Lighting Trends: Colored Lighting

Colored Lighting for Home Interiors

Typically, colored lighting should be reserved for rooms where you are not working on important tasks: such as the hallway. Avoid using colored lighting in rooms like bedrooms, where you are getting dressed or bathrooms, where you might be doing your makeup. This is important, as the colored lights can skew your appearance and you might end up looking like a clown—literally.

One of the easiest ways to incorporate colored lights into a home interior is through the use of white walls and single or multi-colored light fixtures. You can change your colored lights seasonally with the holidays, such as red for Valentine's day, green for Christmas and Orange for Halloween.

Just be careful not to go overboard, especially if mixing or matching colors. Too many colors can work against you or be counterproductive. Furthermore, depending on the color of your walls, you may be creating additional heat in your room. For example, darker wall colors require more light, which in turn requires more light fixtures, thus also creating more heat in your home.

Colored Lighting for Home Exteriors

When working with colored lights outdoors, it's important to remember that the existing colors on your home will have an impact on the lighting colors that you choose. So, it's important to take this into account. For example, let's say you have a red door that you'd like to turn orange for Halloween. To do so, you would point an architectural light or pair of lights at the door that utilize yellow bulbs. When the yellow combines with the red of your door, it should create a shade of orange. However, you may need to play around with your exterior light fixtures and various shades of yellow or even orange to create the desired shade of orange on your door.

You can also use architectural mapping to recreate the entire exterior of your home. Architectural mapping creates a 3D rendering of your home and using a computer program, creates a lighting segment that can change the color or even texture of your home. Consider this: your otherwise bland and boring white vinyl siding could become beautiful brick or rustic wooden shakes thanks to and through the use of architectural mapping.

For more great lighting tips, check out Arcadian Lighting, where you can discover the best option for light fixtures