True confession from your favourite Interior Decorator. My house is poorly lit. Like most of us, I wasn’t sure how to choose LED bulbs for our home. I recently set out on a lighting learning journey and am here to share my results.

I have to say that lighting was a chapter I found rather boring in my schooling when I got my credentials. While LED lights were around then, they certainly were not the exclusive marketplace product then that they are now.

Choosing the RIGHT LED light bulbs needs to be an informed decision. They are just too expensive to get wrong. I have the wrong ones in my kitchen fixture that was purchased intentionally to bring more light to the space. I remember carefully thinking it through at the time. What went wrong?

Colour Temperature LED Bulbs

Here’s an LED colour temperature chart that you can copy and keep for a quick reference.

I might have chosen the wrong LED Colour Temperature bulbs. There is a definite range between cool and warm light that is measured in Kelvins. The higher the bulb temperature is, the cooler and brighter the light quality will be. The lower the bulb colour temperature is, the warmer the light quality will be.

Most LEDs are produced to be either 2700k, 2800k, 3000k, 4000k or 5000k. When you choose 2700-3000k you’re in the warm range, and 4000-5000k is cool. You’re pretty cool, too!

We are ALL affected by colour and lighting, whether we’re conscious of it or not. The wrong light bulbs directly affect your productivity, your mood, give you a headache or even WORSE they can change your paint colours. Sometimes, they’re the reason you lose at your favourite card game being played at the dining room table. Changing paint colours is not quite as easy as changing your light bulbs, but they can certainly influence how you perceive the colours that are on your walls.

Light And Paint Colours

This is a tiny aside that I think is worth mentioning here. My clients all know that a Design or Colour Consult is always done during the day when we can see the natural light in the room. It’s a vital part of the process when choosing the best paint colours for each individual space.

I give out this light handout to my clients when I’m doing a consult. You might find it helpful, too.

We can all agree that fluorescent bulbs in our homes are a thing of the past. If you still have some, can I just say it’s time to get rid of them - all of them. LED is definitely the way to go.

These Two Things for How To Chose LED Bulbs

Did you know that there are two choices you need to make when figuring out how to chose LED bulbs?

#1 Always use the SAME colour temperature

#2 Always use the SAME wattage

Every time to get more LED bulbs, be consistent with these two rules for the best results. Differences in your LED bulb colour and/or wattage will produce a lack of cohesion in the quality of your over all lighting.

Warm White will give you the look of our standard incandescent bulbs. They are warm and give that yellow cast to a room - including the paint colour.

It’s for those times you want to be comforted in a space or set the mood for some romance. It is not what you want for reading or working - especially true for me as my eyes age.

Did you know that we see through a yellow filter as we age? As a Certified Aging In Place Professional, this is an important consideration when choosing paint colours for retirement homes and for residential homes of “older” clients, like myself.

Soft White LED bulbs can sometimes be called warm white. No confusion here at all. They can be at the upper range of colour temperature, casting a warm and comfortable light that enhances our paint and fabric colours. Hint - Hint!

Cool White LED bulbs are bright and crisp, and the cooler you go in temperature with these, the light becomes cold and can really flatten an otherwise beautiful paint colour and other accessories in your decor.

Daylight LED lights are the bluish white, intense lighting that ruins some of our shopping purchases because we most often find them in commercial or retail stores. They’re also most common in outdoor and security lighting. Makes me thing of a good spy movie with the guy tied to the chair in the middle of the room with a glaring light in his face. “Where were you on the night of…?

LED Lighting For Kitchen

Let’s get back to my kitchen light. Now we’re all feeling a little worried about having enough light for reading or task lighting just like in my kitchen. This doesn’t mean you should grab those Daylight bulbs. Remember our earlier lesson about two things to be considered? Here is where we look for more wattage instead of changing the colour temperature.

Here’s the mistake I made with our kitchen fixture. I chose a frosted daylight bulb that was equivalent to 60 watts and I clearly needed 100 watts.

Which LED lights are the best for our homes?

I’d say go for the Soft White LED bulbs. When you’re shopping it can get a little overwhelming if you don’t have these tips to fall back on. Sometimes the only options are between Warm or Cool. In that case you need to check the temperature and look at those all important Kelvin readings. Get something between 2700k and 3000k for a good result.

How To Get More Light

Don’t change the colour temperature.

Do increase the wattage.

You’ll find when you’re shopping for LED bulbs that they are labelled with both watts and/or lumens. If you’re like me, you tend to think of light brightness according to a standard incandescent bulb. The higher the wattage, the brighter the bulb and the more light it will give you.

As was my case, if you have a Soft White LED bulb that didn’t give you enough light it’s likely you chose too low a wattage.

What I learned is a 10w Soft White LED bulb is simply not enough light for reading and task lighting. Change that up to an 18 watt. It makes all the difference in how to choose LED bulbs for your home and specific needs.