Deciding what color to paint a room can be tricky. Deciding how to properly light that room with LED lighting is fairly simple. In this piece, we’re going to look at how to decide which LED lighting option will best suit which color you choose.
Getting Warmer...By Getting Cooler
When assessing your LED lighting options, it’s important to take the temperature of the room into consideration. Before you go banging on the thermostat, that’s not the kind of temperature we meant. We meant the color temperature. Just like a paint color on the wall can make a room feel cooler or warmer, so too can an LED color temperature. In order to bring out the cozy warmth or the chilly refreshing side of your chosen paint color, you’ll want to pick the appropriate color temperature.
Best LED Lighting For Warmer Colors
Let’s say that you have chosen a warmer color for a specific space in your home. These colors can range from browns to reds and yellows. In this case, you will want to choose an LED color temperature in the 2,700K-3,500K range for a color temperature hue in order to best accentuate the hue of the room.
Best LED Lighting For Cooler Colors
If you’re more into cooler colors such as various shades of blue or even some refreshing greens, your LED lighting options will need to help these colors pop forth with a brisk snap. You’re best off selecting LED color temperatures in the 4,000K to 6,000K range. While you do want to bring these colors out as much as possible, it’s possible to wash these colors out too much with an aggressively frigid color tone. In order to keep from doing this, stay below 6,000K. Color temperatures higher than this are extremely sterile — the kind you would be most apt to find in a commercial kitchen or even a medical center where the utmost attention to detail is key.
To Diffuse Or Not To Diffuse
Even though you have your LED color temperatures selected for the color of paint in a space, it is also important to select an appropriate softness or hardness of light to present. To give the light a softer feel, diffused light is preferred. Light can be diffused using any number of filters, shades, or screens. Harder, more direct light is used by using fewer diffusing devices. Harder light comes in handy whenever you’re trying to feature an attention to detail, such as when you’re highlighting a piece of artwork with a track lighting fixture.
If you’d like help deciding which LED color temperature would be best for each room of your home, the LED specialists from Lighting Inc. in Tulsa, OK are happy to help.