Light Up Your Dining Room!

Did you know that how we eat is almost as important as what we eat? For instance, a meal in a relaxed, beautiful, well-lit ambiance is better than a hurried meal in unpleasant or poorly lit surroundings. Lighting for your dining room is important not only when you are entertaining, but even on a day-to-day basis. So if you are decorating your dining room, you should pay as much attention to lighting as the dining furniture itself.

While individual pieces of dining furniture such as dining room chairs, dining tables, and other items such as hutch or sideboards create the overall appearance of a dining area, it is the lighting that creates the ambiance, the mood and the feel of the place. There are several things you need to consider when lighting up your dining room, such as the placement of lights, use of spotlights or accent lights, and dimmers; all these aspects can make a difference to the final look.

Chandeliers or Pendant Lights: A well-selected chandelier suspended from the ceiling over the center of the dining room table can lend grace and sophistication to your dining room. Care should be taken to see that the size of the chandelier does not dwarf the size of the room or the dining furniture and vice versa as well. It should also be suspended in a way that it is the ideal distance from the ceiling and also from the surface of the dining room table so that the lighting is optimally focused. Whereas with a chandelier you would necessarily use just one piece in a room, with pendant lighting you can use one or more matched pieces or pieces of a set which may be of graded sizes or color-coordinated.

Dimmers: Dimmers can be used to great effect in conjunction with your dining furniture to create the perfect ambiance. Dimmers can be set to bright for everyday family dinners or get-togethers or for when the kids' homework is to be supervised. In the alternative when there is formal entertaining on the menu or you need to create an intimate mood for a romantic rendezvous, the lights can be subtly lowered to create a softer and more flattering feel.

Placement: The placement of the lights is another important factor to consider. Placing a big chandelier in the center may not be a great idea if it leaves corners of the room in complete darkness. Ideally, lights should be placed in a way that accentuates the décor and creates a balanced and harmonious look. Also, consider whether you want suspended lighting or whether to use wall brackets or recessed lights for your lighting fixtures. So what one can do is use one central focal point for lighting and balance it out with recessed lighting fixtures at other points. You can also use wall brackets or sconces in conjunction with a central lighting fixture for optimum effect.

So let proper lighting illuminate your dining room and your dining room furniture for the greatest effect.