Our Essential Guide to Choosing your Perfect Light

This is super quick guide to the essential 3 things you need to know before choosing any light – for the ceiling lights, wall lights, outdoor lights, bathroom lights or just a table or floor lamp.

Different rooms require different kinds of lighting. Kitchens and bathrooms need to be bright but living rooms reflect your mood and the lighting should be flexible so it can change with the mood you want to create from bright and clear to warm and cosy; it’s the same for dining areas, these can be bright for everyday use but dialled down to set a more intimate atmosphere for entertaining. These effects can be achieved by layering your lighting by using ceiling lights, wall lights and picture lights, table or floor lamps and using technology from simple things like dimmer switches and smart lamps all the way to lighting control systems We are not going to go into creating these types of looks, we are going to stick to the essential things you should consider before you buy any light, even one to fit into and existing scheme.

It is an amazing fact that people in the UK generally only buy lighting once every 7 years. So when you make that important purchase chances are you will be living with it for a long time. All the more reason to spend a few moments to ensure you make the right choice. So wherever you are going to put a light, even a table light, here are the three things that will help you select the perfect one and avoid the two most common mistakes made when choosing a light which are choosing a light that is too small and does not give out the right amount of light.

The 3 Essentials to Perfect Lighting

1. Size of the Light

Knowing the dimensions of the room or space the light will illuminate will help decide the size of the light you need and how much light (lumens) it provides.

2. How much Light – Lamp holders & Lumens

What is it that you want the light to do? – For example;  should it be bright enough to illuminate the whole room? Add light for dark corners or spaces? Be bright enough for working or reading? To create an ambience? To add a feature to your interior design? – this will determine the design and functionality of your light.

Do you want to be able to vary the amount of light?  This can be done by using dimmer controls and switches or by layering your lighting and using a number of different lights.  This will help decide if you want one light or more than one.

3. What Colour of Light?

There are different shades of white, as paints can be both warmer and colder, effective the feel of the room. Lighting is just the same, there are many different shades of white, in general we talk of Warm white being more yellow and giving a cosier feel, or Cool white being more blue giving a feeling of clarity.

What colour light do you want – bright cool light or a warmer cosier light? This will help determine what type of lamp or LED you may want.

1. Size of Your Light

Diameter or Width – deciding the right size of your light

Ceiling Lights

If you are looking for a light to hang in the centre of a room then start with the size of the room.

The most common mistake in choosing a centre light that is too small. There is no substitute for seeing a light fitting before a decision is made but if you are unable to visit a lighting showroom, see our stockists page for a list of local lighting experts. Get out the tape measure and check the dimensions of any light you are looking at against the light you currently have. If you do not have a light in place cut a circle out of old paper to represent the diameter you are looking at and hold it up in the place you are thinking of putting the light. Does it look the right size?

As a very rough guide interior designers use a quick calculation to guide them. Take the length and width of the room or space, add them together and then take 8.3% of that number. This will give you a guide as to the ideal diameter of a light for that room.

Room size 3.5 meters wide + 4 meters long = 7.5m x  .083 = 62cm diameter.  This a rough guide and individual styles vary but it gives a good starting point.

Table Lamps

At the risk of stating the obvious the bigger the space the bigger and more dramatic the table lamp can be. Remember if putting a table lamp against a wall or on a shelf, choose a space saving shape, oval or slim rectangle shade as a round shade needs more space. Shades are great for adding style and interest, providing flexibility to lighting levels and creating atmosphere. A tip from our for deciding the size of shade for your favourite base is that the bottom diameter of the shade should be at least twice the width of the widest part of the lamp base (usually the base itself). Styles change however and shades provide an easy way to change a look and style and add a splash of a new favourite colour so do not be afraid of breaking the rules and creating your unique look. Remember though – the thicker the material of the shade the less light will come through. The pools of light at the top and bottom of the shade will be brighter in contrast to a darker shade than a lighter one.

Height

The height of the ceiling and the look you are wanting will determine how low the bottom of the light will be. The distance from the ceiling to the bottom of the light is called the total drop of a light. It is important there is enough room underneath the light for whatever activity will take place.  That may be walking underneath, it may be over a dining table, work area, breakfast bar, in a stairwell, by a bedside, or in a corner.

Here our rough guides helps out in finding the right height.

A standard ceiling in a modern home is generally about 8 feet / 2.43 meters. To allow for walking beneath the light fitting 38cm – 40cm / 14 – 15 inches is usually considered the maximum drop. Another way to determine the drop is to measure the height of your room or space, deduct the drop of the light and then ensure you have plenty of space to allow people to pass underneath usually calculated as at least 6 feet 9 inches / 2.05 meters.

For kitchen breakfast bars, over tables or in stair wells, Pendant lights are often used on a longer drop to direct light and create a feature. The rough guide rule here is the bottom of the light should not interfere with line of sight when stood at the work top or seated at the table and should be at least 5 feet 6 inches / 1.67m from the floor.

Use our useful Minimum height filter, once you’ve found the height you are looking for.

