Three Types of Lighting and Why You Need All Three Ambient lighting - This is also known as general lighting and covers the subtle, overall illumination that you need to see. Hanging light fixtures and flush mounted lighting fixtures are most commonly used to accomplish this. The purpose of ambient lighting is to illuminate as much of the room as possible. When designing a new home, or renovating an existing one, ambient lighting is a good place to start with any room. Accent lighting - Have a favorite corner in your room? The PERFECT piece of Artwork you found hanging on your wall? A nook that isn't well lit by your ambient lighting? Is your fireplace to die for?! This is where accent lighting comes in. Task lighting - Task lighting is pretty self explained, but this is used to light up areas used for specific tasks. Tasks such as reading, putting on some makeup, or cooking a meal are just a few examples of the uses for task lighting. Ever walked out of your room after getting ready in the morning full of confidence only to catch a glimpse of yourself in the hallway mirror and think. That's not what I looked like in my master bathroom. Some good task lighting over a mirror would solve this problem.
