How to Choose Lighting to Complement Your Home's Decorating Style

The array of light fixtures and lamps is staggering. Many times, you're able to get the exact look for your decorating style. Here are some ideas.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Chandelier
• Ceiling Lights
• Lamps

1. Select a traditional-style chandelier - simple or grand, depending on your other furnishings - in an English country style room. Brass and copper lanterns and lead-crystal fixtures also work for ceiling fixtures, sconces and lamps.

2. Go with a chandelier, perhaps one with flowers or prisms, or a pressed-glass fixture for a Victorian room. Other options include crystal and frosted-glass fixtures; in lamps, a ginger jar or painted china lamp is suitable.

3. Use a ceiling fixture that suggests age in an Old World-style room. This might be an antique brass or copper, bronze, verdigris, or rust-finish metal chandelier; for lamps, the same metals or stone (perhaps a marble urn-shaped lamp) work beautifully.

4. Think simple in minimalist interiors. Recessed ceiling fixtures and track lights work well; go with very plain lamps such as wood or ceramic cylinders or cubes.

5. Put obviously manmade fixtures - the more utilitarian-looking the better - in high-tech environments. Recessed can lights work well for the ceilings, as do track and cable-style fixtures; for lamps, adjustable halogens - often you see these in black-painted steel - work well.

6. Buy a simple glass fixture (frosted or pressed-glass ones are nice) or a plain chandelier for cottage, American country and garden-style rooms. In lamps, ginger jar, candlestick or rustic terracotta-base models work well.

7. Let a Tiffany-style or a mica-type shade cast a subtle glow in arts and crafts interiors. Mission decor (part of the arts and crafts movement) includes fixtures of geometric wood or metal strips around frosted and colored glass.

8. Find a wrought-iron chandelier for Mexican country style rooms or in eclectic-ethnic interiors. Use lamps of wrought iron, lively painted pottery or plain terracotta; a worn or battered wooden artifact can be converted into a conversation-piece lamp, too.

Tips & Warnings

• Apply the same guidelines when shopping for wall sconces.
• When in doubt, go simple. A plain fixture is like a chameleon: It will adapt to future decor changes.
• Search the Internet for lighting information that will help you understand the different types of lights and designs.

on 11/22/2005 Color-blanced lghting can duplicate the color of natural outdoor light at noon on a clear day. It put a sparkle in bathrooms, shows clothes in closets at their true color, brightens up a kitchen and provides excellent reading light.