For Sensual Lovers, Lighting Is Important For Bedroom Atmosphere

You’re going to transform from thinking one main light is enough to needing more lights than you have mood swings

You’re on a date (you asked her in person because you’re a badass. No Tinder for you. Bye bye). She’s awesome, you get on well.

So well, in fact, she’s coming back to your place. With each step forward you can hear the celebratory trumpets cheering you on.

All the signs are good.

Back at your apartment and it’s time to make your way to the bedroom.

You’re a gentleman, you open the door for her and she turns the light on.

She turns round with a digusted look on her face and you ask her what’s wrong. She explains that she’s sorry but there’s no way she can be with someone who only has one glaring overhead light that attempting to blind her.

It’s not her, it’s you.

She leaves and you never see each other again.

Taking the time and effort to make sure your bedroom lighting is amazing will pay dividends later.

My old lighting used to be attrocious. The only light in my room was a set of four overhead bulbs which pointed to each corner of the room.

I wanted to be able to sit in bed and control the exact amount of light I could.

Because I naturally sit on the left side of my bed, I wanted just enough gentle lighting to comfortably read but not too much to keep me awake.

There are other lights strategically placed to maximise the bedroom.

I have slept incredibly well since as my brain has a chance to relax. I don’t lay there in a small panic trying to drift off, it’s just a natural process.

It’s even made work better.

I want to show you how you can feel the same way.

Common traps

You have lights in your bedroom already, of that I’m sure.

Even if they’re ceiling lights in the center of the bedroom, you can still see and that’s their job.

Your priorities up to now have been other pieces of furniture and the poor lighting has been left behind.

Not anymore.

Now it’s time to show everyone just how incredible you are at styling your bedroom.

I’m going to explain the secrets to each type of bedroom lighting and how you can manipulate it to create your desired effect.

Respect the bedroom

Designing any room in the home is difficult and the bedroom is no different.

There’s no point painstakingly deciding the exact hue, the precise saturation of the color for your walls if they produce the wrong atmosphere under lamp light.

Map out where in the room you want light to radiate from and they imagine how the light will spread.

The direction the fixture is pointing and what sort of lamp shade is attached are worth thinking about as they’ll affect everything.

You don’t want blue light in your bedroom (unless you can change the color of it when it bedtime rolls around). Blue light, mostly found in sunlight and computer screens, inhibits melatonin which is a chemical that triggers drowsiness and initiates the sleep cycle.

The color of light is a spectrum that ranges from warm yellows and oranges at one end to blue at the other and is measured in Kelvin (K).

Amber light has a value of 3500K or lower, 3500K to 4100K will produce white light and 4200K and above will give off blue light.

It’s recommended you don’t choose bedroom bulbs with more than 3000K and ideally as low as 2700K.

Layering light

Layering underpins everything in interior design – color schemes, different textured materials side by side.

It’s never more important than with lighting but it an area often overlooked.

When you speak to someone at a grocery store and endure their monotone voice, you can’t wait to get out of the shop.

Picture how boring their life is.

I bet their favorite meal is a bread sandwich. Yes, I do mean bread in between two pieces of bread.

Compare the grocery clerk to a celebrity who’s confident. You’ll hear their voice rise and fall, keeping your on your toes whilst you stare at them, confused that they are actually a real person.

This is my metaphor for explaining why you need layered lighting.

At the moment your bedroom is a grocery store assistant who scares people away after dates.

By adding multiple lights to your bedroom, it immediately makes it much more interesting to your brain.

The shadows are in place of the celebrity’s varying vocal tones. There’s mystery and there’s intrigue.

It’s time to go over the types of lighting and how they affect the bedroom.

Task lighting

What is bedroom task lighting? Task lighting is the obvious one to start with when we’re talking about the bedroom.

This kind of lighting is deliberately placed so that you can do things like read or write at your desk.

There’s usually a directional component to the lights too to focus on your book, phone, e-reader – whatever it is.

There are numerous ways to create task lighting.

Attach lights to the wall and direct the light towards you, use lamps on your nightstands or even hang pendant lights from the ceiling (this one will take a bit more work).

Task lighting can be any form of lighting, as long as it is someone concentrated and directly aids you in whatever it is you’re doing.

Accent lighting

You’ll use accent lighting to highlight particular area of your bedroom.

This could be bedroom art that you’ve put on the walls, maybe you really love your platform bed.

I don’t know.

You want accent lighting to be a soft glow that you forget about until you look up again and have a mini yeah, that’s awesome moment.

There are a ton of examples of people using colored lighting for their accent to put a delicious twist on things.

Can look tacky though so apply with caution.

Ambient lighting

Ambient lighting was the only lighting I had as a novice and it’s probably what you have at the moment.

This is the general type of lighting that covers the whole bedroom at once.

Although you should never rely on it as a sole source, it’s clear it’s important.

If you needed to vacuum, can you imagine how angry you’d be if you had to grab a lamp that was meant for task lighting and shine it on the spots of dirty floor awaiting a suck?

The power cable is only so long.

Ambient lighting is typically an overhead, hanging fixture which spreads light evenly. An adventurer that needs to reach all for corners of the globe.

If you’re still worried about how bright it’s going to be, a ton of people now use dimmer to manually control the intesity.

How to light a bedroom

You’re convinced you need better lighting. I’ve throw the facts at you and you’ve eaten them up. You’re a man of action though.

There’s only so much you can do after reading about accent lighting. Eventually you need to see it so you can actually change your bedroom.

This is where 99% of home improvement websites fail their readers.

I’m not going to fail you.

Not today. Not ever.

Ambient lighting

As you know, you need to have an overhead light for ambience. That is already going to be installed for you (or you’re going get an electrician to do it soon).

There needs to be even spacing on the ceiling between each overhead light. If there is one light, it will go in the middle of the ceiling but if there are more than one then there will be an even circumference between both lights.

Tall lamps that sit in the corner of the room are ambient lighting too.

They’re awesome. I place these as far away from my bed.

I don’t want to be selfish and neglect the rest of the bedroom.

Task lighting

Most people have two nightstands, one next to each side of the bed.

If you don’t have sconces, the bedside tables are perfect for sitting two lamps on. Nothing fancy.

They get the job done.

If you’re in the process of renovating your apartment then sconces are sleek. I bet George Cloony has sconces.

Accent lighting

Again, if you’re renovating and have artwork in your room then install a small spotlight in the ceiling that highlights the art.

In a standard room that’s 8 feet high, the spotlight should go approximately 2 feet away from the subject.

Higher ceilings need the spotlight to be positioned closer to the wall.

Get those photons bouncing back at eye level so you can appreciate as much of the artwork as possible.

A popular option is to rig lighting under the bed so the bottom of it glows. It can look great but there’s a chance you’ll make your bedroom look like it’s part of the set for an amateur-made fast and furious movie.

I would thoroughly research what you’re doing before wasting money.