Types of Ceiling Lights: How to Choose the Best One

A ceiling light in basic terms is just a light fixture attached to any room’s ceiling. The appropriate use of ceiling lights can drastically affect the entire visibility and colours of the room. Installing these lights improves the aesthetic of the room and decorations and the probable utility due to increased visibility by the available light. Ceiling lights can also help create a focal point in the room to highlight your artworks, architectural features and your collection of prized possessions.

To ensure that ceiling lights have the desired effect on your home interiors, it is a must to understand the different types of ceiling lights available and how and where they can be used on your property.

Factors That Affect The Choice And Placement Of Ceiling Lights

Before starting to choose the type of roof light for your home, it is important to understand what are the factors that can mark the boundary for your choices when it comes to selecting a roof lighting fixture for your property. Multiple other factors may affect your choice of roof lights but they vary from property to property, the following factors are consistent with all homes.

• Brightness: Some places may require more bright lights, for example, the kitchen requires brighter lights to ensure that all the utensils are easily visible to avoid accidents and for aesthetic purposes. Whereas in living rooms, to emphasise your decorations, you can choose dimmer lights in the living room and install a brighter light over your prized collections of medals or books to create a visual focal point.
• Placements To Avoid Glare: When placing lights and deciding on the type of roof lights to install, ensuring that there is minimum glare and strain on the occupant’s eye is a crucial factor to consider. For example, when selecting a roof light for your study room or office room, ceiling lights should be placed in a way that minimises the glare on the laptop screens and does not put strain on the eyes of the user.
• Aesthetics: As discussed above, aesthetics are an essential part whenever it comes to installing lighting fixtures. You can select hallway ceiling lights to light up your hallways and make them look minimalistic and you can use a chandelier to make your living room look more majestic and grand.
• Energy Efficiency: LED panel lights have softer light which is for the vision, these lights are also extremely energy efficient, which makes them perfect for all-time running lights on your staircases etc. Whereas, when it comes to chandeliers, they consume more energy but provide a grand appearance to the room.

Types Of Ceiling Lights

Multiple different types of ceiling lights are used for different purposes altogether. Some ceiling lights can be used in more ways than one and this increases their versatility.

1. Ambient Lighting:

This category of lights is used to provide the main illumination of any room. It provides a soft and warm light that can be used to fill in the shadows to provide a natural look. They aim to create a welcoming environment which makes it an essential part of your ceiling light fixtures. The following types of light fixtures can be used for ambient lighting.

1.1 Chandeliers: These are the lighting features that provide a majestic and elegant look to your room. These lights although expensive are more than just a lighting feature, they help in decorating the room and make it look more attractive and aesthetic. They come in different shapes and sizes to suit your interior designs and budget.

1.2 Flush And Semi-flush Mount:

• Flush Mount Ceiling Lights: Flush mounted lighting is a lighting installation that is fixed directly with the ceiling without leaving any gaps in between the ceiling and the light. This type of light is useful for places where there is a limited height and a hanging light can be obstructing.
• Semi-Flush Ceiling Lights: Semi-Flush Ceiling Lights are installed with a little space between the ceiling and the light. They can be used when there is enough height available. They are easier to clean as they are more accessible as compared to Flush Mount Ceiling Lights.

1.3 LED Surface Panels: This kind of light is integrated into the ceiling making the ceiling look neat and modern. These lights provide an equally distributed illumination throughout the room. These lights are energy efficient and perfectly suitable for larger spaces.

1.4 LED Strip lights: These lights are extremely versatile and can be used in multiple different ways as per requirement. LED strip lights can be used as ambient lighting. They can fit into the inside of your false ceiling to provide a sleek and clean lightning experience.

1.5 Profile Lights: This system of lights can be installed in, on or from your roof and provide a big flush of light to the room. These lights are an incredible choice to use lights as a design feature.

1.6 Spotlights: As the name suggests, these lights can help to create a spotlight for a specific part of your home interiors. Spot lights are a great addition to your interior design and can help to create a main focal point in your home.

Area Of Usage

• Living Rooms: Chandeliers help to add a majestic and extravagant touch to your living room and also enhance the visual appeal of the surrounding design features.
• Bedrooms: The use of soft and gentle ambient lighting becomes a perfect addition to increase relaxation and improved concentration of reading.
• Kitchens: While handling sharp utensils, proper illumination is extremely essential and ambient lighting serves exactly this purpose.
• Offices: A well-lit environment is essential for any workspace. Ambient lighting can be used to achieve this by using overhead fixtures or LED surface panels.

2. Recessed Lighting:

These lightings are recessed into your ceilings to provide a hidden and seamless light feature inside your home. They can help to increase visibility and also reduce the extra glare from your light to reduce eye strain. The following types of lighting can be used for recessed lighting.

2.1 Standard Recessed lights: This kind of light is installed into an opening in the ceiling. These lights are called recessed lights as they are retracted into the ceiling and can become virtually invisible when looked at from below. They are versatile and can be bought in multiple designs and styles to match your interior theme.

2.2 Adjustable Recessed Lights: Similar to recessed lights, these lights can be adjusted which is possible to their pivoting head. These are perfect for highlighting artwork or architectural features of the home interior.

