It’s been well over 140 years since the first lightbulb was turned on, 100 years since they completely replaced traditional arc lamps and roughly 40 since the advent of energy-efficient bulbs. In all this time, however, it wasn’t just the technology that was developing at a record pace, but our understanding of how it can be used to style our homes. 

From dark and dusky mood lighting to set the tone for an intimate garden dinner, to bright, warm living rooms and crisp kitchens, interior designers and homeowners alike have been working in lockstep with engineers to bring the very best of modern design to interiors around the country. Now it’s your turn. And with this guide, you’ll have all the know-how you'll need to reinvent any room in your home.

• Types of Lighting
• How Lighting is Used
• Lighting by Room
• How to Pick the Right Bulbs
• How Much Light Do I Need?
• Commonly Asked Questions
• Shop by Brand
• Shop Lighting
• What's Next?

When undertaking any lighting project, you should first become accustomed to how lighting can best be used to accent your current design. Typically, there are 3 ways lighting is used and each has a very specific purpose. The best pieces of interior lighting design are built upon layers using these 3 styles.  

Ambient

Otherwise known as the main source of illumination in your room, ambient light is the best place to start whenever lighting a room from scratch. It is more often than not the ‘mood setter’ and will be the foundation that all of your other bulbs will have to match. Typically, bathrooms benefit most from clean daylight white (a temperature of around 5000K), while bedrooms, living rooms and the like tend to prefer the cosier warm white. Either way, ambient lighting is best achieved with ceiling lights using multiple recessed lights, strip lighting or hanging fixtures and lamp shades.

Accent

With the bulk of your room lit, it’s now time to focus on more decorative elements. Accent lighting is the perfect way to highlight a particular area or focal point. This could be a painting, bookshelf or appliance – essentially whatever part of the room you would like to pull focus.  This can be done easily with bookended wall lights or directed spotlights.

Task

In contrast to more decorative accent lights, task lighting is wholly practical. More common in kitchens, bathrooms and offices, it is used to highlight specific tasks that need to be carried out. Back-lit mirrors are a prime example, as well as desk lamps and under cabinet strip lights. The key thing to remember with this type of lighting is subtly. More often than not, you will not need powerful lights for task lighting, with the smaller (often less expensive) options doing the job without detracting from your overhead ambient fittings.

When it comes to lighting a kitchen, layout is key. Far more than any other room as you’ll be spending more time working in your kitchen than anywhere else. What fittings you’ll need and what colour bulbs will depend almost entirely on the finish of your worktops, kitchen cabinets, floors and walls.

Lighter kitchens for example, as most tend to be, can benefit from slightly warmer light – particularly in the evenings. Darker, moody setups, however, may need a dash of cooler, white light to take the edge off and keep them practical. For those uncertain temperatures between 2700 – 3000 kelvins tend to offer the most flexibility when paired with suitable tasks and ambient lighting.

If you do opt for this slight warmer approach, we encourage you to mix things up a bit with your other sources of light. Task lighting in particular. Not only does this add an extra layer to your design, but it also makes the task lighting stand out if used in conjunction with ambient. As for accent lighting, this is where you have the most room to be creative. Highlight a kitchen island with a hanging chandelier, spotlight your favourite piece of art or draw focus to a dining table. The options are endless so take the time to make your kitchen unique.

Lighting Tip: When working with downlights, take care not to overdo it. An average 4 x 4 room typically only needs 6.

When it comes to bedrooms, a common mistake is to do too much. Whilst we do recommend taking the time to layer your lighting, rarely do you need to overcomplicate things by illuminating the room too much and making it difficult to relax. For ambient lighting, focusing on the perimeter is a great rule to set for yourself. It also allows you a bit more freedom to personalise the centre of the room with decorative accent light.

It’s task lighting however that is the key to any bedroom and quite possibly what you will be making the most use of. Whether this is a lamp for reading, a pendant above a desk or even an adjustable sconce to keep a small writing desk lit, take care to keep your task lighting compact and fit for purpose. Warm colours and amber glows are the best bet for bulbs here, though depending on how much work you intend to get done you may want to increase the temperature up to and above 3000k.

More so than other rooms, bathroom lighting can be cleanly split up into multiple zones. These will not only determine the style of light you want to choose but also the quality of the fitting as many will have to be rated for resistance against dust and water ingress/immersion.

Zone 0: Inside the Bath & Shower Floor
Being subject to constant water, any fitting installed in these areas must be IP67 rated, meaning totally immersion proof. They will also need to be low voltage. 

Zone 1: Above the Bath or Shower (to a height of 2.25m)
Brighter overhead spotlights are an ideal choice above a shower or bath at cooler white colours of 3000k plus. Spreading these around will not only save valuable space but also maximise coverage. Bear in mind, however, lights installed in this zone need a minimum rating of IP44 to protect them from splashes and sprays. That being said, IP45 tends to be the recommended choice in most circumstances.

