What type of lighting for a living room?
A room for entertaining or relaxing, the living room is where the family gathers around the fireplace or in front of the television. Sometimes, the living room can also double as a dining room. So naturally, it's the place that gets the most attention when it comes to decorating. It is regularly the largest room in the house. One type of lighting isn't enough, or at least it can't suit all the moments you might spend there. You need to multiply light sources to illuminate areas of your living room and respect the different moods you want to create. This is where the notions of suspension salon or luminaire salon make their appearance.
How to light a living room?
Distinguishing between general and functional lighting
To properly light a room, you need to determine the areas to be illuminated. First, you'll need to distinguish between general and functional lighting.
General lighting is that which illuminates the whole room without switching on spot lights, scattered around various corners of the room. This general lighting is, in most cases, provided by your suspension luminaire positioned in the center of the room.
The majority of living rooms feature a ceiling light, a point of illumination on the ceiling connected to a switch at the entrance to the room. The center point is often equipped with a luminaire device (for luminaire connection device) which is a connection box for luminaires.
The Hoopzï range, with its woven electric wires, offers you the French aesthetic solution with its 1-wire suspensions or spider suspensions that can light you with 2, 3 or 5 bulbs. A clever and colorful idea for general lighting in your living room.
Discover our lighting fixtures and accessories for living rooms
In parallel, you'll also need to work on functional lighting to determine how to light your reading corner, or dining table for example. This lighting generally provides the extra brightness needed for the activity you want to have, depending on the time of day, and the activity you're busy with.
Think of your lighting by zones
First of all, we recommend zoning the different areas of your living room. Where will you position your sofas and armchairs, your dining room table, your TV, your reading corner? The intensity of the lighting you'll need actually varies according to your activities, so each zone corresponds to a different brightness to ensure your comfort. Some zones can be the subject of an auxiliary light allowing you to add more or less lumens.
The TV zone, for example, will not be lit with the same intensity or with the same luminaire as the dining zone. Did you know that a minimum intensity of 470 lux is usually recommended for the dining table, while 100 lux is sufficient for the TV area?
Hoopzï gives you the choice: its range of 4.5-meter long pendant lights with switch, or that of hanging light kits allow you to imagine every situation to ensure optimum functional lighting of your living room.
So, for your reading corner, you can choose the cord of your choice associated with the ASYMfloor-standing lamp. While you'd rather select a floor lamp, with a wire color in symbiosis with the tones of your walls, to position above the table.
And to further personalize your lighting idea, each Hoopzï suspension is equipped with an E27 socket that allows you to associate a lampshade or not.
What lighting should you choose for a living room?
We recommend choosing LED lighting, with a warm color temperature. We don't recommend installing spotlights on the ceiling because your living room is a room intended to be versatile, you'll rarely need or want to turn on all your spotlights.
Your living room needs to mix differentiated light intensities, with varied fixtures according to each zone. Brightness should be warm, and for this we advise you to use bulbs that do not exceed 3500 kelvin. Kelvin is the basic unit of thermodynamic temperature that helps define the general hue of light. It is indicated on every bulb packaging.
Another good idea is to equip your living room with a dimmer switch, and thus vary the bulb's voltage by acting directly on the current. An easy-to-use system, as all you have to do is turn the knob or press the switch for more or less time to adjust the light intensity to the desired level.
In the event that you equip yourself with such a device, above all don't forget to check that your LED bulbs are designed for this purpose. The manufacturer of your LED bulbs will indicate on the packaging whether your bulbs are dimmable, i.e. whether their light intensity is variable.
What lighting wattage should you choose for a living room?
The total lighting power your living room needs is between 180 Lux and 220 lux.
What is a lux in light?
Ready for a little math session? Follow us, we'll explain... The lux indicates the flux of light received per m2. The lux value is calculated according to the number of lumens projected by your bulb. The lux is therefore the number of lumens per m2.
For example, if you use a bulb projecting 800 lumens over 10 m2 you get a power of 80 lux.
To get an average of around 200 lux in your living room in total lighting, you calculate the surface area of your living room and work out the number of lumens you need. It should be pointed out that lumens add up (fortunately!) and that you need to rely on several light sources to obtain this amount of luminous flux once all the lights are switched on.
So, a 20m2 living room requires around 4000 lumens to obtain 200 lux per m2.
Come on... we'll help you find the right combination! Take a 3-wire pendant fitted with 3 decorative 95 milky LED bulbs (3x930 lumens) + 2 Bala cords with 2 G95 LED bulbs (2x806 lumens) + an Asym with balancer cord and switch fitted with a 350-lumen ST64 Led bulb. Once all switched on, your light sources will be able to provide sufficient total illumination for your living room.
General lighting will be provided by your suspension 3 bulbs while the 2 Balas and floor lamp will be able to provide functional and/or decorative lighting where you need it.
Multiple solutions to accompany you in your activities: close to the sofa with the Asym floor lamp for reading, from the television to watch it comfortably and a last one in a corner of your room to get a pleasant atmosphere in your living room. You're all set!
Direct or indirect lighting?
The difference between direct and indirect lighting is simple. Direct lighting is when it illuminates a surface directly. Indirect lighting corresponds to the wide projection of a light source, also known as general lighting.
Indirect lighting is usually controlled by your switch to light up the central pendant in your living room. This one often corresponds in the Hoopzï range to all 1-bulb suspensions, 2-bulb suspensions or spider also called spider lamp with 3 wires or 5 wires.
Direct lighting is that which will enable you to illuminate a precise surface. For example, illuminating an office surface corresponds to direct lighting.
The directional light allows you to improve your visibility to work properly, without generating eye strain. The Asym floor lamp at the end of the sofa is also a direct light. It will allow you to read in comfort, as the bulb will be ideally positioned above your book or newspaper.
The Bala suspension lamp, a 4.5-meter-long sweeping light, is the ideal lamp for creating direct lighting. The flexible wire allows you to position your bulb exactly where you need it.
Finally, you can also try accent lighting. This lighting technique allows you to highlight a specific area or object, and sublimate your decoration. So let's imagine you have a pretty statue on a cabinet: positioning your Bala nearby will highlight the work of art, just like an exhibition. An idea from one of our Hoopzï users is to position his Bala behind the drape of the curtain to stage this area of his home.
Accent lighting is a great technique for creating moods in your home, and for this setting, the Bala and its 4.5-meter long cord will be your ideal partner. Enough to accentuate the aesthetics of your pretty objects or draw attention to mood zones in your home!
You now know all about ideas for lighting your living room; we can't wait to discover new ideas for using Hoopzï products, so send us your creations!"
L'Équipe Hoopzi
Leave a comment