Well-designed lighting can do so much more than help us see in darkness at the flick of a switch. If you’re planning to undertake some renovations, keep in mind that using clever lighting design to upgrade your home’s light installation can help increase your property value.
5 simple lighting upgrades that pack a punch in your home
As an experienced electrician, north shore based, I’ve seen firsthand how easy and effective it can be to give your home a new, brighter look – all through fairly simple upgrades to your lighting installations, fixtures and fittings. Here are some of my tips.
Landscape Lighting: Light Up The Great Outdoors
Adding some landscape lighting to your backyard, garden, driveway or courtyard can really give your home’s exterior the wow factor.
Even minor additions or tweaks to your garden lighting installations can dramatically improve your home’s nighttime look, and conjure the perfect post-sunset entertainment space. Features such as pathway lights, underlit trees, external accent lights and wall fixtures accentuate your property’s landscaping and your home’s exterior features.
What’s more, outdoor lighting can enhance your home security. Illuminated entry or exit points, like doors, windows and gates, can deter potential intruders and eliminate tripping hazards. Motion sensor floodlights will also alert you instantly in the event of trespassers entering your yard.
Recessed Down Lights: For An Understated Finish
If you’re aiming for a more refined, understated look following your home renovations, recessed down lights are a great choice. Lightweight and unobtrusive, they fit into the ceiling itself without external fittings.
Replacing ceiling-mounted lights with recessed lighting can give a room a fresh, minimalistic element. They’re perfect for smaller spaces like foyers and hallways but also, in a series, can make a contemporary option for larger living areas, so long as the light is distributed evenly. Fewer clunky light fixtures on the ceiling also make for easier cleaning – win, win.
Sconce Lighting: A Striking Design Element
For those wanting to up the ante design wise, sconce lighting provides an easy and aesthetically appealing accent. As a wall-mounted light fixture, sconces are a simple feature with a dramatic visual impact.
Depending on the look you’re going for, a sconce fixture (or two) can add a striking decorative element, highlight the focal point of the space, or really bring a room’s decor together. Great for formal dining rooms, hallways and entrances, or as reading lights, sconces can pack a punch as a room’s secondary light source, both brightening dark corners and accentuating stand-out features such as artworks.
Task Lighting: Make Your Home More User-Friendly
If you find yourself obscured by shadows at the kitchen counter, task lighting will help make your life easier. It simply involves illuminating dark, shadowy spaces by adding small light fixtures in or around the problem area to help you see better when going about your business – cooking, doing the laundry, reading, and so on.
Along with ambient and accent lights, task lighting is one of the three basic types of illumination for your home. Incorporating task lighting into your living areas and workspaces can pay dividends in terms of both aesthetics and function. From backlit mirror lighting in bathrooms, or under-cabinet lighting in storage drawers, to a simple desk reading light, a task lighting upgrade can help make your life easier and more productive.
Led Lighting: Powerful For Your Energy Footprint (And Wallet)
Energy efficiency is another important factor to consider when it comes to upgrading light installations, for your energy footprint and electricity bills alike.
If you’re after an environmentally friendly, low-energy alternative to help lower your lighting costs, we recommend LED lighting. With higher energy efficiency and a longer lifespan – lasting several years, and sometimes up to a decade – LED bulbs help cut down on your costs. Do the maths yourself with our handy LED savings calculator.
Another energy-efficient option well worth considering is dimmer lights. By allowing you to easily control the amount of light in a particular room at any given time, dimmers can decrease your home’s output of energy and help you save both energy and money.
If you’d like to learn more about how lighting upgrades can help improve your home, get in touch for a chat with Steve and the team at Electric Express today. We’re happy to help talk you through the best options for your lighting plan and offer quotes to suit your needs.