The Magic of Light

Lighting Can Make or Break a Room

There are two trends I have noticed over and over while doing consultations in clients’ homes and offices: clutter and inadequate lighting. This month’s newsletter is about how to improve the lighting in your space.

Human beings, like plants, are drawn to light. Appropriate lighting can literally draw people to a space and draw people together. 

I had a client with a neglected formal living room. It had one lamp. I suggested she get 2 lamps and place one on each side of her sofa. When I called her a week later, she said, “We never used to use the living room, now we are in there all the time.”

Debate in New York Times about Why So Many People are Resistant to or Unhappy with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

The New York Times had an article on January 7, 2007 about why sales of compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs are not growing as quickly as expected. Many people noted they did not like the quality of the light the CF’s, calling it harsh. Compact Fluorescents are not any brighter than comparable incandescent bulbs, but the color of the light is different: cooler or whiter. Incandescent (Edison) light bulbs create light that is warmer and perceived by many people as more welcoming.

The difference can be explained by “color temperature.”

Learn About Color Temperature and Select the Best Light for You

Incandescent (Edison-type) light bulbs create artificial light that is closest to firelight and candlelight. This is the kind of warm light that we are instinctively drawn to. 

The warmth or coolness of light is measured in “degrees Kelvin”; the lower the number, the warmer the light. Candle light has a color temperature of 2000 degrees Kelvin. Incandescent light bulbs have a color temperature of 2700 - 2800.  When using fluorescent or energy saving compact fluorescents use ones that have a color temperature as close to 2700 Kelvin as possible. “Warm White” fluorescents have a color temperature of 2700 – 3500.  “Cool White” or “Daylight” fluorescents have a color temperature of 4100, while full-spectrum lights have a color temperature of 5100-6000 or higher.

Full Spectrum light is actually a cooler, bluer form of light. It approximates the color temperature of a blue sky.  Full spectrum bulbs do not have the warmth that draws people together.  The best use for your full spectrum lamp is as task lighting for extended reading or fine craft work.

Now, if the lighting manufacturers will only label their bulbs with the color temperature and simple explanations, instead of confusing and vague names.