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There are lots of ways to decorate your home. Decorations typically come in the form of art, sculpture and wall hangings or other knick knacks. You can contribute to your decorating scheme with your furniture choices, your rugs and your window treatments. Did you know that light can also be decorative? The indoor lighting options you choose for your home say a lot about you. You are no longer forced to limit your choices to table lamps or overhead lights. Now there are more lighting options to choose from than there are buyers for them. How do you know which lighting options you should choose?



Which are the best stores to shop in (and how do you figure that out)? Some people will advocate only shopping for your home lights at lighting specialty stores.



These stores can be helpful if what you are looking for are specific bulbs or different installations. At the same time, this is also usually a more expensive option. If you are on a tight budget you might think about shopping for your lights at department stores or stores like Target, that specialize in home wares that are less expensive but just as beautiful and useful.



What is each room going to be used for? Whatever the room's main function is will be a major determining factor for your lighting selection. An artist's studio, for example, is going to need different lighting than if you used the same room as a sitting room or an office. The things that take place in the room will assist you in determining what type of lighting it needs. Using the previous as an example, art studios require a lot of bright white lighting, in order for the artist to see what it is they are working on. An office, on the other hand, will need a desk lamp, some sort of light to make it easy to see the whole room (maybe an overhead or a floor lamp) and lights for other spot areas-maybe near a reading chair.



When you are figuring out your indoor lighting options, don't forget about the rest of your home's decorating scheme. The simple fact is that there are a lot of different lighting choices and it will be easier to decide if you follow your existing decorating scheme. A house that creates little pockets of different moods won't be helped at all by big diffuse lights. It is better to use small lamps in these areas to help focus your and other people's attentions. Even your kitchen light scheme can be based on the decor of the rest of your home. A house that uses soft tones, to give one example, will be better served by track lighting than big and bright fluorescent bulbs. Because of the sheer number of options, deciding on the right indoor lighting can be hard. There are several factors that need to be considered. It's important to get the right lighting for each room but you also need to keep your budget in check. Research is going to be the best way to lay out your indoor lighting scheme. The best way to find out what you do and don't like is to window shop through other's lighting schemes. Research fixtures and installations costs after figuring out your lighting scheme.