Lighting sets the mood in homes

Our ancestors made wonderfully creative use of candlelight to warm up pre-electric households. But today we are blessed with a full array of lighting possibilities, all helping to turn our homes into havens, places of refuge and celebration.

Lighting has the uncanny ability to change the mood of any room with the flick of a switch or possibly a remote. Most rooms have two types of lighting — task, or the concentrated lighting that allows you to see what you need to do; and ambient, the lighting used to set the mood.

I believe all rooms need both types of lighting. Lighting determines so many other things. It can, for example, highlight the colors in your room, the way texture is defined and even your comfort level. General illumination in a room can be addressed with recessed lights, track lighting, hanging fixtures or wall sconces.

Since task lighting is essential for reading or doing detailed work — anything from chopping vegetables to applying mascara — it can be achieved with directed, higher-intensity light; a downward reading lamp, under-cabinet light fixtures or a lighted make-up mirror can fill these purposes.

Ambient lighting is generally softer and can be in the form of recessed high-hats, sconces, strings of decorative lights, candles, tea lights and oil lamps. A dimmer switch is an essential element for any electrical light source with a wall switch but is especially helpful when creating ambient light.

Here are some of my thoughts to "cozy up" the rooms in your home, while making sure you also have the requisite amount of light at hand to complete the task:

Kitchen: Kitchen lighting is generally task-oriented, but remember to always include ambient for a pre-dinner glass of wine or dining in the kitchen. Rather than spacing ceiling high-hats or down-lights evenly over the kitchen ceiling, group them to focus more light on particular task areas.

For instance, two or more may be appropriate over the kitchen sink and stove top. You may not need any over windows, or dining or island areas where hanging pendant lights or other fixtures may be installed. If the space above cabinets will be used for storage or display, you may want to install uplights on the tops of cupboards, small discs of light to provide a glow from the area of the soffit to the ceiling. Under-cabinet fixtures such as strip lighting will brighten counter space and also offer soft ambient light when used solo, when entertaining or when the kitchen is officially "off-duty." Chandeliers over a kitchen table or counter seating can provide an unexpectedly elegant touch to kitchen lighting.