Manhattan Home Design's Lighting Guide Task lighting

This is the first article on a series of pieces dedicated to lighting up your home. Task lighting is meant to provide visual aid for completing tasks, as the name indicates. It has to do with localized sources of lighting, localized meaning that they cast a ray of light over a particular surface, instead of that light spreading around a room. Task lights are usually small and adjustable, which is a very important feature that not every lamp has. Adjustable can either mean with a dimmer or via the lamp’s build.

Task lighting is not necessarily limited to desks and workspaces. If you think about it, a flashlight can be a type of task lighting. You’ll need to think about what you’ll be using a given light, and where you’ll be using it, before purchasing it. Effective task lighting is usually not too bright, unless you count the naked lightbulbs that some people keep on their garages for work. The main idea is for task lighting to reduce eye strain while allowing you to see the space clearly. Another example of a task light? The ones used by dentists, though we’re sure you’re not looking to buy one like that.

How to purchase or create task lighting

You don’t have to confine yourself to a desk lamp in order to get a task light into your workspace, or living space. Some overhead lights can make for great and wonderful task lighting solutions. Think about recessed lighting fixtures, sitting atop the corner or a room, or even the under-cabinet lights people usually put on kitchens. For the latter area, consider hanging lights and long light bars, these can also come in handy when you’re furnishing a kitchen space.

For many interior designers, task lighting comes second. The first thing you need to do in your home is identify the ambient lights, which we will cover on another article. These are the lights that illuminate an entire room. Task lights usually serve a similar purpose to accent lights, which we will also talk about later on this series. The difference is that accent lights don’t have to help you accomplish a particular task: they can be there only to light up something that you want people to notice.

The best way to introduce task lighting into your home is to try and write down the different activities that pertain to each room in your house. The most important part of interior design is not aesthetics but functionality (though many would agree that both are equally important). For example, let’s say you have a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a small studio.

We’ve already mentioned what you can do with task lighting on the kitchen. Let’s move to the living room. Imagine a small round table, similar to the ones people use to play poker. You have one of these tables, and you know you’ll be sitting here on many occasions because you usually get some work done at this particular space. Also, you use it on weekends to meet with friends and, coincidentally, play card games every once in a while. Sometimes after sunset. What could be a good task lighting solution?

You could think about a desk lamp or a table lamp, but that wouldn’t probably work because the light source would be too small. You can also rely on your ceiling lights, but you don’t really want to do that. You can consider putting up a hanging lamp over the table with a 50-watt bulb (not too bright nor too low). This would become your task light for this particular space.

Alternatively, think about your bathroom. You have a large mirror that you use to get ready, brush your teeth, etcetera. Again, you can rely on your ceiling lights, but sometimes it is difficult for you to see clearly. You can either upgrade your ceiling lightbulb to a stronger one, or you can consider setting up a bar light on top of the mirror to enhance clarity. Some people use an array of small bulbs that surround the mirror and light up at the same time, such as the ones you can see on show business dressing rooms, this is also another example of great task lighting.