Guide to Creating your Room’s Customized Lighting Plan

1. What type of room is this? (Family room, bedroom, kitchen, etc.)

Determine Lumens Needed

2. What are the measurements and square footage (or square meters) of your
room? What is the height of your ceiling?

3. Based on the measurement system you are using (imperial or metric), what is the
recommended range of footcandles or lux for this type of room? Document the
recommended ranges for both ambient and task in the space below.

4. Based on questions #2, how many lumens of ambient lighting should you have for
your room? (Reminder: multiply the square feet or meters by each number in the
range to get your range of lumens)

5. What is the square footage (or meters) of each task area of your room?

6. How many lumens of task lighting should you have for each of your tasks listed in
#5 above? (Reminder: multiply the square feet or meters by each number in the
range to get your range of lumens)

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Determine Type, Size, and Lampshades for Fixtures
7. What are the key activities for your room?

8. Based on your listed key activities above, determine what type of light fixtures
you should use in this room for each type of lighting (ambient, task and accent).

9. Based on your answers in #8 above, what size should each of your fixtures be?

10. If you are using table lamps, do you want your shades to be translucent or
opaque? (Hint: Consider whether or not you want more ambient light for the
room)

Determine Window Coverings, Number of Dimmers, and Places to Shop

11. Which direction are most of the windows in your room facing? Does this room
receive a lot of natural light during the day? (Note: In northern hemisphere,
southern facing windows generally receive the most light and in southern
hemisphere, northern facing windows generally receive the most light)

12. Does this room need privacy? Does lighting need to be blacked out at any point?

13. Based on your answers to #11 and #12 above, what type of window coverings
would work best?

Copyright © 2017 Erikka Dawn Interiors. All Rights Reserved.

14. Which light fixture(s) would you like to include dimmers on?

15. Based on your budget and room style, where will I begin shopping for lighting?

Solve Design Dilemmas and Accentuate your Room’s Focal Point

16. Does your room have a warm, cool, or neutral color scheme? Based on your color
scheme, will you use warmer light bulbs to accentuate the warm color scheme, or
cooler light bulbs to accentuate the cooler color scheme? With a neutral color
scheme, feel free to move in either direction.

17. Do you have any colors, either your paint or your furnishings, that you want to
downplay or mute? If so, ensure that you have your ambient light fixture on a
dimmer and use plenty of task lighting in the room with opaque shades.

18. Do you need to brighten up the furnishings or the overall color of the room? If so,
be sure to use cooler temperature light bulbs, light up your walls (e.g., with wall
washers), and white or off-white translucent lampshades.

19. Do you want to the room to feel larger than it is? If so, then after painting the
room a light color, light up your walls, hang long pendants if you have high
ceilings, use light color translucent lamp shades, and hang wall mirrors opposite
your windows.

20. Do you want the room to feel smaller or cozier than it is? If so, then after painting
the room a darker, warmer color, be sure to use table and floor lamps with
opaque shades, preferably towards the center of the room, and install a dimmer
on your ambient light sources.

Copyright © 2017 Erikka Dawn Interiors. All Rights Reserved.

21. Does my room have a natural focal point? If so, what is it? If not, how will I create
one?

22. How can I accentuate my room’s focal point with lighting and other décor?

Copyright © 2017 Erikka Dawn Interiors. All Rights Reserved.