The Most Popular Contemporary Light Fixtures

The way you illuminate your home will play a vital role in your interior design, but much more importantly in your comfort, the ambience, the mood, and consequently, your peace of mind. But, aside from light being such an important factor in our lives generally, when it comes to home design, it also gives us an opportunity to elevate the style with the incredible variety of light fixture designs. In other words, well-thought-out home illumination, including the choice of light (brightness, colour…), the choice of light fixtures, the placement etc., can make a huge difference in your home design.

If you are renovating your home and it’s time to instal the lights, you are simply refreshing your living room, or the whole illumination in your home, before visiting a light store online, it may be smart to decide on the type of light fixtures you want. There are many different types of light fittings, and each of them can look luxuriously in the right environment with a little bit of strategic thinking. One way to categorise them is by the way they are fixed or mounted.

The most popular types are pendant lights, chandeliers, flush or semi-flush lights, sconces, table-mounted land floor mounted lamps etc. Depending on what you want to achieve, and how much light is required in your space, you can either go for a uniformed light composition, or you can combine different types of light fixtures in the same style. Furthermore, different light fixtures can fit better in different rooms.

Flush and Semi-Flush

Source: HomElectrical.com

In many homes nowadays, ceiling light fixtures – flush mount or semi-flush mount are quite a common sight. Mounted directly on the ceiling, these types of lighting can give any room a stunning atmosphere, and they can make a room look good regardless of the interior design because they come in many different styles and finishes.

Flush mount light fixtures are mounted closer to the ceiling than semi-flushed ones, which are suspended with a small gap between them and the ceiling. They can be a great option for any room in your home or in an office. Furthermore, these types of light fixtures can be the perfect solution for homes with lower ceilings, where pendants may look odd. Both can provide excellent task light. In many contemporary homes, they are used in combination with other types of light fixtures, placed strategically to provide optimum illumination, for ambient or for task light.

Pendants

Source: Interior Design Ideas

Hang from the ceiling and featuring one light bulb, pendant light fixtures can provide a room with beautiful task light, or even ambient light in smaller spaces. This type of light fixture is one of the most popular ones for contemporary living rooms, amongst interior designers and homeowners. They are also very popular for the kitchen, most commonly installed over the kitchen island.

With such a huge range of models, with different designs, shapes, colours, finishes, materials, etc., pendant lights can be the perfect main light in the middle of a room, providing not only a great atmosphere but also a beautiful decorative piece. They can be installed in the centre of the ceiling or above a table or other bigger surface – hanging in the centre of the item below.

In kitchens, pendants are usually installed in an odd number, typically three, but sometimes 5 or even more, depending on the style and the size of the pendants. Always positioned in the centre above the counter, they are placed with an equal amount of distance between them. However, pendant lights aren’t only for kitchens and living rooms. They can also be a great both functional and decorative addition for your office room, the bedroom, the kids’ bedroom, and so on.

Chandeliers

Source: Insplosion

Chandeliers are similar to pendants in that they also hang from the ceiling, but, unlike them, they are multi-arm, which essentially means that they feature more light bulbs. Furthermore, in residences chandeliers are typically installed in living rooms and other larger rooms. However, in large, open spaces with high ceilings, regardless of whether they are residential or not, they can be installed in a lobby, in big halls etc.

People often link this type of light fixtures to luxury, prestige, sophistication, elegance etc. They are often big in size and they come in many different highly decorative stunning designs, which makes them quite impressive and eye-catching. This is why people who prefer minimalism may avoid them, and why, if you are going for subtlety, you may want to too.

Furthermore, chandeliers aren’t the best choice for smaller rooms, mainly because of proportion. Of course, although they may look odd and out of place in small areas, sometimes breaking the rules may pay off, and the big light fixture may actually give a smaller room more interest. Nevertheless, while they may seem somewhat more traditional, when browsing your favourite light store you can check for stunning contemporary, minimalistic designs.