Interior Design Lighting Tips! | Lighting Ideas For Your Home!

Hi everyone, it's Nick. Welcome and welcome back to my channel. Okay, in this video today, we are going to be talking about my interior design lighting tips. This is lighting 101. We're going back to basics here and really just understanding the best ways to light your home. Okay, but first I wanna thank today's sponsor, which is Milanote. Now, if you've watched my channel for a while, you know that I'm a really big fan of Milanote. I use it for all my YouTube videos. I use it for any design work. I use it for mood boards. I use it for everything. I love Milanote. My whole life is in Milanote. Now, I have used other note-taking apps. You're like, oh, Nick, have you tried? Yes, yes, I've tried that one. Whatever it is, I've tried it. It's still not as good as Milanote in my opinion. So I use Milanote to gather all of my inspiration images together and create beautiful mood boards and project plans. We're currently actually using Milanote to plan our custom build project, which is in the Okanagan, as you guys know. Honestly, we're doing the whole project into Milanote because it's really great to gather inspirational images that we like and really just save links of different products that we enjoy that we know we're gonna wanna come back to when we're further along in the project. Milanote has actually just introduced some brand new features that I know you guys are gonna love. And they've kindly agreed to give away five pro subscriptions to my viewers on my channel. All you have to do is sign up for free in the link in my description and Milanote will randomly select five people to give them an upgraded pro subscriptions. So thank you Milanote for doing that giveaway and also for creating such an amazing product that actually helps me run my life and also for sponsoring this video. So for three things, thank you Milanote. Now let's get back to the video. Okay, so interior design lighting tip number one is to layer your lighting. So first of all, let's just go over real quick. I've mentioned on this channel before but there are three types of lighting, okay? There's ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. So first ambient lighting, that is just basically the main functioning light that you're probably gonna be having in the room. That could be in the center of the room. It could be LED lighting strips but it's meant to sort of light the whole space. And then you've got task lighting which is lighting that is meant to accomplish a specific task. So that could be pendants over top of your kitchen island. So when you're using, you know, chopping stuff in your kitchen. It could be a floor lamp that you have sitting next to your couch so that you can use that while you're reading a book or maybe it's next to your bed. It could be in your office where you have a table lamp that's there for when you're working late, right? That's the lighting that is meant to be there to help you accomplish a task. And then of course you've got accent lighting which is just that little tiny extra bit of lighting that is meant to accent a specific feature in your home. So that could be maybe some ceramics that you have. That could be like an art piece. It is there to accent the piece of art that you are trying to accent in your space. So the most important takeaway is that you need all three in your home. Most people don't forget about ambient lighting but they do forget task lighting and accent lighting. And the main tip here is that to create a really interesting space you're going to need different layers of lighting. And when I say layers, I mean again incorporating all three and also at different varying heights and in different areas of your home. You don't want some light in some areas of your living room but then have kind of a blank area where you don't have anything at all. You want a really dynamic environment that incorporates all three types of lighting and incorporates it in different locations and at different heights in each space. So beautiful rooms that have a really thought out well-designed lighting plan usually incorporate some ambient lighting but they'll also have some task lighting for accomplishing different tasks in different areas of whatever room you're talking about. And they will also have some accent lighting to sort of highlight those little extra special touches that they'll have in each room. A well thought out lighting plan is key to creating a beautiful and functional space. Okay, my second interior design lighting tip isn't actually in the interior. Bear with me. That is to make sure that if you have a balcony or an outdoor space to really also don't forget to put lighting outdoors as well. So what tends to happen, especially in these cold winter months that we're heading into is that sometimes if you don't have any lighting outdoors, it's basically you look outside and you'll just see pitch black. And what that will do to your interior space, it creates a really dark barrier between your interior and the outside world. So if you're staring out your window and all you're seeing is a black wall, it's gonna close into your interior and it's gonna create a