My living room looks good but I was thinking of adding new table lamps to it. I was wondering whether should I match the lamps with the rest of living room. Here’s what I found and I’m excited to share it.
According to design experts and architects, coordinating light fixtures creates a sense of clarity, completeness, correctness within a room. If there are only two lamps in a living room, for example, two table lamps it is a good practice to match them and if there are more than 3 for eg. two table lamps and one floor lamp, the other lamp need not to match table lamps as it will help to add variety in lighting design.
Now that we know coordinating light fixtures can enhance the look of living room, let’s now see how to match table lamps in the living room.
How to match table lamps in living room ?
Matching the color
The color of lamps should match with the dominant color scheme of living room. There is one easy method to do it.
Simply see the least dominant color in living room and match the color of lamp with the least dominant color in living room.
Let’s try it with different living rooms.
In the above image, wall are of white color which is a well expressed color, sofa is of gray color and table is of brown color. White is the most dominant color, then gray and lastly, brown.
Therefore, the lamp is of brown color.
Let a look at another example,
In this case, the least expressed color is also brown, Therefore, the table lamp is of least domainant color to coordinate with living room.
It works exceptionally well in selecting and matching the lamp color.
The other method is to make use of color palettes. Go to canva.com/colors/color-palettes and among those several pallets see the palette which contains all the colors that are present in the living room. Those palettes are ready to use and can create an outstanding look if done properly.
Should lamps in living room match with color of furniture or other items ?
lamps in the living room need to match the color of furniture only when the dominant colors in the living room have been balanced by analogous colors or other harmony colors of furniture.
Simply put, when the color of furniture is not same as that of other architecture of living room and balances dominant colors of living room, in that case, lamps can match in color with that of furniture.
Let’s understand with the help of an example. See the image of a living room below.
The dominant color in this living room is white from the walls. The furniture is of gray contrasting color. White has been balanced by gray.
Therefore, lamps with same color as furniture will blend elegantly and will provide a coordinated look.
Doing this will help to match the lamps in any living room seamlessly and thus give a professional design look to living room.
What material of lamp should be used to match furniture ?
Material of lamp is also important to match with the material of furniture such that both complement the look of one another.
Furniture mainly has following materials i.e. full leather/leatherette, leather with wood/metal accents, fabric or fabric with wood accents. All these materials are needed to match properly with lamp.
For example, a full leather sofa matches perfectly shiny with metal lamps whereas a Leather sofa with wood, metal accents looks good with glass, ceramic lamps.
The fabric furniture on the other hand looks great with fabric, metal lamps and the fabroc sofa with metal/wood accent matches with crystal, plastic lamps.
The basic idea behind matching the material of lamps is to smoothen the look of a room. For example, the sharp contrast of metal is perfectly balanced by smoothness of fabric. On the other hand in case of leatherette, metal lamps tends to make the space look luxurious.
Should lamps in living room match with the table ?
If the shape of lamp is matched to that of the table, it will help to give an overall balanced look to the living room. For example, a square table with sharp edges is best balanced by round shaped lamps.
Similarly, if the table is round, the lamp can be of square shape in order to balance the roundness of furniture. Moreover, if both lamps and table have the same shape, they become geometrically symmetrical thus,s gives a great and unique look.
Whether to balance the shapes or to create a geometrically symmetrical look will depend upon the other furniture as well as other decorative items present in the living room.
Simply put if the living room has minimal architecture and furniture, prefer a geometrically symmetrical look, and if there are many items in the living room a balanced look should be preferred.
should lamps in living room match with other light fixtures?
When there are other light fixtures are present in the living room, the process of matching becomes much easier because the focus is now to minimize glare and unwanted reflections of light from other light fixtures on the ceiling.
If table lamps are made of metal, ceramic, they will reflect light. Thus the only thing that needs to match is the color of shades.
Take a look at image below
Table lamp with plastic, fabric shades is helping to smoothen the glossy look of the chandelier. If the table lamps had glass elements, the contrast would have been too sharp which could create an unpleasant look.
Visually looking at other light sources like chandelier, pendant lights, they are not in proximity to table lamps as much as furniture is.
Moreover,
Even though it is a good practice to match lamps with other light fixtures in the room. In most cases, matching is automatically done as light fixtures like chandeliers and pendant lights are also chosen while considering the architecture of the room.
So if table lamps are matching the architecture of the room, they will automatically match with hanging light fixtures.
But first priority should be given to match lamps with furniture.
Should the lamps match each other ?
All lamps used in pairs should be identical to give a sense of correctness, clarity. The purpose of lighting is to enhance the experience while in that space.
Lamps matching to each other will ensure. Though different rooms may have different furniture.
Different rooms can have completely different pairs of lamps irrespective of other rooms.
Some useful terms that helps in matching color of lamps in living room.
Harmony colors
harmony colors are any combination of colors which when are placed together provide a pleasant look. Harmony color combinations can be complementary, analogous, etc.
Analogous colors
In a color wheel analogous colors are present side by side. These colors are useful to create a tint or relaxing look. Interior designers use this color harmony by taking nature as an inspiration.
To make an analogous harmony, one color is dominant while other colors tend to fade its contrast by their light color.
Color palette
A color palette is a display of colors made by artists with the objective to achieve a desired look.
