How To Pick Lightbulbs That Flatter The Look Of Every Room

Lighting sets the mood for every room, determining everything from how you use a space to how you perceive the objects within it. While natural sunlight enhances a room's aesthetic, the light you use most frequently is often that which comes from light bulbs. When it comes to picking out the best bulbs for your interior, it's important to take temperature, brightness, and sustainability into account.

For general, all-purpose lighting, you'll want something at or around 3000 kelvins. On light bulb boxes, this is usually labeled something like "warm white" or "soft white," since it mimics morning and afternoon sunlight. Bedrooms and lounge areas will do better with something closer to 2700K, while kitchens and bathrooms might warrant 3000K or more. Warm hues create a soft and relaxed sunset vibe, while cool hues represent peak daylight productivity. Kelvins are the unit of measurement for light temperature, which is why they're used for bulbs in this instance.

As kelvins measure temperature, the color-rendering index (CRI) measures the "authentic" appearance of color in light. In your phone's photo app, you can adjust the saturation slider to make pictures look more or less colorful — this is essentially what the CRI indicates. Lightbulbs with a CRI of 90 are going to make colors look vibrant and beautiful, while low-CRI lightbulbs may cause objects to appear more gray and dull.

The first thing you'll want to know when shopping for lightbulbs is the wattage: the measurement of "power" that the bulb can handle. If you grab something out of range for the light fixture, it can put dangerous pressure on your home's electrical system. All your favorite kitchen light fixtures designate which bulb they need. For example, the box of an overhead kitchen light might read "100W LED," meaning it wants 100 watts for an LED bulb.

Wattage measures power, but lumens are the unit of measurement for how far the light stretches — the brightness. The number of lumens you need depends on the size of your space, but 30 to 40 lumens per square foot generates a bright and clear workspace with adequate lighting. For example, a 200-square-foot kitchen may require 7,000 lumens to light the entire area. This number could be achieved by a pendant fixture that requires five 100-watt LED bulbs, or by using a combination of different light sources.

The cheapest way to give your kitchen the lighting it deserves is by opting for a bulb with an Energy Star certification. This certification proves that they've stood the test of time and require less energy to function, putting less strain on the environment and your power bill during their lifespan as a result. The Energy Star certification often appears on LED bulbs, which the DOE recognizes as outperforming incandescent and CFL bulbs in longevity and sustainability.