Using recessed ceiling lights is a very flexible and effective way to light the home. There are a lot of different implementations for this style of light, and in this post I want to offer some tips for using it in different rooms of the home. Like using lamps, it’s nearly impossible to cover all of the different ways to use recessed can lights, but I want to at least get some ideas out there so you can start working to figure out how to use them in your home.
Recessed Ceiling Lighting In The Living Room
The size of your living room will play a big role in how you use recessed lights there. For small living rooms, this is one of the neatest ways to light the entire space. You can create a perimeter of can lights that work to “push” the walls out and make the room feel much bigger than it actually is. This is a really cool effect if you are looking to make your small room feel bigger.
For large living rooms, recessed ceiling lights aren’t the best choice for illuminating the entire space because it takes a lot of fixtures to make it work. If you choose this route, consider halogen recessed ceiling lights since they use much less energy than standard incandescent bulbs.
They are, however, great for lighting small and specific areas. If you have some art of the walls, or want a specific light for the mantle, these are the perfect choice. The key to spacing these lights properly is to center them on whatever needs the light, then move them away from the wall 12 to 18 inches.
Recessed Lighting In The Kitchen
Spot lighting is great in the kitchen because there are specific spots where more light is needed than others. For example, the kitchen sink and the main preparation area benefit from more light than the area around the refrigerator. If you have the ceiling that fits recessed lights in the kitchen, I highly recommend installing these there.
While they aren’t exactly in the ceiling, small LED recessed lights can work really well underneath the kitchen cabinets to light the counters. These small and shallow lights are a perfect fit and hardly use any energy at all. This is also a very simple installation (assuming you know basic electrics and how to work a drill) and can be done most homeowners on their own.
Can Lights In The Bedroom
Since the mood is important in bedrooms, it’s important that all of your recessed lights are on a dimmer switch, wherever they are installed. It’s really nice to be able to have that much control over them, and you’ll be very happy the first early morning that you’re able to turn on the light just enough that it doesn’t hurt your eyes!
The most common installation in bedrooms is in walk-in closets. This works so well since they don’t take up any of the precious storage space along the ceiling, like a long fluorescent tube installation would do. Some people like to have ceiling lights replace nightstand lamps, but I see this as a way to make sure that you can never rearrange the bedroom!
Ceiling Lights In Other Rooms
In the bathroom, recessed ceiling lights are generally only used above toilets and showers. These work very well but have to be waterproof to prevent any damage.
Hallways are a common place to install recessed lights. If you do this, promise me that you won’t make parallel lines of lights. This makes your hallway ceiling look like an airport runway!
Using ceiling lights works in every room of the home, but for more “unique” installations, be sure that you check out all of the different types of lights first to make sure that there aren’t any better choices!
