Most rooms in British homes were wired for a single central pendant, and that one bulb is asked to do everything. It lights the floor evenly and flatters nobody. Lighting designers work in layers instead, and the idea is simple to use at home.
01Three layers of lighting
Ambient lighting fills the room so you can move around safely. It usually comes from a ceiling light, a pendant or a pair of wall lights. Task lighting is brighter and focused, aimed at a desk, a kitchen worktop, a reading chair or a mirror. Accent lighting is the low, decorative layer, such as a lamp on a sideboard, fairy lights along a shelf or a lit picture. A living room that feels comfortable at night usually has all three, on separate switches, so you can turn the ceiling light off and keep the lamps on.
02Lumens, not watts
Since LED bulbs replaced incandescent ones, watts no longer tell you how bright a bulb is. Look at lumens instead. As a rough guide, an old 40 W bulb gave around 470 lumens, a 60 W bulb around 800 and a 100 W bulb around 1,500. An LED producing 800 lumens draws roughly 8 to 10 watts. For a reading lamp, 400 to 800 lumens is plenty. For a living room of about 15 square metres, aim for 1,500 to 3,000 lumens in total, spread across several sources rather than one.
03Colour temperature
Colour temperature is measured in kelvin (K). Warm white, around 2,700 K, is the soft, slightly yellow light most people want in a living room or bedroom. Neutral white, around 4,000 K, is crisper and suits a kitchen, a bathroom mirror or a home office. Cool white above 5,000 K looks clinical in most homes. Keep one temperature within a room, because a 2,700 K lamp next to a 4,000 K ceiling light makes both look wrong. For late evenings, bulbs between 2,200 K and 2,700 K are the gentlest.
04Bulb fittings in the UK
Check the cap before you buy a bulb. The types you will meet most often in British homes are these.
- B22, the bayonet cap, still found on many UK pendants and lamps.
- E27, the large Edison screw, standard across Europe and on most designer lamps.
- E14, the small Edison screw, used on chandeliers, wall lights and smaller lamps.
- GU10, the push-and-twist spotlight cap with two pins.
Every fitting carries a maximum wattage on its label. With LED bulbs you will almost always be far below it, which also keeps fabric shades cooler. Halogen bulbs have not been sold in Great Britain since September 2021 and most fluorescent lighting followed in 2023, so LED is now the default for home lighting.
05Lighting room by room
In the living room, keep a ceiling light for cleaning and busy evenings, then add at least two lamps at different heights, such as a floor lamp by the sofa and a table lamp across the room. In the bedroom, bedside lamps or wall lights on each side matter more than the ceiling, and a dimmer helps at night. Kitchen lighting needs to be bright and even over the worktops, with something softer over the table, often a pendant hung low. Hallways and landings benefit from wall lights, which take up no floor space, and a small night light helps on the stairs. In a bathroom, a light either side of the mirror at face height avoids the shadows a ceiling spotlight casts under the eyes. In a home office, pair a desk lamp with general lighting so your eyes are not adjusting between a bright screen and a dark room.
06Hardwired or plug-in
Ceiling lights and most wall lights connect to the mains wiring. In England and Wales, new circuits and electrical work in bathrooms fall under Part P of the Building Regulations, so use a registered electrician. Bathroom lighting also needs an IP rating suited to its zone, usually IP44 or higher near a basin or shower. If you rent, or would rather not open up the walls, plug-in wall lights, floor lamps and rechargeable lamps give you a second layer of lighting without any rewiring.
07Shades and finishes
Good lighting is often as much about the shade as the bulb, because the shade decides where the light goes. An opaque shade pushes light up and down and creates pools, a linen or paper shade glows and spreads it sideways, and clear glass gives the widest, brightest spread. Dark walls reflect less, so a room painted in deep colours needs more lumens than a white one. Brass, chrome and black metal change the character of a lamp more than its size does, and two or three finishes repeated around a room are easier to live with than a different one on every fitting.
08Delivery, guarantee and returns
Delivery is free on orders from €89, including to the UK, where it takes around 5 to 8 working days and prices include VAT at 20%. All our lighting carries a two-year guarantee, and you have 14 days after delivery to change your mind. If a lamp or shade arrives damaged, send us a photo within 48 hours and we will send a new one.