Are you wondering how to position the lights in your room?
Wall lights, sconces, and ceiling lights can provide very different types of lighting depending on whether their shades point upwards or downwards, so you need to decide on how to position your lights.
This decision will ultimately come down to a choice between decoration and practicality and can be made based on a number of factors.
This is largely a matter of personal choice
There are a few things to consider before jumping right into a decision. Lights that point up will reflect most of their lights back down off of the ceiling and will work better if you have a light or pale-coloured ceiling.
If you choose lights with glass shades, they will allow light through whether they are pointing up or down, and clear shades will obviously let more light through than frosted or coloured shades.
Ambient / General Lighting
This is usually the main source of lighting, primarily designed to fill an entire room with ambient soft lighting.
Accent Lighting
Used to focus bright lighting onto a specific area or object such as a work of art or picture, even a feature
Task Lighting
As the name suggests, task lighting is provided in work areas and is always strong and both shadow and glare-free
Light Directed Upwards
With lighting sources such as wall mounted scones, chandeliers and flush-fitting ceiling lights, upward-facing lights and light coverings are widely employed.
Depending on the size and placement of your lighting in the given space, projecting light upwards will produce either accent or ambient light.
Upward-facing wall lights offer depth and visual richness to your room, but they focus the majority of the light on a limited area.
An upward-facing pair of lights on a central chandelier fitting, on the other hand, will produce more general soft ambient lighting by deflecting and diffusing light off the ceiling.
Light Directed Downwards
Downlights and shades are often used on pendant lights, spotlights and floor or table lamps, although they can also be used on wall lights and chandeliers if desired.
A central chandelier with light-directing shades will cast a lot more focused, clear light towards the centre of the space, which is very good for illuminating dining room tables and the like.
When placed over desks, downward-facing wall lights can also provide great task illumination.
When deciding how to position lights in your room—up or down—make sure you consider the following:
Use of the room
What will you primarily do within your room? A centrally positioned, upward-facing light shade would be great for producing that gentle, ambient light needed to help you relax in a living room where you simply want to relax and watch TV.
If on the other hand, you are lighting a kitchen or office space, you should use downward-facing light shades to direct more light to critical work and cooking areas.
Size of the room
If you want to light a larger room, upward-facing lights will be more successful at diffusing light, whereas downward-facing lights will suffice if you only want to light a smaller area.
However, this would be dependent on the principal purpose of the room.
Primary or Decorative
If you are still undecided, consider how you'll use your upward or downward-facing lighting, would your lights be the dominant source of illumination in that room? If this is the case, you should prioritise the light's quality and overall coverage.
If your existing lights produce a sufficient amount of light, you can opt to 'layer' several types of lights in your space.
