glass? A crystal chandelier, as opposed to a newer design, is the best way to reflect light around the room. The crystal drops that are on this type of chandelier reflects the light with varying colors and shapes, which can be a great effect if it is positioned in a place that catches the sun.

Crystal is a heavy from of glass, with minerals and metals contained within it. This gives it the expensive edge. Getting a lighting fixture like this for your home is a great way to add a level of sophistication to your home. This light will also be able to be passed down through the generations should you desire. A great investment!

Some time between Thanksgiving and the middle of December, most everyone in the US faces one daunting task, hanging Christmas Lights! We've all seen the movies of people falling off ladders, getting zapped by electricity, sliding off of the roof and getting caught up in the lights as one falls off the roof. While this is a common thing in most Christmas comedies, there is the phrase "all fiction is based on fact." That means that these dangers are not simply fictional.

But who doesn't want to see their house sparkling in the night, looking like an over-sized gingerbread house. There are several ways of keeping your light-hanging experience from making the pages of the next Christmas Comedy script. First things first, don't work alone! Seriously. When you have someone else with you to watch your back, you can avoid most accidents. Also, having someone there to hold the ladder still while you reach the hooks is one of the main ladder-safety rules. When you have someone with whom you can discuss random topics, it keeps you from getting bored and hasty, which leads to accidents.

Second thing on the list of safety rules: ladder usage! When you are using an old ladder, make sure all of the rungs are still secure. Don't use a ladder that is too short, too long is ok, but too short tempts you to step on the top rung that clearly states "do not step here". Move the ladder often. Don't reach because when you reach, you put yourself out of a natural balance. Loss of balance equals falling and broken bones, and half-strung lights and emergency-room bills. These are all bad things.

Lastly: Don't jimmy-rig anything, EVER! When working with electricity, don't be tempted to over-rig things with electrical tape and your wire-strippers. Seriously, they are made the way they are for a reason. Electricity is not happy when it can escape. Again, electricity escaping equals emergency room bills and half-strung lights. Have a happy Christmas and hang lights safely. Visit outdoor string lights or used party tent for further information.

The likelihood that you want to have some different lighting features in your home is high.  Since you’re reading this, wall sconce lighting is likely high on your list.  How can this be said without knowing your situation?  Well, the answer is that most people do.  You see, when your home was built, the attention paid to how the natural light would enter your space was probably not the main focus of attention.  Your builder certainly did not consider this fact, they just want to make sure that the windows actually get hung.  The architect was likely the one who would have made this determination.  And, unless it is a custom home, the more outward appearance of homes built today is the main driving feature of design.  Well, it was.  Newer homes have more environmental and sustainable design elements creeping in.  Natural lighting is one of these features.

Natural light can be both a great way to illuminate a space and save energy.  We are living creatures after all and light from the sun is our biological imperative.  Some homes do not have features that would allow natural light to be used as the main source of light inside the home.  For this reason and others, we do require artificial lighting.  You can probably think of another time when artificial lighting would be necessary.  Did you guess?  Yes, at night.  And, since most parties are held in the evening, this is another time when ambiance lighting is key.  You certainly want your lighting to create an intimate and warm tone in your space.

You can achieve this with the wall sconces we’ve discussed above.  In fact, many of the decorative wall sconces you’ll find on your search browsing online can also look like artwork.  Some are handmade by local artisans.  Even some of the more mass-produced commercial sconces can have a nice look to them.  You might have a more candle lit idea in mind.  In this case, the easiest way to go is with tea lights.  You know these, they are the little candles that you can place in a variety of holders.  There are even pieces that can be hung on a wall to give you that wall sconce you’re looking for.  These tea lights can also be placed on a table top or fireplace mantel for a nice look.

There are three types of bathroom design.  The first is the "utilitarian" look where only what's needed is there (maybe even a shower curtain).  The second is the "foreign" design that feels like you walked into a room in someone else's house.  And the third, although rare, is the one that is designed so that everything fits together and looks complete.  As people are spending more time in their homes, they're gravitating towards the third design, but not fast enough.  In this post I want to show you how to pick out the bathroom lighting that will help your room feel finished, complete, and not foreign.

The first step it to figure out what your style actually is.  Most times people will continue whatever the theme is of the rest of the home into the bathroom.  This is a great idea, and will help the bathroom feel like an extension of the rest of the home.  An easy way to figure out what your home's style is to look at the lighting.  Lighting is easy to classify into a genre.  If you have modern lights in your home, add modern lights into your bathroom.

If your bathroom is already partially decorated an you're looking to upgrade the lights to complete it, you're already halfway finished.  The style is there, just pick out the bathroom lighting fixtures that are going to help everything in there look better.  Keep in mind that light fixtures aren't cheap, so be content with the style that you already have so that you don't have to swap everything out in a few years.

A helpful tip to make sure that your lights are going to compliment the bathroom is to bring something with you, like the toothbrush holder or some other decoration, and make sure that the lights that you're looking at jive with it.  It's extremely easy to determine if something is going to fit when you're looking at them side by side, and difficult to do when you're relying on your memory to do the job.

Your bathroom should be an extension of the rest of your home, and picking the right lights for it can be a big step towards making that happen!