scenario where you can't see beyond that black wall. So it's gonna make your space feel smaller and it's gonna feel more cramped. But by putting say spotlights in your outdoor planters or lighting up maybe a tree that you have outdoors, you're sort of creating some dimension to the outdoors. So instead of creating that blank sort of dark pitch black wall, you will create dimension to the outdoor space which will make your interior feel bigger. Does that make sense? It's almost training your eye to think that there is a world five, 10, 15 feet beyond that big black wall, thereby making your interior feel a lot bigger, especially in these cold winter months when it can already feel so crammed and dark inside, you're sort of opening up yourself a little bit more to the outside world. So some of the more obvious ways is you can also create outdoor lamps or outdoor wall sconces, as well as of course using outdoor stringer lights are also another great way to sort of light up outdoors and therefore creating a little bit more dimension in your interior space as well. Okay, the third interior design lighting tip I have for you is to consider diffusing your lights if you can. So if you actually think about like clouds in the sky on like a really cloudy day, do you ever notice how much better you and other people look on sort of cloudy days rather than sitting in direct sunlight when there's not a cloud in the sky? It's because the sun on its own sometimes can be really glaring and create really harsh shadows. But as soon as you have a cloud that maybe drifts in front of it, everything appears a little bit more softer and softer light is more flattering light. Every photographer will tell you that. That is also true for your interior space as well, which is that if you have interior lights that are diffused, you're able to create something that's more flattering, not just for people, but for all of the other things that you have in your home as well. Now, sometimes you maybe want an exposed light and that's totally fine, but just consider ways that you can diffuse light because it's usually going to be a lot more flattering. It's gonna be less harsh. It's not gonna create those really harsh shadows that tend not to be that flattering on people or things. So if you can diffuse it, it just softens light, it breaks it up, and it'll honestly make your whole space and everybody in it look a whole lot better. Okay, my next interior design lighting tip for you all is to consider using LED lighting strips. Oh, as you guys know, if you've seen my channel before, I'm a really big fan of LED lighting strips, especially if they are recessed. If you can't actually see them, they're able to provide a really beautiful soft glow. This just creates a really modern look that honestly, I think not a lot of people are doing. Like, I think it's, you see all these beautiful pictures online and a lot of people are really like, God, what makes that place just look so special? And this is usually one of the things, but people aren't doing it very much in their home. And I feel like if they are doing it, they're considering that really kooky, crazy stuff, you know, because unless you're like a TikTok star or you're like a gaming Twitch streamer or something, I'm not talking about bright pink or blue. I'm talking about really beautiful, warm, glowing light that you can see under kitchen cabinets. You can see it under beautiful bathroom vanities. You can see it behind mirrors, just really sort of adds some dimension and just makes it feel really, really special. But I will also say, again, just to reiterate, I'm talking about warm, soft, beautiful white light. I'm not talking about crazy flashing pink or blue strobe lights. That's not what I'm talking about here. So I actually have LED lighting strips that's recessed here in my living room. I have it always set to white. I have the option of choosing every color that I want. And I gotta say like maybe orange for a Halloween party, if you're feeling crazy. But for the most part, it is always, always, always on. And it is always a just beautiful, nice, warm white. And it just creates a gorgeous ambient glow that is just beautiful. Okay, next interior lighting tip is to match your fixtures to other elements in your home. Now, this can be texture, this can be material, this can also just be color. But this is now really speaking to making your lighting plan more cohesive in the rest of your home. So what are some ways you can do this? Well, let's say you are using like a matte black fixture in your kitchen, consider matching that to your matte black faucet, or maybe even your matte black door pulls. This will go a long way to integrating that lighting that you're using into all the other materials in your space, and it makes it feel a lot more cohesive, which is really the name of the game here, right? So maybe in your living room, if you've got a brass floor lamp, maybe you also have some brass hardware on your media console, or maybe you have it on your coffee table. I don't know your space, but the point is, is you can start to see these little metal accents sort of incorporated into other areas. So it starts to work all those different