Decor and Lighting Styles for Mood Enhancement

Home lighting is more than just practical. Light can change the way many of us feel from day to day! Consider how you feel when you first wake up – a burst of natural light can help invigorate you to start the day.

In fact, many people use the power of light to reflect and change mood through home decor and everyday fittings. It’s less complicated than you might believe. The way we decorate, light and set up our homes can impact how we work and how rested we feel.

We are pleased to support our customers at Arrow Electrical with a massive array of lighting solutions. As it happens, we have many contemporary options to help you alter and upgrade your interior mood.

But how does this work in practice – and is it right for you? Let’s take a closer look and find out. Throughout this article, we’ll also share a handful of our favourite installations with you.

How Does Light Impact Upon Our Mental Health?

Firstly, let’s consider a little bit of science. While it may not seem so obvious, different types and strengths of light can impact how we feel. It essentially ties into our innate perceptions of sunlight. That means how we react to illumination is tied to our individual DNA coding.

It’s not all about increasing happiness levels, either. While pleasant, natural light can help to improve our moods, light intensity can also impact the way we act. Various studies suggest that our emotions can intensify with brighter light, even the negative ones. Therefore, a brighter bulb or setting on your lamp will not necessarily help you feel better.

In fact, enhancing or calming your mood may be as simple as bringing colour into the mix. Certain colours such as blue and green have calming effects and evoke perceptions of the natural world. Piercing, dynamic colours such as red or purple act as calls to action. Therefore, light’s impact on mental health may only be as strong as the colours it bounces off.

However, we also need to consider how artificial light alone can impact how we feel. Many of these feelings – if not all – are completely innate and therefore hard to control. That is, of course, unless you actively set up the proper mood lighting across your home.

For example, consider white light at its most piercing. Bright white lighting is a great energiser, as it inspires us to take action. Therefore, it is not necessarily ideal for sleeping conditions. Blue light is much the same.

On the contrary, red light can help calm us down if used towards the end of the day. Purple, too, even though it is also an empowering colour, can reduce stress we may be feeling.

Crucially, it’s perfectly possible to inspire our emotions and mental health simply by changing a few lighting standards. However, as we will discover later in our guide, it’s all about balancing these with effective colour combinations.

What is Mood Enhancing Lighting?

Mood enhancing lighting is that which – as the name suggests – can actively improve the way you feel. In fact, many light fittings and fixtures can work as mood enhancers, providing you use the correct bulbs! From ceiling lights to standalone options such as Martello 240 in Plaster from Astro Lighting there’s an endless array of choices.

Ultimately, no one sets out to install mood lighting to make themselves feel worse! Mood enhancing lighting options take advantage of light and colour theory to help balance melatonin release. This brain chemical arises when we are exposed to darkness, and when it is too intense, it can dampen the mood.

However, managing that melatonin and setting up a mood-enhancing lighting zone means more than just going for bright bulbs. The best mood enhancement lighting effectively mimics the sun – perhaps a little more closely than your average bulb. Homes or rooms that experience very little natural light can, of course, hugely benefit from artificial emulation.

Some of the best mood-enhancing lights are simple LEDs like our dimmable LED vintage cone fitting. Therefore, you don’t necessarily have to buy completely new fittings to take full advantage. However, it is certainly worth considering how you decorate and lay out your spaces for the best effect.

Mood enhancing lighting takes advantage of our biological responses to illumination. Dark spaces can grind down on mood over several hours, especially if we are working! Some mood lights can cycle through colours and hues to stimulate emotions and feelings.

It’s essential to consider mood lighting if you use specific rooms to relax. What’s more, it is vital in bedroom suites, as mood-enhancing light can also help to improve sleep quality. In addition to this, smart lighting that emulates natural sunlight can help us rise when we need to, refreshed for the day ahead.

Many people rely on mood lighting as a healthy way to balance strong feelings across the day. Why not pass some hard emotional labour over to your interior lighting?

How Can You Use Mood Enhancing Light Across the Home?

As mentioned, lighting alone may not be enough to help enhance mood across the home. There needs to be a careful balance in how you decorate and layout your spaces and the colour palettes you choose. Great solutions such as our stylish Mashiko 600 LEDs take away a lot of the hard work. However, you still need to have a plan of action!

So, start considering the ways that light makes you feel from room to room. What do you use specific rooms for? For example, in living rooms and lounges, you may wish to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere.

To achieve this, focus on keeping your space as well-lit as possible without relying too heavily on intense brightness. White tones and lighter colours in your decor are a must. However, some people also choose dark lighting and deeper tones to encourage relaxation. We are all slightly different in this regard!

Bedroom spaces, of course, typically benefit from soft lighting choices. The aim of mood-enhancing light in sleeping spaces is to help relax you for sleep. The brighter the light, the less healthy your melatonin balance will be. That means your brain will find it harder to ‘switch off’.

Bedroom spaces are those which likely need to be darker than most before going to sleep. The reasons for this are apparent, but gentle lighting and decor can also make a lot of difference. Many people choose deep reds and purples in their decor for this very reason. Of course, this is also a matter of taste and personality!

Task lighting is where things can get a little tricky. Of course, if you have an office or a study, you’re going to need light to focus. However, make it too intense or overpowering, and you can quickly feel overwhelmed. That’s why a delicate balance of lighting – with a focus on natural light during daylight hours – makes all the difference.

Softly lit studies and office spaces feel less intrusive and more comfortable. Therefore, you feel more focused and happier to work!

Keeping Things Flexible

When it comes to using mood-enhancing lighting to your advantage, it does pay to be flexible. After all, our moods and emotions can and will change. This is a point of focus in public business settings and the leisure industry. Some restaurant, bar and hotel owners may wish to adjust their lighting ad hoc depending on the evening.

The same applies at home. Having one or two intensive LEDs set up to help relax or stimulate may not be the best option. Unless you know that a specific room or space will benefit from intensive, bright and piercing light, be flexible. Dimmable bulbs are certainly the way forward in this respect.

So too are multiple lighting setups and separate fixtures on the same circuit. It pays to have numerous options open at any one time so that you can play around with the mood. The more flexibility you have, the easier it becomes to create and adjust the atmosphere.

The one thing you likely won’t be able to adjust when all is said and done is the decor. Unless you can quickly move modular furniture and artwork/ornaments, you need your light to be flexible. The last thing you should have to worry about is having to change out the whole of your room’s look. If your mood is subject to change frequently – this is a significant hassle.

It may be worth considering portable or modular lighting with this in mind. Delicate, minimal lamp solutions such as our popular Martello 180 can help you create new moods and atmospheres ad hoc. Why restrict yourself to fixed lighting solutions alone? As moods change, so should your layout and space – with ease.

Of course, the ‘modular’ approach to decor and lighting isn’t for everyone. However, for those who want to create new moods and atmospheres frequently, think flexibly.

Is Mood Enhancing Light Right for Me?

Mood enhancing light arrives in all shapes, sizes and styles. You could, for example, choose a Mashiko 300 Square LED if you wish to improve the feeling of bathroom comfort. Or, a minimalistic Eclipse Square 300 LED may be enough to add soft tones from wall to wall. The choice is yours!