New Home Lighting

There are three main categories when it comes to light fixtures and they include: general lighting, workspace lighting, and accent lighting. When reviewing your home building plans carefully consider what type of light fixtures make sense for each room in your home.

General Lighting Virtually every room in the home should include general overhead lighting. This type of lighting provides sufficient light in a room to allow people to walk safely and comfortably in it. It also provides the overall mood in a room, so you want to choose light fixtures that provide both sufficient lighting and aesthetic appeal. General overhead lighting can include recessed light fixtures, ceiling lights, and even chandeliers. In terms of lighting technology incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs are commonly used for general overhead lighting.

Workspace Lighting

Workspace lighting should be included as part of your new home lighting plans for any room where work tasks are regularly performed. Consequently workspace lighting should be included in kitchens, bathrooms, and reading rooms. Workspace light fixtures commonly include recessed can lights, as well as light fixtures that hang directly down over the work surface area such as a kitchen countertop. Workspace lighting can also include fluorescent or halogen light fixtures tucked up underneath the bottom side of upper kitchen cabinets. Workspace lighting can also include free standing light fixtures such as floor or table reading lights.

Make sure when incorporating workspace light fixtures into your new home lighting plans that they are positioned directly over the workspace area and not behind where people will stand to perform the work. Otherwise shadows will occur as the person stands in front of the work area thus effectively negating the purpose of the workspace lighting. Accent Lighting It’s also important to include in your new home lighting plans accent light fixtures. Accent lighting helps to set the mood in a room. Accent light fixtures also help to draw attention to certain locations or objects in a room.

For example, accent lighting is commonly used for lighting paintings or other ornaments in a room. Accent light fixtures can be again recessed can light fixtures as well as sconces or other wall mounted light fixtures. They can even include floor mounted light fixtures.

Outdoor Home Lighting

Finally, make sure your new home lighting plans include adequate and strategically placed outdoor lighting. Outdoor lighting fixtures should be place around each exterior door. In addition, there should be spot lights mounted high up on the house facing both the driveway and the back yard. You may also want to consider purchasing outdoor lighting that includes motion detectors for added safety and convenience.