From reading to cooking, many of the activities people do at home require lighting. There are different types of lighting, and choosing the best type for each room of an apartment can make home activities both easier and more enjoyable. While apartments for rent in Gainesville come with built-in lighting, many renters would also benefit from decorating their apartments with lamps and lighting fixtures to create the ideal conditions. To learn how to establish optimal lighting in your apartment, consider these essential apartment lighting tips for illuminating each room to perfection.
In Gainesville apartments contain sources of lighting that are sufficient for everyday activities, such as making a snack or taking a shower. But those same apartments are sometimes under-lit for other activities, such as reading or playing games. The general lighting that apartments have is called ambient lighting, but the lighting most renters need to incorporate into their apartments is task lighting, or lighting intended to support the specific tasks that people do. The best way to utilize task lighting in your apartment is to consider the primary purpose of each room and then to add task lighting where appropriate.
While the floor plans of apartments in Gainesville vary from one property to another, something all apartments have in common is an entranceway, or the interior area adjacent to the front door. The applications for the apartment entranceway are fairly consistent for renters: the center of the entranceway is used for putting on or removing shoes, and the space to the side is used for storage of some kind, such as a shoe rack or an end table with a dish for keys. Rather than relying on light sources from other areas of the apartment, the entranceway deserves its own task lighting, such as an overhead light, to make activities such as tying shoes easier.
Cooking at home is a common activity for all apartment renters, including younger renters, who often forego the residence halls and choose off campus apartments near UF because these apartments have full kitchens. Since meal preparation can involve the use of sharp utensils and hot stove-top burners, though, adequate lighting in the kitchen is a matter of safety. Generally, the ambient lighting installed in the kitchen is the brightest in the entire apartment, but there is also task lighting that renters can add to improve visibility in the kitchen. For instance, under-cabinet lighting can brighten the surface of kitchen countertops to facilitate activities such as chopping vegetables, while lighting placed inside the lower cabinets makes retrieving items, such as a cleaning product from beneath the sink, easier. Cabinet lighting is also removable, so there’s no risk of a deduction to your rental deposit for damage to the kitchen cabinets.
There’s no universal answer for what amount of wattage is right for lighting a living room or bedroom because in Gainesville apartments for rent range from economical studios to elaborate townhouses, which means room sizes also vary. There is a recommended formula, though, for determining the right amount of wattage for lighting a room in an apartment, which is to make the wattage equal to one and one-half times the room’s square footage — a bedroom that is 100 square feet would need 150 watts of lighting. It’s also recommended to use at least four sources of light in a living room or bedroom in order to create a balance of light throughout the room. But during the daytime, opening the shades on windows to invite natural instead of artificial light has the dual benefit of lowering your electricity usage and improving your mood.
Just as all apartments have their ideal lighting, so do all renters have their perfect apartments. At Contemporary Management Concepts, LLLP, we manage a variety of rental properties throughout Gainesville, FL, so tenants can always find the best housing to match their needs. Among the types of apartments we oversee are student housing, luxury apartments, townhouses, and lofts. Finding out information about available apartments is also easy with Contemporary Management Concepts, LLLP, because we offer an online search tool, and our team of rental experts is available to offer personal assistance. Contact us for more information about our rental properties and services!