How to Shed Some Light on Your Living Room Set

Accessories aren’t everything, but a good lamp can make all the difference. You took the time and effort to choose a furniture set that best fits your style, so it makes sense to show it in its best light…literally. In fact, the quality of light determines how our eyes perceive color, a phenomenon known as a color display. Weak light not only causes our eyes to strain, but it makes the full depth of color harder to see. 

Increasing the lumens, which measure the brightness of light, of your overhead bulbs helps keep your living room furniture looking its best long after it’s no longer new. Even dusting bulbs can improve light quality. If you have a single source of light for a room, it’s also a good idea to think about adding in another light source at another height. This arrangement can help counteract potential shadows and more completely fill and brighten the space. But the quantity of light, while important, isn’t everything.

Rich color comes through best in the appropriate temperature light. In the case of color, this means warm light for warm colors like red and yellow, and cool light for blues and greens. Pairing furniture colors with the wrong temperature of light can sour them. Cool, blue light can even make bright yellow appear faintly green and sickly. Not what you want in your furniture!

In rooms with significant amounts of both warm and cool colors, a mixed, dimensional light can help bring out the best in each piece. This simply involves a range of bulbs that offer the full spectrum of cool to warm light. Fortunately, the light temperature has little to do with wattage and most fixtures can support this range. 

When you’re in the market for furniture, online https://www.1stopbedrooms.com/living/living-room-furniture/living-room-sets sales are a convenient option. However, it can be tricky to match colors when shopping online, due to the difference in screens and how images capture color (again, a direct result of light acting in different ways). For this reason, most online retailers will show their furniture in multiple images and alongside other dark and light furnishings, walls, or floors to provide a better sense of how the colors will appear in person. 

That said, you may be pleasantly surprised that the in-person vibrancy of your new loveseat set dramatically outstrips the online images. This is, in fact, a fairly common experience. As far as technology has come, it’s still difficult to duplicate what our eyes and brain accomplish when experiencing color. 

The best light, naturally, is natural light from the sun. While not every room comes with lovely, wide windows, it’s important to make the most of the light you do have access to. Mirrors are a handy way to amplify the natural light in a room when placed opposite a small window, for example. Be warned, of course, that a well-lit room is a less forgiving one. It’s easy to forget that even cloth surfaces like those of living room sets require periodic dusting or vacuuming to keep them looking as rich and vibrant as new.