Most Efficient Lamp Fluorescent Bulbs Low Watt Bulbs Energy Saving Lighting Solutions

For the living room, choose a lamp shade made of fabric or slightly opaque paper to provide warm glow in the room. If to be placed near a television, an opaque shade can be chosen to reduce glare. For a modern look, drum shades may be used and if traditional look is preferred, conical shades are recommended. For reading purposes, the lamp's bulb must be at least 60 Watts; a dimmer or three0way bulb can be used for modulating the brightness.

If your living room is also where your children occasionally do their homework, then supplement the lamps with a ceiling fixture. If the kids do their assignments on the coffee table then a fixture directly above the table is a good idea as the light will also be in the center of your seating area and won't look out of place. But don't forget to use dimmers, particularly on the ceiling lights, as you can control the brightness of the light and thus control the ambiance in the room.

As a rough guide, having a couple of table lamps, four to six recessed downlighters, a picture light to highlight an ornamental object or painting, some sort of concealed lighting inside a bookshelf or other unit, as well as a floor lamp - are considered a good quantity of light fittings which can be used to properly light up your living room. As you can see, you do not need to have all these different types of lighting and lamps all on at the same time. Rather, for effect, you would have a few lights on depending on what sort of mood you wanted to create and what activities were taking place.