When renovating a place, you have to think about so many things. But I think it's easy to say that lighting is one of the most confusing part. Watts, lumen, lux, Kelvin? per room or m²? Pendants, spotlights, floor lamp? All these informations are important but difficult to put altogether. Mainly because it's pretty hard to find a place where you can read about them all at the same time. But that was before. Before I created the perfect Home lighting Cheat Sheet.

I've decided to take all this brain-crushing data and bring it into one place. Just for you ! (and for me at the same time, never too handy!)

Download it, Print it, Pin it or take the one information you need right now and come back later. As you wish !

Just a few explanation before starting

You will see no "watts" in this table. Indeed, since the LED have taken such a big part of the market, there is no need to talk about watts anymore. The "Watt" is the quantity of electricity used to produce the light. When we used a classic 60 watts lightbulb, nowadays, a LED lightbulb will produce the same light with... 8 Watts. Meaning that the new reference is the Lumen, which stands for the "quantity" of light produced.

Lumen/m²: That's the average "quantity" of light recommended for your room per m². You just need to know the surface area of your room and multiply it by the number shown in this table. Then, you add as many lamps you need to reach this result.

For example, for a 12 m² bedroom :             200 x 12 = 2400 lumen

You know you will need 3 lamps of 800 lm (or 2 lamps of 1500 lm, or 5 lamps of 470 lm,...) Lumen are always shown on the lightbulb packaging, check for it.

The temperature or color of the light: That's what make a space feel "cold" or "cosy". But it's also important for the visibility you will need in the space.  The color of light we commonly use is between 2700 and 3000K. It goes from 1500 K (candles) to 6000 and higher (cold) without forgetting daylight around 5000 K.

Now you are ready for the home lighting Cheat Sheet

click on the picture to get a better view 

Of course, this table is general and average information about lighting and will never replace a professional. It's created to be used as a guidance and not a strict instruction. If you have any doubt, you can ask your question in the comments below or contact me for further advice. I'll be glad to help :)

Have you found the information you needed? Perfect, now you can start the funniest part by looking for inspiration on my Pinterest board for Homelighting ! And for complementary advices, you can read the other blogposts of this #TurnOnTheLight month. If you want to create a cosy atmosphere, use your lamps to complete the design of your interior or are now focused on the lighting of your hallway.

Happy reading !

Emilie