LED Lighting for your Living Room

We all want our living area to be cosy. Whether it's a warm fireplace providing that perfect ambience, or some well-placed lamps, the living room is where we just want to kick up our feet after a long day, watch the television or read an absorbing book under the conditions which make us feel safe and relaxed.

Choosing the right lights for you always begins with knowing which kind of aesthetic you wish to achieve. After all, there's no right or wrong way about choosing lights, but we can help steer you toward thinking about how particular ranges affect our mood. When it comes to LED strip lighting, we have a choice of Single Colour LED Tape and RGBW LED Tape. The latter will allow you to control additional colours, but the one thing which remains uniform between the two types of strip is the choice of whether to go for Warm White, Natural White or Cool White:

In our article exploring LED Lighting for your Kitchen, we talked about how important the kitchen is in gathering people together and providing a natural mood. We therefore suggested that given the openness of the kitchen, it's often a wise choice to select something along the lines of a strip which can accurately represent Natural Daylight. Of course, this isn't a fast and hard rule and if you wanted to you can absolutely go for a warmer vibe or even something much cooler. But sometimes, we may want to consider saving these choices for other areas in the home, thus giving each room its own personality, so to speak.

Warm White:

Let's focus on Warm White LED Strips then.

A misconception we often come across is that the customer often feels that Warm White at 2700~3000K isn't as bright as a strip which can offer 4000K (Natural) ~ 6000K (Cool). These values merely represent the range in temperature - the white balance which determines the overall ambience of the room. No matter what range you decide on, these will all come in at the same brightness as the rest of their respective "family" of strips. So, a Warm White strip of 2700k at 14.4 watts per metre, will still have the same brightness as a Natural White strip of 4000K at 14.4 watts per metre; watts per metre being the key value here in denoting brightness. It is understandable to think that this might otherwise be the case, given the illusion that temperatures can have on the human eye. 

Warm White feels natural in the living room because of the reasons stated earlier. Because we associate the space with warmth, we subconsciously make efforts to capture that ongoing sense. We can still enjoy a good book or any number of activities without worrying over whether or not brightness levels are correct. 

Movies:

Now, if you really wish to get creative, you can thinking about setting the perfect ambience for when it comes to sitting down to a movie. Just like going to the cinema, we can recreate the feeling of the lights going dim and a mood-lit surrounding adding the right amount of atmosphere. You could either go for something along the lines of Single Colour Green, Blue or Red, at a low watts per metre - purely working as mood lighting - or you can go for RGB (no white channel) for a greater selection of colours, which can be dimmed from high to low brightness. Finally, we can go full-on RGBW, choosing the white balance, as discussed earlier. 

Note: Single Colour dimming requires a Single Colour Controller/Strip Dimmer, which must be paired to a Single Colour Strip Remote. Power supplies are determined by the total length of LED tape and the watts per metre. Alternatively, Single Colour LED Strips can also be dimmed via Mains Dimming. 

RGBW dimming can only be achieved via Remote Control (Mains Dimming is not possible) and therefore requires an RGBW Strip Dimmer/Controller, paired to an RGB/RGBW Remote Control or an RGB/RGBW Wall Mount.

Tunable LED Strips:

After all that, you might be thinking "But what if I want to have a full range?" Well, you can opt for this also. 

Our new line of Tunable LED Tape allows for temperature changing between 2700K ~ 6000K, so you can create whichever mood you want on the fly! Single Colour Tunable White LED tape requires a Single Colour Tunable White Strip Dimmer/Controller, paired to a Single Colour Tunable White Remote Control.

RGB + Tunable White LED Tape requires an RGB + Tunable White LED Strip Dimmer/Controller, which is paired to an RGB +Tunable White LED Remote Control.

And there you have it. Just a few pieces of advice and handy tips to help you set up your perfect living room environment. As always, feel free to contact us for further information. You can do this either by calling us directly on 020 3322 9192 or by emailing us at support@hiline-lighting.com.