Living what to light and how to light it
Most living rooms today serve many different functions. Whatever the activity, the room should be comfortable and beautiful, and the lighting should be flexible enough to provide for the range of tasks, situations and desired aesthetic effects. The dining room shown in the photo is intended to show some typical lighting effects.

Example of properly lighted living room

Focal Point
the fireplace wall. The main objectives are highlighting the texture and colors of the stonework and to enhance the beauty of the art objects, a small sculpture perhaps. Suggested illuminance on the wall: 10-20 f.c.		General Lighting
Provides for ease of moving about in the room and to bring the various sections of the room together. Supplied in most positions of the room by reflections of light directed to the walls and furnishings. Suggested illuminance: 5-10 f.c.		Task Lighting
Needed to supply extra lighting for seeing small detail, e.g. music at the piano, the game table, the titles of books and recordings, reading at the lounge chairs and sofa. Suggested illuminance 20-50 f.c. 		Control
Permit the lighting to be varied according to the occasion; quiet conversation, a party, reading, listening to recordings, singing around the piano, a game of cards.

Lighting emxamples for living room

Example of lighting 3D objects

When lighting a small to medium size picture, have the lighting reach the picture at an angle of about 30° from the vertical. See the table below for suggested spacing from the wall. Lighting placed much further from the wall may cause the beam of accent light to be too low on the wall; lighting placed much closer may cause unwanted shadows cast be the frame.

Ceiling height
8'
9'
10'

Distance
away
1. 5'
2'
2.5'

A group of pictures is best lighted by lighting the surface as a whole rather then by lighting the pictures individually. Use the same spacing from the wall as for a single picture and , for even illumination, make the space between units not more the twice that from the wall. Lighting from multiple units can be smoothed using a spread lens or beam elongator. These guidelines can also be used for lighting a very large picture. The texture of a surface can be "raised" by placing the fixtures close to the surface, so that the lighting strikes it at a grazing angle. If there are unwanted irregularities in the wall, place the fixtures well away from the wall. In wall washing the surface is illuminated smoothly and evenly from top to bottom. Wall washing makes spaces seem larger and is useful for achieving a comfortable level of balanced brightness.Three dimensional objects, e.g. sculptures, often look best lighted from one side, in front and above, with a wide beam, and fromthe other side, in fromt and above, with a narrower beam.