When hanging lights beside a bed to act as reading lights (good way to save space on the nightstand) the light should be above the reading position. The rough guide suggests the lights should hang just above the height of the head board. Remember if there are small children in the house the cables of these lights should be secured to avoid a hazard for small children.

Hanging more than one Light in a group.

If you are hanging lights over a breakfast bar, dining table, or centre piece here is a rough guide tip for working out spacing:

Measure the length of the island / table / feature. Decide how many pendant lights you want to hang and the diameter of each. Add all the diameters together and take away from the length of the feature say a kitchen island. So the island is 200cm, the pendants have a diameter of 35cm and there are 3, 35cm x 3 =105cm, take this away from the length of the island  105cm – 200cm (length of the island) = 95cm.  Now to account for each end of the table add the diameter of one more pendant 3 + 1 = 4 and divide the subtracted number 95cm by this number 95cm / 4 = 23.75cm. This is the space to leave between each pendant and at each end of the island before hanging the first pendant.

If you had chosen 2 pendants with a diameter of 40cm the space would be 40cm with the centre of the first pendant being 40cm in from the end of the island.  If the number you end up with for spacing is less than half the diameter of the pendants think if they will look too close together, if it is more than 1.5 times the diameter will they look too far apart?  Following the height guide the bottom of the pendants should be at least 170cm from the floor. For a breakfast bar they should be ideally above head height.

2. How Much Light?

Once you have decided the dimensions and drop of your light you need to consider how much light it will give out. Light output is measured in Lumens, the energy used to create the light is measured in Watts. The higher the Lumens the brighter the light, the lower the watts the less energy is being used. The most efficient lamps have the highest lumens / watts ratios.

To calculate how many lumens you need for a room the rough guide suggests the following:

Work out the square footage of your room by multiplying the length by the width. For example, a room 3m x 4m would be 12 sq. meters or 13 feet x 9 feet 10 inches = 128 sq. ft.  Then multiply by the number of lumens per square meter / foot required  see blow:

General purpose lighting needs 10 to 20 lumens per 1 sq. foot / .093 sq. meter. (interesting fact this is called a foot-candle)

Hallways, corridors and stairwells need 5 to 40 lumens. Some of these areas are lit for effect rather than for a bright light, others are more brightly lit for guidance. Here the lumens required need to assessed with the lighting level required – lower for ambience and effect, brighter for utility.

Kitchen and Bathroom lighting need  70 /80 lumens per 1 sq. foot / .093 sq. meters

Reading / task lights need a minimum 450 lumens

So if the room is 12 sq. meters or 128 sq. feet for general purpose lighting it would be

12 sq. meters /.093= 129 x 15 = 1935 lumens for a good level of general lighting.

128 sq. feet x 15 = 1920 lumens

15 being the midpoint between 10 and 20 lumens per sq. meter

An old 60-watt lamp should give the same light output of at least 800 lumens so our room would need at least the equivalent of 2.5 60 watt lamps.

This would suggest that your chosen fitting, if it has standard E27 or SES lamp holders should have at least 3 lamp holders to allow you to get sufficient light.

If you select a fitting with G9 or G4 lamp holders you will need to make sure there are sufficient lamp holders to generate the lumens required – most 40 watt G9 lamps will produce about 480 lumens so you would need at least 4 lamp holders in your light fitting. (1935 lumens/ 480 lumens = 4.03 lamp holders). A Halogen G4 capsule lamp gives 250 lumens so the fitting would need 8 lamp holders.

Now we have got the dimensions, the number of lamp holders and type of light we can consider the colour of the light wanted.

3. The Colour of Light

Lamps can give off light of many different colours – from a bright, hard, blue tone of light all the way down to a warm orange glow of light. This colour of the light and the light temperature are measured on the Kelvin (K) temperature scale. The lower the Kelvin the more yellow/orange the colour of the light gets whereas, with higher Kelvin number, the light gets whiter and brighter. The most common colour temperature used in the UK is between 2700 Kelvins and 3000 Kelvins. 4000 Kelvin is generally used in kitchens and Bathrooms – this is a bright white light but it is quite a hard light and does not suit everyone. Daylight lamps are usually around 5000 – 6000 kelvins.

It is always best to visit a specialist lighting retailer to see the difference and the effect the colour of the light may have on your chosen fitting or lamp shade before making you final decision. For instance a bright white light may not look well in a more traditionally styled light fitting.

Remember a lamp that is opaque will give out a different light to a clear lamp. This is especially important for table lamps where a clear lamp may allow the shadow of the filaments to show up on the shade fabric, or create a tinge to the colour of the fabric.

READY TO GO

Now you are prepared with the essential information for choosing a light fitting you can get on with the really fun part – selecting a light that represents you, that will show off your favourite space and that will bring you joy every time you look at it. There is a light out there for everyone. We recommend looking at our stockists page  and visiting your local specialist lighting showroom,  where you will see a great variety of styles and where you will receive expert and knowledgeable advice about all aspects including technical, installation and maintenance advice for your purchase. To get started why not browse our inspiration pages, and products and use our stockists page to locate a specialist showroom near you.

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