BRIGHT lights or soft?|pad patter 26 Jan 2021

I don't like glaring bright lights, but I like lots of light. You'd love my overhead lights in my scraproom, Anne. They're flush-mount "daylight lights" and I have two of them! I have really nice, soft but bright lights in my closet, too. Our new house has wonderful natural light + I had the builder put in a lot of lights. I love my recessed lighting that's in the kitchen and a few other places.

 

I am getting old. My eyes need more light, so I want ALL the bright lights! Especially in my kitchen, by my desk and in my craft room. The living room is darn near a cave with soft lights. It needs more in my opinion and has since we moved in almost 18 years ago... so clearly it's priority. Lol! Our bedroom and family room have softer lights too.

 

When my parents built this house electric ceiling heat was the thing to do. So unless you put the lights in the ceiling at that time, it wasn't done later on. So that being said, the only overhead lights in the house are the kitchen/dining room, foyer and bathroom. All other rooms have lamps... either floor lamps or table lamps. I no longer use the ceiling heat but all the wiring is still there and it could be used if I wanted although it is very inefficient. Heat pump works much better.

As for light, I have bright light bulbs in the kitchen/dining room so I can see what I'm doing. When I'm in my office I have 2 floor lamps and another table lamp on. I have the start of cataracts so my vision isn't the best so I do need lights on whenever I'm in a room even in the daytime. All my bulbs are the "soft white" except the kitchen.

Even today when my cousin came over and we sat at the table in the dining room, I turned on the lights. It was noon and the table is by the sliding door which had light coming in. I always feel like I can't see when I go to her house because she never has any lights on during the day and very few at night.

 

I love light..in the daytime..lol! As it gets towards evening, I'd rather lamps and warm lighting. My daughter would rather have it more like a vampire laid... dark at all times. She seems to be more sensitive to light and it actually hurts her eyes. We try to keep a happy medium.

 

I'm kind of all or nothing with lights; the room can be super dark because the sun went down and I didn't turn on any lights or super bright because I turned the lights on. There is no in between.

We have daylight bulbs in all of the recessed lights in our great room/kitchen/dining area and the bedrooms have ceiling lights with high wattage bulbs. The kids all have lamps and I think they use them often; I have one (daylight) lamp in my bedroom, next to my computer, to use for zoom meetings.

 

Old eyes, so mostly prefer bright lights. My 1957 house has ceiling lights in all of the rooms, except the bathroom (fixture is on wall above the sink) and in the living area of the living/dining room ... the ceiling light is in the middle of the dining area centered over the table.

I do have lamps in the living area of my living/dining room, and in my bedroom. I replaced the ceiling lights in the kitchen, dining and bedrooms with ceiling fans with lights.

 

I bought these beautiful tiffany style lamps for my living room only to find out the max watt bulb was a 45. Yeah very soft and pretty but dark. At least now I can use LED bulbs that are brighter since the wattage is less.

 

I am not a fan of overhead lights or daylight bulbs at all. I much prefer soft lamps, but I do love a lot of natural light during the day.

 

Eric loves it bright and calls.me a vampire because I love it dark... bright lights give me a freaking migraine...my biggest pet peeve is those cars with super bright lights..

So yeah..the answer to your question is.. soft lights

 

I am the same I hardly ever put on the main light in my lounge, prefer to put the small lamp on in the corner. I do need to invest in a better lamp though especially for when I am reading in the evenings.

 

My hubby calls my kitchen a baseball stadium! In my opinion it's not bright enough! LOL!!!!!! For my craft room I need to do something. I usually get to play at night and the lighting is terrible, more light please!

 

I need lots of light to see so bright lights it is at my house. We just added more recessed lights in the kitchen, dining, great room and down the hall. I love it! We’re waiting on a smart dimmer so we can adjust up or down to fit the occasion.

 

I HAVE to have lots of light! I am one of those light sensitive people. So other than the living room where we only have lamps, bright lights it is. Well, I guess our bedroom has a "nornal" ceiling light. But task lighting is what I use in my studio along with Daylight Bulb. Makes a cloudy day (which is most of Dec, Jan and Feb in SC) much more cheery!

Have you tried Daylight bulbs? We have them in my studio and they work well!

 

I like daylight (cool) lights in the house, hate the tugnsten (yellow) type of lights. We have a lot of the adjustable light switches so we can dim them. I do like bright light in my office for editing photos and scrapping. I have a dimmer in there but never dim them.

 

Yep, the type of bulb you use makes a big difference. When Dad and Martha would come to visit Martha always thought my kitchen was "too dark" even with the overhead light on. I was used to it so it didn't bother me. When the bulb burned out the last time and I went to replace it, I realized why. It was a soft white lower wattage bulb. Even a higher wattage bulb made a difference. And when my small fluorescent bulb over the sink burned out, I got a cool white to replace it. Dang is that thing bright! I can actually go into my kitchen and not turn the overhead light on if I don't want because of its brightness. I leave it on 24/7.

 

I have them, but I think they are not potent enough and the light fixture is on the ceiling and too far from my desk.

 

Oh goodness, Anne @AnneofAlamo !!!! You've opened up a can of worms with this post!

I'm all over the spectrum. Typically, I prefer softer lights, but since my cataracts are starting to take over my eyesight I need BRIGHT light to see. Well, except for when I'm needing softer lights to relax or sleep. Except... during the day I need bright, during the night I need soft, except when I'm cooking or doing needlework and I need BRIGHT. See what I mean? There's no pleasing me! lol!!!!