Our home dining rooms serve a variety of purposes—they can be used to entertain visitors, sit down for a family meal, or even provide extra space for a new hobby. But no matter what you choose to do with these areas, they can’t be used without the proper lighting. Even so, this hasn’t stopped some homeowners from overlooking this aspect in the interest of other pursuits. This is the importance of functional dining room lighting and how you can properly illuminate this section of your home.
Why Dining Rooms Require Practical Lighting
Dining rooms, by nature, are hubs of activity. Whether it’s rushing in and out with plates of food or vigorously working on a personal project, there’s always movement in these spaces—requiring the ability to clearly see. This means, for starters, interior lighting fixtures will be your sole resource for navigating this space and being able to use it to it’s fullest potential. Directed task lighting, specifically, will even allow you to better hone in on your table and put you in the correct frame of mind for certain activities.
This isn’t all though. In fact, dining room lighting is also necessary for establishing the proper ambiance during meals and other group happenings. You may want the environment to appear more elegant while sitting at the table, or evoke the feelings of warmth and joy in all those who gather there. Lighting plays a key role in accomplishing this by triggering the right sensory receptors in a person’s mind. With the right type, brightness, and color of light, you can fully set the mood for an evening and help ensure everyone has a good time.
But, most importantly, lighting allows you as the homeowner to accent certain parts of the room that you want guests to notice the most. This could be a particular art piece on the wall or a fancy set of tableware that you’re proud of. Either way, using certain fixtures can completely change how the room appears and even make things like color and texture appear more vivid. So, you’ll be able to present this area of your home in its best possible state.
How To Properly Light a Dining Room
Now that you’re aware of the importance of functional dining room lighting, you need to know how to set up an effective lighting plan for this space. Since, as mentioned previously, dining rooms can be used for several different things, it can be a challenge to find a lighting scheme that matches all your needs. Fortunately, by keeping a few specific rules in mind, you can create a space that can be subtly adjusted depending on the occasion and effective every single time. These are some steps for making this happen:
Decide on an Atmosphere and Needs
Before heading out to purchase your lighting fixtures, always take some time to assess what your specific needs are and the atmosphere you want the room to have. This will allow you to determine the best solutions for making your vision a reality. For those that want the space to feel open and classy, you’ll want to prioritize bright ambient lighting with a chandelier. However, if you’d prefer a cozy and homey vibe, wall sconces and dimmer, warmer lighting will be more effective. Keep in mind what you’ll be doing in this room to ensure that you’ll always have enough illumination to accomplish these tasks.
Set the Dining Table as the Focal Point
Once you create this plan for the space, you can start centering these features around the dining room table. This piece of furniture is the most important part of any dining room space because it’s the surface where all activities will take place. Whether you’re eating or playing games, the table should be highlighted to help retain the attention of those sitting around it. Without this focus, it’s much easier for individuals to become distracted and miss the atmosphere you tried so hard to create. So, any task lighting should always be positioned directly above the table top for the most effect.
Implement Several Lighting Layers
However, make sure that you don’t lose sight of the rest of the room in the process. After all, when certain corners of a room appear darker than others, it can develop feelings of isolation and make the space seem unbalanced. This is why supplying an area with multiple layers of lighting can make it appear more fleshed out and functional as a whole. In dining rooms especially, it’s most useful to pair overhead ambient lighting with the directed task illumination from a hanging pendant or chandelier.
Install Dimmers To Control Brightness
You should consider installing dimmers for your dining room lights as well. These pieces of equipment offer an advanced level of control over the brightness your lighting has and its overall impact on a space. Since not all events are going to require the same saturation, having the ability to adjust your lighting accordingly is key to accommodating certain situations. With this power, you’ll be able to set whatever atmosphere you wish—regardless of whether it’s professional or something more intimate.
Customize with Your Personal Style
Finally, purchase fixtures that best cater to your personal sense of style. While finding the right lighting arrangement is crucial to success, it’s also important that you don’t lose sight of what you want in the midst of all this preparation. These products are available in a series of different designs, shapes, and metal finishes—all to ensure you can find something that fits with your existing aesthetic. So, don’t be afraid to shop around and find something you love. Just make sure it aligns with the setup you’ve been envisioning for your dining area.
To find the perfect lighting options for any type of dining room setup, reach out to Bicycle Glass Co.. Our selection of hand-blown glass lighting includes everything from sophisticated chandeliers to practical and stylish pendant fixtures. This is why we can promise that you’ll be able to find something to fit both your practical and design requirements. For more information about our products or to ask questions, feel free to give us a call.
