As the days get shorter and darker in the winter, we all turn to ways to make our homes feel brighter and warmer. The way that heating links into lighting sources are a subtle art that can help you stay happy and cosy in your home this winter. You need the perfect scheme to keep your home feeling bright, warm, and cheerful until spring. So today, we are going to discuss how to make white light warmer in winter.
1: Change Globes To Make White Light Warmer
Light colour can make a significant difference to the feel of a room. Having the wrong colour in a room can make it feel too cold in winter and too hot in summer. We’ve discussed colour temperature before, but we basically measure the temperature of a colour in Kelvins. The lower the Kelvin or K number is, the warmer and yellower the light is. Alternatively, the higher the number, the cooler and bluer the light is.
Of course, there’s no strict rule for what colour temperature you need for your room, each colour has its place. Warmer colours are best for living rooms and bedrooms to create relaxed sanctuaries where a harsh, cool light won’t have the same effect. In workspaces, however, a cool white light bulb is often the right choice, as it will give you a crisper light to work by. Bathrooms and kitchens will fall between the two, depending on your personal taste.
In winter, we recommend adjusting the lights around your home to be on the warmer side so you feel cosier during the winter months.
2: Replace Your Faulty Light Bulbs
While it might seem obvious, replacing broken and blown light bulbs can also make a huge difference in winter. If you have a light fitting with multiple light bulbs, you might feel you can get away with not replacing a few if they blow. But even one or two missing lights can make your room feel darker and smaller in winter. This can contribute to making your home feel more uncomfortable as well as exacerbate symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Further, even if you feel like you have enough light to see by, you could still be straining your eyes without realising it, which can lead to tiredness, headaches, and a general run-down feeling, which no one needs in the winter months. So it’s important to be proactive and replace all the faulty light bulbs in your home as soon as possible. Or replace them with LED light bulbs so you won’t have to worry about them blowing again, thanks to Led’s low wattage and reliability.
3: Recessed And Hidden Lighting
Support lighting, like recessed and hidden lighting, is actually a perfect way of bringing a feeling of cosiness to a room. Rather than being front and centre, recessed lighting is usually at the edges of a room and is a lower-level light. Using this lower-level lighting can help make a room feel warmer. And subtle approaches to lighting can stylishly highlight different parts of the room. Even downlights set to a low level of brightness can produce a comfortable and homely feeling.
Don’t have access to recessed lighting? You can still give your room the same cosy feeling that comes from recessed, hidden, and undershelf lighting. String lighting, carefully placed, can easily mimic real recessed lighting without the expense. And it allows you to call attention to interesting architectural details in a room.
4: Dimmer Switches To Make White Light Warmer
As we’ve discussed above, lower light levels can produce a warmer feeling. Danish designers – who focus on cosiness or “hygge” – use the output of warm light in a home to create positive feelings and homely comfort. Another easy way to create these lower light levels is by installing lights with dimmer switches. Dimmer switches or dimmable lights allow you to fully control the lighting in your home and in each room. This means you can customise the lighting in each room based on your needs and the warmth you need.
5: A Variety Of Light Fixtures
Unflattering, fluorescent lighting is the worst thing for any home, especially in winter. It makes a room feel cold and can result in eye strain and headaches. Where possible, we always recommend upgrading and varying your indoor lighting. If your home has fluorescent lighting installed, try changing to LED lighting. Not only are LEDs more reliable and last longer, but you are also able to change their colour temperature to suit the needs of each room. LED light bulbs are generally inexpensive and make an enormous difference to your home.
For those renting, try investing in a variety of table and floor lamps with LED lighting. This way, you can avoid using harsh, overhead fluorescent lighting without sacrificing your eyesight. You can use a range of different lamp shades to create a homier vibe and use lamps at various levels to bring different amounts of light and warmth to each room.
6: Maximise Natural Light
Finally, maximising the amount of natural light coming into your home can vastly improve your home during winter. Try using sheer curtains over your windows for privacy but avoid heavy curtains or shutters until nighttime. Wall mirrors hung on walls opposite to windows can help magnify the precious natural light coming in your windows.
7: Warm Up Your Outdoor Lighting
There’s nothing Australians love more than entertaining, and that shouldn’t stop just because winter has begun. Reliable outdoor lighting is a must during winter, not just for entertaining. Lighting provides extra security as the days shorten and acts as a deterrent for opportunistic thieves. And it provides you with a little extra safety when you come home with an armful of groceries in the dark!
Bright, white lighting is important for safety and security, but when it comes to entertaining, you definitely want something a little less blinding. Thankfully there’s a wide variety of floodlights and outdoor lighting on the market to cover both safety, security, and entertainment, so you can customise your outdoor lighting as much as you did your indoor lighting. For front door areas and places where you want to deter would-be criminals, choose a bright white, motion-detecting flood light. Look for something in the higher Kelvin range, as we discussed earlier and in this previous blog.
For entertaining spaces, choose outdoor lighting suited to your décor, and in the lower, warmer end of the Kelvin spectrum. This will not only help take the chill off when entertaining in winter, but it will also help make your space feel cosy and inviting. No matter if you’re entertaining friends and family or having a quiet dinner alone, choosing the right lighting will make your outdoor space warm and inviting.
Looking to find the right lighting for your home this winter? Martec carries a wide range of ceiling lights, ceiling fans with lights, and outdoor lighting to suit your needs. Explore our range today or contact our expert team for further advice.