Zone 2: 0.6m Outside the Perimeter of the Bath & Shower (2.25m above the floor)
This zone, including an area around your basins within 60cm on your taps should have fitting rated to at least IP44 (though this isn’t necessarily a requirement). Pendant lights, directional lighting and even accent fittings in niches or alcoves can all fall into this category and provide an opportunity to make your bathroom less clinical and more comfortable.

1. Check the Fit

The most crucial factor when picking out new bulbs, their fit will determine which light fitting, they are suitable for. To help categorise these different types, each bulb you find should be marked with a letter and a number - the letter detailing which kind of fitting and the number its size in millimetres. 

If you are struggling to determine which type of bulb your fitting calls for, the precise code e.g E14 should be listed in the technical data. In this case, an 14mm ‘Edison’ base. Other bases include bayonet bulbs, which are installed with push and twist actions as well as pin bulbs. These types in particular have an additional measurement between the pins which is added to the type code.

2. Type of Light

Bulb types can be easily separated into three groups: Halogen, CFLs (or Compact Fluorescent Lamps) and LEDs. The latter of which tend to be favoured among homeowners. Not only are LEDs far more energy efficient, but they also last far longer than most halogens and offer instant illumination whilst CFLs have been known to be slow to start up.

All the same, there are plenty of reasons to opt for CFLs – speed and convenience, for example. In addition to being on the cheaper side, these bulbs are available in a wide range of sizes and outputs – perfect for quick fixes and smaller lighting projects in extensions and dens.

3. Brightness

Before energy-saving technology, it was very common for bulbs to be measured simply by their wattage. The more powerful the bulb, the brighter it would be. These days, however, it is not quite as simple with modern bulbs able to produce far more light than older halogens whilst using less power.

This being the case, a new measure was introduced in lumens which tracks the actual light output of the bulb. As before though, the higher the lumens the brighter the bulb. Around 400 should be plenty for task lighting, a bedside lamp for example, with up to and over 2500 required for a good-sized bedroom. 

4. Colour Temperature

Just as important as the brightness of your bulb, its colour temperature will also have a significant impact on whatever room it’s installed in. Measured in Kelvin, these temperatures range from Daylight at roughly 6500K to Candlelight closer to 1600. It’s this warmer, yellow light that is so common in older homes with incandescent bulbs.

As a standard rule, daylight bulbs are more suited to kitchens and bathrooms as they light colours more neutrally. Mirrors in particular should be lit with white light to get a more accurate reflection. As for bedrooms, living rooms and other communal spaces the choice is personal. Many prefer warmer, cosier bulbs though you may find layering these with daylight task lighting more to your liking. 

Another value to keep in mind alongside the temperature itself is each bulb's CRI (Colour Rendering Index). Whilst this may sound complicated, this is simply a number assigned to gauge how well the light from the bulb can show true colours. In essence, how yellow a banana looks or red an apple. Whilst anything above 80 is considered acceptable, the higher this number the better.

5. Shape

The shape of your bulb will, by and large, determine the coverage of your light as well as the final finish. This could be everything from a full 360-degree spread to thinner beams and spotlights better suited to security or task lighting. Whilst they are quite a few options to choose from, many are better suited to specific kinds of fitting. Common bulb shapes include:

Whilst your light levels are largely dependent on personal preference, there is a simple calculation you can do to get a baseline understanding of the ideal lumen output for any given room. Simply calculate how many square meters you are dealing with and then multiply this by 250. 

For example, a 5 x 5m room has a total area of 25 square meters. Multiple 25 by 250 and you get a guideline of 6250 lumens.

Remember, however, this will need to be split up across your ambient, accent and task lighting. And by a different degree depending on the purpose of the room, your budget and, of course, your style.

What Does LED Mean?

Light emitting diode. These lights are famed for producing light instantly and up to 90% more efficiently than older incandescent bulbs. To work, an electrical current passes through a built-in microchip sending a signal to numerous diodes which in turn emit a bright light.

How Bright is a Lumen?

Fortunately, the scale of lumens is an easy one to understand. 1 lumen is the same amount of light as 1 candle. The equivalent of 5000 lumens then (roughly how many you would need for a 20 square meter room) is 5000 candles.

Despite manufacturing lights for residential and commercial applications for well over 30 years, Saxby Lighting has lost none of their passion for innovating unique lighting solutions.  Supplying some of the UK’s favourite ranges of interior and exterior fittings.

From small-scale strip and spot lighting to spruce up and extension to ceiling lights, motion sensor security lights and light posts, we have everything you’ll need to illuminate your home and garden. Find your perfect interior and exterior fittings right here.

Looking for more inspiration? Take a look at our wide range of product and project guides - covering an array of subjects from garden renovations to painting and decorating, installing stunning lighting set-ups to building out a kitchen or bathroom from scratch and much, much more. Take the leap today and start your DIY journey right here. For direct help and advice, you can also contact our award-winning customer service team.