WINDOW TREATMENT AND LIGHTING MAKE OVERS

While changing your window treatments and doing a lighting makeover may seem like two separate projects, they both focus on one of the most important elements of your interior decor: light. An important part of the ambiance you create in your home is the light you let in and allow to radiate out. While time must be spent choosing curtains and lamps, successful makeovers depend on choosing the quality of light you want to create.

Varieties of Interior Light

In planning both natural and artificial light, design professionals identify four categories of light: ambient, task, accent and decorative. Both ambient and task lighting can be strongly affected by the size and placement of windows and the curtains, shades or other decorative treatment you choose for them. Ambient light describes the overall atmosphere of a room; task lighting is related to how well you can see what you want to do in a specific room. Some portion of both ambient and task lighting is natural light. Accent and decorative lighting are primarily created by lighting fixtures, are chosen on the basis of how they highlight and reinforce the decorative scheme of the space.

Ambient Light

To create a comfortable ambiance, examine your window-treatment choices in both natural and artificial light -- that is, both day and night. While some decorators may favor dramatic differences between daytime and nighttime looks in a room, lush dark drapes can look overly formal in a den during the day, while frilly, light-accommodating curtains can make a kitchen or bedroom look chilly at night. Natural light may itself cause problems, glaring in the living room during the afternoon or keeping north-facing bedrooms dim for most of the day. Ceiling fixtures may produce a downward glare or even cast shadows. Lamps alone may create pools of light bordered with darkness. One solution may be to add indirect lighting to your overall plan; window valances can perform a dual function. The goals of both window treatments and lighting choices for ambient light should be to produce consistent illumination at all times of day.

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Task Lighting

Anyone who has ever taken a needle to be threaded into the bathroom or the front hall is familiar with problems in task lighting. Task lighting makes it possible to see what you're doing, whatever that may be in any room. Usually, task-oriented window treatments let you control natural light easily; curtains can be parted, shades easily raised and shutters moved as needed. Washable, durable materials and sturdy hardware make it easy to use natural light for chores, then quickly restore the look of the window treatment. Artificial task lighting is all about focus. For counter-based tasks, under-cabinet fixtures bring light exactly where it is needed. Recessed or pendant lights illuminate just the area where you are working.

Accent and Decorative Lighting

Both accent and decorative lighting play important roles in pulling colors and stylistic elements of your decor scheme together. Use a turquoise-shaded pendant light to emphasize the blue in your paisley-print drapes. Echo the cream and muted red of your curtains with red-based table lamps. The echo resounds in both directions: back an ornately shaded Victorian lamp with ruffly sheer priscilla curtains to create an old-fashioned vignette in the upstairs hall.

Flexibility

While redoing window treatments or lighting arrangements involves making decisions, one of the secrets to long-lasting satisfaction is flexibility. Plantation shutters may be securely installed, but their louvers can be adjusted to let in more or less light as needed. A window rod with classic finials can accommodate a variety of scarves and swags as the seasons or other elements of your decor change. You can also make lighting choices both firm and flexible. Designers note that adding switches in different locations lets you get the most out of your lighting design because you can make more frequent adjustments and use lights in different configurations. Using different kinds of light bulbs and placing fixtures at different heights within a room offer you flexibility in lighting arrangements.

Green Choices

When doing a window-treatment makeover or redesigning lighting, keep energy efficiency clearly in mind. Fabrics that insulate or reduce sun damage save energy as well as expense. Innovations in light-bulb technology deliver more light for less money than was the case even a few years ago. Directly and indirectly, window treatments and lighting choices strategies make energy-use more efficient and effective in your home.