Tips on Lighting: Selling Your House

Selling your house? Lighting can make a difference. You should know, staging can tip the scales in your favour!

While you carefully go through furniture, décor, paint, and even scents, there’s a crucial factor to turn your attention to - lighting sells.

Read on this LampTwist guide with tips and tricks on how to bring out the best features of your abode by shedding light on them, literally!

There’s a rich palette of lighting to help make a better property sale.

When you sell your home, be it an apartment or house, you must remember the rule of thumb - dark, gloomy rooms turn off buyers almost immediately. Lighting influences the colours and mood of the overall setting significantly. 

What can you do about it? 

• Let the sun come home! 
• Open curtains and blinds. Clean your windows and the rooms will brighten up. 
• Use natural light to your advantage!

In terms of function, ambient lighting matches all-purpose lighting. It distributes light evenly throughout a room. Sources of ambient light are, for instance, chandeliers, sconces, ceiling fans, etc.

If you're looking to create a sensual bedroom or softly lit wall niche, accent lighting is the ideal way to create a cosy environment.

• Use it to emphasise artwork, architectural features, or bookshelves.
• Consider brass picture lights, rope lighting, LED string lights, or the traditional table lamp to invoke a welcoming atmosphere in your abode.

This type of lighting is ideal for detailed work, such as reading and writing at a desk, sewing, and preparing food. It is focused on the area where the action takes place and is brighter than ambient lighting.

Task lighting options can vary between over-island pendants, clip lights, under-cabinet fixtures, floor lamps, and more. 

If you wonder where to begin, use the following room-by-room guide as a source of inspiration:

• Entryway: Place a pendant light or chandelier overhead and add a table or floor lamp for a finishing touch.
• Living room: For living room lighting, it is best to rely on recessed lighting. If the room has a central seating area, use a large overhead fixture to showcase it and create a cosy atmosphere. However, for great living room design, add task lighting and accent lighting to the space, such as standing lamps in the corners to make the room look spacious. Additionally, if you have a buffet, add a table lamp to complete the interior and overall mood.
• Dining room: Lighting the dining room is often the easiest room to choose lights for. The main source should be a pendant dining type of light or chandelier that hangs over the dining table. If the room is large and there are dark corners unattended, be sure to add a floor or table lamp to bring light and cosiness to your dining room.
• Kitchen: Ah, the types of kitchen lighting. It’s where all the action happens. This room can be hard for proper kitchen light design, especially with kitchen decor ideas for limited space. Main areas like kitchen islands should have overhead pendants. Also, use task lighting in the places with the most traffic, so to speak. Add under-cabinet lighting or integrate recessed lighting above the sink and stove.
• Bedroom: Much like the dining and living rooms, bedroom lighting is quite easy to design with ideas. Ideally, this space of your home should be calm and sensual. Use a centred, overhead light source and add bedside lamps to the nightstands. 
• Bathroom: Recessed lighting is the best option for this area. You have bathroom mirror lights, bathroom ceiling lights, furniture lights. It is good to add task lights around a mirror or fancy up things and include an overhead source above the tub.

Apart from the design of lighting fixtures, you must pay attention to proportions as well. In this section, we’ll show you how to determine their size easily. 

“The key is to find the right diameter while considering your space and furniture size and placement,” comments lifestyle guide, Joel Flynn. “If you aim to light the entire room with the fixtures, measure the length and width of the area and sum them up. Convert that total from feet to inches to find the ideal diameter for your fixtures,” he adds.

Sounds difficult? We hope the following example will shed light on the matter.

Example:

If the room is 14 ft. x 16 ft., 14 + 16 = 30, so your lighting source should be 30 inches in diameter. However, if you want to centre the fixture over a large piece of furniture you must measure the length and width of the item in question, instead of the whole space. As for aesthetics, make sure the lighting sources match the overall interior design of the room.

While you replace fixtures and light bulbs, we suggest you stop and think about being energy sustainable. In the average household, lighting consumes about 15% of the budget. 

Consider replacing your old light bulbs with newer LEDs or CFLs which are energy-saving and although fluorescent lamp recycling is tricky, they lower the monthly utility bill. This makes a good impression when you showcase your house to potential buyers and increases the chances of a successful sale.

Don’t forget exterior lights!

“Lighting upgrades are a must when staging your home for sale,” comments property buyer Paul Gibbens. “They are an inexpensive way to add character to your property and underline its features. Proper lighting adds depth and influences how potential buyers feel about your house,” he says.

A well-lit house speaks safety, security, function, and aesthetics. Remember, potential buyers can come for a visit at any hour of the day, so put ideas on exterior lighting to work! 

“Before you start, analyse the landscape, architecture, and safety requirements for an effective nightscope. Place lighting fixtures in key places of your exterior - front door, porch, pathways, driveway, and garden,” comments outdoor & garden professionals Fantastic. “The design is up to you, whether you want a dramatic or more subtle setting. If your budget is tight, worry not,” the expert adds.

The simplest hack is to add lights to the front of the house. This will surely increase your curb appeal and the chances of attracting prospective buyers.

Often, “bad lighting” equals inadequate décor. 

Dark furniture, wall colours, flooring, and even ceiling colours will make the space look gloomy, no matter how much natural light you shine into them. If you don’t have the time your budget allows it, it is optimal to repaint or replace items that contribute to the overall setting. 

In the following section, we comprise lower-commitment options for you to try:

• Use light-coloured bedding, duvets, drapes, carpets, and rugs to brighten the space.
• Mirrors are an inexpensive tool to make a room look brighter and larger. Consider adding them to rooms with small windows and little natural light. 
• Place light sources that wash ac ross dark walls. Diffused lights are an excellent way to add to the ambient illumination and give the eye time to adapt to the true dimensions of the room.

The right lighting can make or break a home. When the costs of homeownership are handled properly, lighting creates the perfect atmosphere and shows the character of your abode.

We hope this article helps you sell your house by implementing the simple, yet helpful tips in it. If you have questions, leave a comment below!