Have you ever felt like the lights in your house are too harsh? Typically, light bulbs that cast a strong white light can cause strain on your eyes. That’s why you don’t see very many reading lights or desk lamps that cast white light. Instead, warmer yellow lighting is more conducive for a good late night reading session.
Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash
So what options are available to any homeowners or apartment dwellers who are looking to incorporate warm lighting into their cosy abodes? Whether you want to enlist the assistance of a certified electrician to redo your home lighting or planning to go the DIY route, there are actually a myriad of ways that you can keep your home well illuminated whilst still reducing your risks of experiencing eye strain.
Read on to learn more about how you can add some extra warm lighting into your home, and why this kind of lighting may be a great choice for specific rooms and interior spaces.
What is warm lighting?
First, let’s start with a working definition of warm lighting. This kind of lighting generally refers to bulbs that emit a soft, yellowish, or amber-toned glow, similar to the cosy illumination of candlelight or the setting sun. Warm lighting typically has a lower colour temperature, ranging from 2000K to 3000K on the Kelvin scale. This helps to create a stress-reducing, inviting ambience in a space. In fact, the health benefits of using warm light in the home are so widely known that you may have even used this lighting to treat your seasonal affective disorder in winters gone by.
Warm lighting is often used in residential settings, such as living rooms, bedrooms, and dining areas, as it can evoke a sense of relaxation and intimacy. It is also commonly used in hospitality and commercial spaces in order to create an inviting atmosphere. Think candlelit dinner vibes.
Warm Lighting Ideas For A Welcoming Home
Here are some of our favourite ways to organically introduce warm lighting into your home spaces.
Use smart LEDs
With the ability to customise the colour, temperature, and brightness of your home lighting, smart LED bulbs allow you to create an ambience that suits your preferences and mood. Most smart LED bulbs offer a range from cool to warm white or even amber tones. By selecting a warmer colour temperature, such as 2700K or lower, you can emulate the soft, golden light of traditional incandescent bulbs or candles.
With the adoption of smart home technology, you can easily manipulate smart LED lights through voice commands and mobile apps integrated into your central building management system (BMS). This allows you to tailor the behaviour of the home lighting to any intensity or schedule you deem appropriate. With any internet connection, you can dim the lights to a lower intensity and change the hue to any colour palette, creating a softer and more intimate ambience. This can be perfect for setting the mood in living rooms, bedrooms, or dining areas, where you want a subdued atmosphere for gatherings or quiet evenings at home.
String up some fairy lights
Fairy lights, also known as string lights, are a decorative lighting ensemble presented on a string/wire assembly with small lights evenly spaced along the wire’s length. These lights are often small LED bulbs that emit a range of hues and offer blink patterns to match any preference. String/fairy lights are typically used for decorative purposes and can add magic and warmth to any space.
You can drape fairy lights along walls, ceilings, or around the furniture to create a cosy and inviting glow throughout your home. Or why not bundle them up and place them inside mason jars to create a ‘twinkling jar’ effect? These can also make great centrepieces for dining tables or are a good substitute for candlelight.
Light some candles or tealights
Speaking of candlelight, you really can’t beat the natural ambient glow that comes from little flitting flames. Candles can be a superb source of warm light as they’re also accompanied by a real sense of life. Unlike light emanating from light bulbs, candlelight moves and almost breathes. The soft circular glow of light that enwraps a lit flame can help provide an effortless sense of warmth, even if the fire itself is just a little bud.
Of course, there are safety concerns when it comes to lighting candles in your home, especially if you’re living with pets or small children. Thankfully, there are ways to keep your candlelight safely contained and out of the way indoors. For instance, using jars to hold tea lights can help protect any furniture or even the fluffy end of pet tails making contact with flames. Jars can also help amplify the warm light produced by your candles. You should also try to keep your candles lit on high tabletops wherever possible rather than on the floor where they can be knocked over, or anywhere within easy reach of young children.
Invest in some floor-standing lamps
One of the more basic methods of designing with warm lighting is simply adding a few desk lamps and perhaps even some floor-standing lamps to your home’s interiors. These non-overhead sources of light can add depth and dimensionality to your interiors, alongside creating pockets of light that can cultivate a warm and inviting atmosphere.
You can even place your desk and floor lamps strategically to enhance the functionality of your home’s interiors. For instance, positioning a floor lamp over a comfy armchair can create a perfect little reading nook.
Install some wall sconces
If you’re not particularly a fan of free-standing floor lamps, then you can still recreate their effect by installing some timeless wall sconces that have been fitted with warmer yellow light bulbs. Whilst this may be an ideal solution for those with money to spend, we have to note that this is one of the more pricier methods on our list today. Even so, a quick booking with a licensed electrician should make quick work of setting up some hardwired sconces for your home.
If hardwiring isn’t an option, then you may even be able to find some wall-mountable lights that emulate sconces online or at your local hardware store. Granted, these will have to be connected to a powerboard rather than your grounds, so cable management should be factored in here.
Hang some paper lanterns
Paper-like light pendants are all the rage at the moment, and just so happen to be yet another novel way of introducing warm lighting into your home. As these statement light fixtures aren’t made with glass or other reflective materials, the light must first be absorbed by the paper fabric before exuding out into your home spaces. The opaque paper material effectively muffles the warm lighting, making it even softer.
Because of their opaque build, paper lanterns can also be used to make your harsh white light a little bit easier to live with as well. So if you do want to retain some white light in spaces throughout your home, consider hanging up a few of these light fixtures to reduce their harsher effects.
Create The Right Ambience In Your Home With Warm Lighting
Your house lighting can have a big impact on how cosy, welcoming and inviting your home feels to guests. But having warm lighting in your home can be just as beneficial for yourself and your wider household too.
While you may not think about the effects of certain types of lighting fixtures as you’re playing around with any of the methods outlined above, once you see the results, you will be amazed at how much impact adding an extra table lamp or switching light bulbs can have on the look and atmosphere of any room.