The home is where we retreat to at the end of the day, and it makes sense to make it as inviting and comfortable as possible. But despite all the rearranging and redecorating, many still forget to pay attention to the lighting.
Lighting plays a huge role in creating the right ambience to lift our mood. If you want to elevate your home and turn it into an amazing place to relax, here’s what you can do to create awesome mood lighting.
Smart bulbs
Replacing some of the light bulbs in the home with smart bulbs is the quickest way to create mood lighting. The smart bulb comes with different modes of lighting and colours to suit the ambience and vibe you want to create, with settings such as fireplace, romantic night, sunset or disco.
Best of all, you can control it all via a smartphone app.
Neon lights
Neon signs remain a hot interior design trend that will add a funky and very Instagrammable touch to your home. Neon lights exude a lot of personality, and are an amazing way to play up the lighting in your room. They’re also great as a backdrop for those impromptu TikTok and Snapchat videos.
While getting a neon sign to put up is easy to do, why not take it a step further by getting a neon mirror? Neon mirrors can double as a night light, and give off a muted glow, which is perfect for house parties as well.
Hanging clouds
Having hanging cloud lights together with smart bulbs bring a ton of fun! The unique shape and lighting choice at home is a creative way to have fun with home décor. It’ll certainly catch the attention of house guests. Hang the cloud lights in a corner of a room, and the space transforms into a cosy nook.
Aurora lights
If you must splurge, getting yourself a good aurora light projector may be the best investment yet! With the aurora light projector, you’ll be able to bask under the magic of the northern lights every night in your room. You’ll never be bored with them because you’ll be able to change the movement, speed and colour of the aurora lights.
Floating bed
Hidden lighting under a bed is both modern, aesthetically-pleasing and functional. Placing strips of LED lights under the bed creates a futuristic floating bed vibe, but also provide a nice calming light when you get up in the middle of the night for a snack, or to use the bathroom.
The cool lighting is just bright enough to illuminate your way without disturbing the other occupants of the room.
Glow in the dark
Glow-in-the-dark stickers are great for both adults and children who can’t sleep in a pitch-black room at night. Glow-in-the-dark stickers are also fun because they often come in themes such as constellations and planets, or dinosaurs.
These stickers can be stuck all over the ceiling to create a starry night sky in the bedroom or on the wall. When the lights are turned off, the glow-in-the-dark stickers give out a faint and magical glow to lull everyone to sleep.
Fairy lights
Fairy lights are great because they can be used in so many ways to create different moods. While often thrown over a Christmas tree or simply strung up from one end of the wall to another in student dorms, fairy lights can be jazzed up to fit the adult home.
You can drape a gauzy curtain over the fairy lights to create a soft, romantic glow, or wrap them around twigs in a vase to create stunning corner lighting. If the lights are long enough, you can even spell words on the wall with them.
Salt lamps
A salt lamp is essentially a salt rock or crystal that has been hollowed out and fitted with a light bulb. Salt lamps have several medical claims, and are said to help improve breathing and sleep.
Although the benefits aren’t entirely proven, salt lamps still give off a beautiful glow in the room. To enjoy their warm amber glow at night, place them on your bedside table or in a corner of the room.
Paper lamps
Having paper lamps in place of a traditional lampshade is another elegant way to diffuse and soften the light while using standard light bulbs. Some paper lamps come in intricate patterns and illustrations which further add a hint of art, character and style into the home.
You can change up the ambience of any room just by choosing different paper lamp patterns, shapes and colours.
Creative candleholders
Candles are great to use to create a romantic and calm setting. However, they can be made better by just simply placing the candles in creative candle holders or jars.
The shadows cast from the flame bring the patterns on the candle holder to life. To elevate plain candle holders or jars, you can place a candle carousel on top of the jar and watch the creative patterns spin around the room.
Strip lights
Strip lights are different from rope lights simply because strip lights are flat and ribbon-like, and do not come in a plastic tube.
Strip lights also light up brighter than rope lights and can be cut at any point to fit, making them a more adaptable lighting option. Due to their bright light, you can use strip lights to create accent walls or complement dark interiors.
You can also create geometric shapes on the walls and ceiling using the strip lights. This way, no walls or ceilings look the same even if friends and family try to copy your design.
Ladder lights
Are you bored of the usual way of hanging up lights? Try throwing a string of lanterns or fairy lights along the length of a ladder. The height of the ladder adds definition to the charming and rustic lighting style too.
This article was first published in theSun Buzz Home Improvement edition.
