The Only Lighting Tip You Need to Make Your Home Flow
Artificial lighting is always a hot topic because people have such strong feelings about it. The quality of light coming from lamps and overhead fixtures can set a room’s tone or mood. And this can either convey relaxation (think: a moody, ambient glow) or, IMHO, make a space feel a bit stressed (the big light!). No matter what you’re going for, though, Jason Saft, founder of the home staging service Staged To Sell Home, has one rule you shouldn’t break when it comes to lighting.
Seamless Lighting Is All About Consistency
“One simple tip is to make every light bulb in the home the same color temperature,” Saft explains in the first episode of Apartment Therapy’s “Styled to Sell” series. “So that means I swap out the rogue white light bulbs in one room for warm light temperatures that are consistent throughout the space.”
In the first episode of “Styled to Sell,” Saft is tasked with refreshing and staging a Brooklyn Heights apartment, and he shares that the current owners didn’t have a ton of budget for a kitchen makeover. So after painting the walls and deep-cleaning the tile backsplash, he kept the current light fixture but simply made all the bulbs in the kitchen the same temperature. This quick update keeps the room from feeling disjointed visually because all of the lights are emitting the same color, quality, and temperature of light.
Focusing Solely on a Light Bulb’s Temperature Gives You Design Freedom
When designing a collected, lived-in home, it’s normal to have different light fixtures throughout the different spaces. Saft has a huge Brooklyn warehouse (he has over 1,000 rugs alone!), and many of his projects incorporate pieces from different eras. Having the same light bulb temperature in your home, though, gives you baseline cohesion that creates a visual flow in a space. While each room (or, more granularly, each light fixture) might look different, they’re all in conversation with one another because of the light bulbs’ sameness.
Plus, having the same light bulbs throughout your home makes life easier. You won’t find yourself second-guessing if you’re grabbing the right tone or wattage at the hardware store. If there’s one lighting tip to follow, Saft’s is the one I’m betting on.