Are you looking to turn your living room into a cozy oasis? If so, there are many ways to accomplish this goal. Combining different styles, finishes, and textures is key in creating the perfect space for relaxation and entertaining.

With careful planning and creative touches, you can transform your living room into an inviting spot that will make everyone feel welcome. When creating the lighting of your dreams, you don’t have to stick to one particular design style.

Instead, try mixing and matching different pieces that appeal to you. Finishes like wood, metal, and glass can give the space a unique look while adding in an element of texture.

Change Your Bulbs

One of the best ways to alter the lighting in your living room is to change the bulbs. This is a great choice if you can’t change your lighting fixtures.

While there are many types of bulbs to choose from, you want to decide between cool, warm, or daylight lighting.

Cool lighting has a whitish tint and is bright, while warm lighting gives off more of a reddish tone. Daylight mimics the outdoors.

Generally speaking, cool lighting is better for workspaces because it brightens up the room without straining your eyes. Warm lighting creates a cozy atmosphere.

Floor Lamps

Floor lamps are perfect for tasking. This means that they light up one space extremely well for reading, working, or more. They provide light mainly to this one space, yet the lamp itself blends in with the surrounding decorations.

Floor lamps come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and their shades are also changeable. If you end up making cosmetic changes to your living room you can switch out the shade to match, without throwing away the entire lamp. Table lamps are also great for tasking, although their light won’t be as prominent.

Pendants

Pendants are a great way to provide ambient lighting in your room. They hang from the ceiling and fill the room with light, depending on their size.

You can find pendants in endless shapes, sizes, colors, and more. The best place for large pendants is in the center of the room so they can provide light to large spaces. If you need a lot of light, then smaller pendants are better for smaller spaces.

Chandeliers

Chandeliers are grand lighting fixtures, just like pendants, and offer tons of light. This is because they typically have several lights on them. Chandeliers make incredible focal points or conversation pieces.

Don’t get the wrong idea about chandeliers being too fancy for your space. There are many chandeliers that have a modern or contemporary feel with straight lines and no fluff that can be just as elegant.

If you’re wondering what the difference between a chandelier and a pendant is, though they’re both suspended from the ceiling, a pendant has one light, where a chandelier has many.

Combine Styles, Finishes, and Textures

When you’re considering a theme or color scheme for your living room, you might be thinking about the types of styles, finishes and textures that your lighting fixtures bring. While there’s a temptation to make everything match, most decorators will suggest an eclectic look when it comes to lighting.

You could do a variety of colors, textures and finishes, but have one defining theme. This way you avoid a cookie-cutter feel to your home and gives the room more personality.

Wall or Ceiling Lighting

In your home you most likely have hallways or other dark spaces that need to be illuminated. This is where wall lighting will come in handy.

Wall or ceiling lighting brings light to spaces that can be overlooked. Places like hallways, stairwells, steps, closets, entryways or transition rooms may not need as much lighting as a full living room, but needs some light for safety reasons. You can light up these smaller spaces by using accent lighting on the wall, or doing a flush mount light on the ceiling.

Keep in mind that these pieces could be purely functional and don’t necessarily need any true style.

Cozy Living Room Lighting Tips

Choosing your lighting can be a fun but overwhelming experience, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for, or how to create the lighting atmosphere. Here are some tips to consider before making any choices.

Think about the three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent. Ambient is the most common type of lighting that fills the room and sets off most of the environment; while task lighting usually brightens one space for tasking. Accent lighting brings a balance to all the different lights in the room, while sometimes accentuating a portrait, picture, or another piece in the room.

Take into account the size of your room. Too much lighting will overwhelm and too little will keep the room dark. You want a proportionate amount of lighting in the room.

Make your lighting a focal point. If you find a fixture you love and it goes with the rest of your interior decoration, consider making it a central theme of the room. This could be said for a lampshade as well, if you have no hanging lamps.

Are You Ready to Light up Your Room?

Making a cozy living space with lighting can be a fun experience, especially when you get to choose the type and style of lighting fixtures. Once you determine what your space is for, lighting selections will speak to you.

Do you need help lighting your space? Our professionals can help. Visit our webpage today to schedule your free consultation.