Creating a Lighting Plan with Fluorescent Lights

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Creating a Lighting Plan with Fluorescent Lights

Staff Writer · Jan 26, 2011

While fluorescent lights provide necessary lighting, they do not make for the most attractive and ambient of lighting schemes. There are ways, though, that you can manipulate fluorescent lights so that they will still brighten a room without seeming overly glaring and will actually add to your theme and decorating style.

Anything but Blue

Fluorescent lights can be glaring and almost always emit a bright color without much attraction. Changing the color of the light emitted by fluorescent lights will immediately fix this problem. By draping fabrics or painting the bulb of the light you can make a bright yellow or blue light softer and more delicate without reducing its brightness. The best colors to use are reds, greens or eggshells.

To drape fabrics across the bulbs, first make sure that the bulbs themselves will not get overly hot and start the fabrics on fire. If they will, you should not use fabrics. If you decide to use fabric to soften the glare of fluorescent lights, tuck the fabric smoothly, securely and evenly over the cover of overhead lights or over the lampshade.

Painting the light bulb is also another easy way to alter the color and glare of such a light. Wait until the bulb is completely cooled and use a brush to paint a thin layer of the color you choose over the bulb. The painting does not have to be completely even or very thick, but rather just enough to act as a filter.

Angle Upwards

Some fluorescent lights can be angled upwards to shine on the ceiling or wall to reduce their glare and brightness. Of course, with overhead lighting this may not be an option, but for movable bulbs or freestanding lamps, you may be able to maneuver the lampshade or bulb so that the light shines upwards. This will offer all the light you need but will not have that light shining directly in your eyes.

This option works extremely well and looks great when you have several similar lamps or bulbs that you can disperse evenly around a room. The end result will be one of unity and creativity.

Keep it Uniform

One of the most commonly overlooked ways to create a lighting plan with fluorescent lights is that such lights should be the only ones used in a room. Do not use one fluorescent light and have the rest of your lamps be non-fluorescent, because this will pretty much prohibit you from creating any type of plan. Multiple types of bulbs will appear messy and will make the fluorescent ones stick out more and seem awkward. Therefore, unless it is only an overhead light that is fluorescent, stick with using only fluorescent or non-fluorescent lights in a room.

Stay Focused

Fluorescent lights are designed to shed light in all directions, but are actually more appealing when focused on one item or area. Non-overhead fluorescent lights, therefore, should be used more as a spotlight than as a general lighting theme. Regardless of being focused, however, these lights will still shed a lot of light on the entire room, meaning that you will not have darkened spaces in any particular area.

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