Lingo Lessons: Lighting, Part One

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It’s about that time again… another installment of Lingo Lessons!

If you are new to this blog (or as scatterbrained as I am and just forgot), Lingo Lessons are periodic posts that I create to help those out there who struggle with all the fancy schmancy DIY and home improvement terms. For instance, most of you know what a stair tread is (the part you step on), but as I showed you in this post, the other parts of a staircase are good to know when you need to describe to the guy at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or True Value (aka Blue, Orange, and Red) just what in the heck you’re looking to replace. I get tired of struggling to explain to the very helpful (but easily confused by my “thingy” jargon) clerks what I’m wanting to do, so having the proper terminology can get you what you want in half the time.

A while back, I decided that lighting could be a good topic to cover. But the subject itself can be explained in so many different ways. You could try Googling “types of lighting” and get a million different interpretations on what type is being described. Do you know the difference between ambient and task lighting? How about the types of light fixtures available out there, and whether they cast ambient or task lighting? What about the shape of the light that is cast?

All are great things to know about lighting, and fully explaining the differences could create one very long blog post. And not just that; writing something that long would probably bore the heck out of you and exhaust me from writing another week’s worth of posts when I could just pick a different subject. As a result, I’m going to bore the heck out of you in 3 installments instead of one.

Part One:  So what is the difference between “task” and “ambient” lighting, anyway?

There are five basic types (there goes that word again) of lighting in your home.

Ambient Light (aka General Lighting)
The word ambient comes from the Latin ambi-, which means “surround” or “around”, and pretty much sums up what this kind of light does. Its purpose is to surround the whole room with light rather than shine light in one particular spot. It radiates a comfortable level of brightness without glare and allows you to see and walk about safely. In smaller rooms, like your bathroom, closet, or laundry room, there may be only one fixture which serves as both your ambient and task lighting. Ambient lighting is commonly found as your overhead lighting (ceiling fixtures).

Task Light
Task lighting is relatively self-explanatory. It is the kind of lighting that helps you do a specific task, such as reading, grooming, or preparing food (though hopefully, these are not all being done in the same room – ylech). Pendant and track lights are fixtures that are commonly used to provide task lighting.

Accent Light (aka “Look at Me!” or “Because I Felt Like It” Lighting)
Need to add a little drama to your space? Count on accent lighting for providing it (rather than picking a fight with your guests – wrong kind of drama). Accent lights create visual interest and draw the eye by highlighting a particular object in a room, like the paintings you see in the first picture below. It can also be used to draw you to the architectural features of a room (like exposed brick) or even placed above your crown molding to show off a vaulted ceiling.

Decorative Lighting
The true definition of decorative lighting is any that gives the room more character. For a light to be decorative, it only means that it has become part of the decor. This can either mean that the light is put there merely for design reasons or that it serves an actual purpose (task, accent, etc).

Kinetic Lighting
Natural light. A soft ambience is created when lighting candles or a fire in the fireplace, so why not give this soft glow it’s own name?

As you may or may not have guessed, it’s possible for one light fixture to be one or many of the above types. Ambient lighting can also be decorative; a room with only one fixture is both ambient and task lighting.

In the next two installments of Lingo Lessons, or “LL” as I like to call it – Lighting, I’ll discuss the differences between light fixtures and the types of light (ambient, task, etc) that are cast. I hope you’ll stop by!

This, along with my previous two LL posts, have been added as their own category on my Lessons Learned page. If you’re curious on the subjects I’ve already covered, head on over.