2.3 Baffle Trim Lights: These lights have large grooms, which help to absorb excess light and reduce glare. These lights are retracted inside the ceiling and have groves to help reduce excess light illumination.

2.4 Wall Wash Lights: Wall washing lights are vertical and indirect lighting which is installed in the ceiling or floor at a distance from the wall. This allows for the light to fall uniformly. This provides a ‘washed’ effect to the wall which ensures the removal of shadows.

Area of Usage

• Kitchen: These lights can be used above countertops and islands to provide a well-lit area for cooking and meal preparation.
• Living Room: These lights can also work as mood lights to create a balance between your ambience lights. They can help to highlight any specific area of your interior that you would want to attract attention.
• Hallways: These lights are a space-saving solution which is a perfect solution for hallways or narrow passageways that can be inside the room or even on the exterior of the house.
• Home offices: As these lights provide a glare-free experience, they can be used in workstations or study rooms as they reduce glare and eyestrain. This results in enhanced concentration and better productivity.

3. Task Lighting:

These are lights that are used for some specific tasks. It is mainly used for tasks like reading, writing and sewing. These kinds of lights aim to provide enough illumination that there is no strain on the eye while performing intricate work and remove any distracting shadows.

3.1 Pendant Lights: Similar to chandeliers these lights are also suspended from the ceiling using a cord or a chain. As they are smaller in size as compared to chandeliers, they are used in groups. They are often hung in a straight line over your kitchen countertops or even above your bathrooms.

Area Of Usage

• Home Office/Study Room: While working in your home office or study room, task lighting at your desk or workspace reduces eye strain, increases focus and makes the space more comfortable and productive.
• Reading Corners: When you’re looking to enjoy an interesting book with a cup of coffee task lighting ensures that you don’t strain your eyes.
• Bathroom Vanity: Task lights can also be used in the bathroom and vanity areas to help you get dressed and to make grooming easier.
• Art Studio: Task Lights with adjustable brightness can be a great addition to your art room which helps in enhancing the quality of your artwork.

4. Accent Lighting:

As task lighting focuses on a specific task to be carried out, accent lighting is installed to showcase a specific artwork or architectural feature of your home interior. This means they are perfect for highlighting your artwork or that intricate design on your living room’s back wall. The below lights can serve the purpose of Accent Lighting.

4.1 Track Lighting: These are spotlights installed on a track. Track lights can be used to highlight major artworks or interior design features to enhance their emphasis. They are adjustable, so you can also choose to highlight multiple items using a single track and this allows you to position shadows in the room.

4.2 Picture Lights: These lights over or close to pictures or artwork to lay higher importance to them and make them look more dominant inside the home interior design.

4.3 Cabinet Lighting: These lights can be installed under the cabinets to highlight your collection of glassware or other prized possessions.

4.3 Recessed Spotlights: Recessed spotlights are an integration of recessed lights and spotlights. These are spotlights that fit inside the ceiling and retain their flexibility to either showcase an artwork on the wall or to highlight a glass cabinet storing your silverware.

Area Of Usage

• Art Galleries: For your treasured collection of art, accent lighting can be a great addition to improve the effect of your artwork and make it look more dominating and visible in your interior design.
• Living Rooms: Accent lights can be a great addition to your living room to divert attention through lighting towards your interior design elements and other decorations.
• Museums: The use of Accent lighting ensures that the exhibits showcased appeal to the consumers by captivating their focus.
• Retail Stores: Accent lighting is used to highlight products that are on sale to grab customers’ attention and create an alluring shopping environment.
• Hotels And Restaurants: For commercial properties like restaurants and hotels, accent lighting can be a great addition to attract the attention of your customers to your water features or other decoration elements to create an attractive environment for the customers.

5. Aesthetic And Smart Lights:

This category of lights is used for aesthetic and decorative functions. These lights can be of different colours which depends on what mood you are targeting. For aesthetic lighting, the following kinds of lights can be used.

5.1 LED Strip Lights: As discussed above these lights can also be used to decorate your interiors. They can be installed behind your TV Cabinet to give you enhanced viewing pleasure while watching a movie or can be used to highlight your artwork.

5.2 Smart Bulbs: These are lights that can be controlled from the comfort of your phone. They have different colours to offer which can be changed as per wish. They make a perfect lighting option if you’re looking for a mood lighting fitment.

Area Of Usage

As discussed above, these lights can be used in different rooms as per necessity and interest. Some suggested uses for these lights can be,

• Using Motion Activated Lights In Your Garden Or Outdoor Area: These lights are triggered by motion. These can be used in your outdoor area, as whenever someone triggers these lights they turn on automatically to provide you with illumination and they automatically turn off when there is no movement. These lights not only make your house look more modern and futuristic but also help to conserve energy.
• Lights That Flicker According To The Beat: These smart lights are tuned in a way that they can dim and brighten up following the beat of the song. These can be a great addition to your living room for house parties to fill your parties with fun and energy.

Conclusion

Ceiling lights can be a great addition to your house and your commercial property as they can help to create an environment that is welcoming and warm and also attracts the attention of visitors and occupants to the artworks, design features and your prized possessions. Ceiling lights not only help to better the aesthetic of the interior of your property but also have a profound effect on your health, utility and mood.

Read Also: Purchasing LED Ceiling Lights? Here’s What You Need to Know