by Blake Herzog
Bringing the right amount of light to a room can be tricky, but today’s LED bulbs, high-tech controls and intriguing styles make it much easier — and a lot more fun!
What brings modern light fixtures together is their efficient use of today’s lighting technology with intriguing shapes or patterns to illuminate your home.
Sputnik or Glass Burst Styles
Inspired by the space race and fascination with the stars, these updated chandeliers feature spheres of light at the end of black or gold rods to recreate the spark of innovation and burst of new technology that make satellites and space travel a reality.
They set an exciting tone for the room.
LED Light Rods
These can be found as a single stylish rod suspended over a kitchen for task lighting or mounted on the ceiling in bunches to bring a futuristic vibe to a living or game room. Their versatility makes them easy to customize to your taste and tasks.
Pendant Shades and Lanterns
The ideal marriage of form and function, these put task lighting on task to also fill the room with a warm glow that invites family and guests to gather and gab. These look great hung alone or in sets of two or three.
Wall Sconces
These don’t have to be frilled and scalloped to be installed in a home to provide additional task or accent lighting. Think clean lines and colors other than gold, and you’ve got a thoroughly modern light source.
Recessed Lighting
These are not showy fixtures for the most part but sunken into the ceiling so as not to take up airspace and make the room feel smaller.
Such lighting has several variations, including ones that push the bulb up into the ceiling (baffle trim), flush with or slightly below the ceiling (open trim) and in housings that can be angled to change the light’s direction (eyeball trim).
Flush Mounts
When you crave the drama of a chandelier overhead but just don’t have the ceiling height for it, you can always go with a flush mount lamp with modern angles. If you’re tired of the flush-mount dome lights in your home, you can always swap them out for an artsy statement piece.
Floor, Table and Desk Lamps
Don’t forget about these workhorses of the lighting world. Plugging gives you more freedom to play with styles and shapes.