lighting fixtures and make it cohesively work with the rest of the room. The bathroom is really key here because there's usually lots of different metals going on there, right? So maybe it's your shower stack, maybe it's your tub filler, maybe it's your faucets, maybe it's all your accessories, your rope hooks, your toilet paper holder, whatever. Having that all match with maybe your sconces, that you have next to your mirrors. That really makes a huge difference to tie in that lighting with the rest of the room. Really important. And it's not just metals. Maybe you have a rattan floor lamp or a rattan pendant. Maybe there's room for you to use the same texture or a similar texture in other pieces in the same room. So maybe with a rattan floor lamp, you might have a jute rug, or maybe you also have a rattan side chair. Maybe you have some accessories or different decor pieces that are made of rattan that help sort of tie in the lighting with the rest of the room. Okay, next tip is to use dimmers. Now, it used to be that you either had kind of the light switch or you had the little dimmer. Remember the little dimmer dials? But now, of course, with a lot of these LED light bulbs, this is less of an issue than it used to be before. Because now it's really easy, whether you control it through an app or control it on the little panel on the wall, whatever you need to do. There's lots of different ways that you can use some sort of dimming function in your lighting. I think it's something that's really underrated because usually when you're dealing with the tasks in your room or depending on the time of day or your headspace or what you're doing or whatever, you want different lighting for different times of the day to accomplish different tasks. That's really important. It's such a small thing, but it really creates just a beautiful experience. We know that when Mike and I, when we entertain and we have friends over, we usually like to have the lighting a little bit turned down so it's a little bit more intimate. It doesn't feel as glaring. It doesn't feel so intense. So you can have sort of nicer, softer, dimmer lighting for when you're entertaining guests. I personally think that it's just a nicer experience. It's just a little bit less harsh for people. And it's something that's so easy to do nowadays. So adding dimmers is a really great way for you to upgrade your lighting. Okay, my next interior design lighting tip is for you to use a consistent color temperature throughout your space. So I touched on, I think, in my interior design lighting mistakes video about which lighting temperature to use because first of all, I'm gonna kind of repeat what I said in that video in terms of don't use those really cool lights. Those are meant for offices and those are meant for hospitals. So you know how you walk into an office and they've got that like really glaring white light, you got the cubicles and it just feels, got that really like hospital vibes going on. You'll see that in offices all the time because it usually makes people really alert, which is good for the office. No one wants anybody to fall asleep on their desk. So that's helpful, but it's not really that warm, comfortable lighting that you probably want in your home. So leave the really bright, bright white stuff, leave that for maybe your garage. If that's honestly where you wanna put it in your own home, I'll allow that. But don't put that hospital lighting in anywhere else really in your home. It doesn't make sense in your living room. It does not make sense in your bedroom. Oh my gosh, do not put it in there. But one thing I did hear from you guys in that last video is that I tend to like really warmer light. Some people like a little bit more like 4,000 Kelvin. Well, a lot of people that like warmer light might want something like 2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin. I think that's a little bit fair that some people might like a little bit of a brighter white. Some people might want something warmer. That's kind of up to you. But what I do think you also need to consider is making sure that all the lighting is consistent throughout the space. Nothing will make your place look worse or just make all your different like furniture pieces and decor just off. Everything will look off. If you have a really warm light next to a really cool light, it'll bring out different colors in people's skin tones. It'll bring out different colors in your different pieces in your home, and it will not look consistent. Focus on making sure that all those different elements of the lighting plan that we talked about earlier are consistently the same color temperature. It will make your place look so much better. And in the end, just remember no hospital lighting. Save it for the garage and leave it at the office. We do not want that in our own home. Okay, so that's it for me for today, you guys. I'm gonna leave you here with my video of lighting mistakes. It's kind of similar to this one, except it really focuses in on those mistakes that people are making, and it goes into some detail on some of the subjects I talked about in this one. So I will see you all in that video. Thanks, bye.