Color Temperatures For Each Room
There’s A LOT to grasp here but in order to make this as simple as possible here’s a quick breakdown of what color temperatures we like for each area in your home.
Rooms In Your Home With A Warm White (also known as soft white) Color Temperature
Rooms In Your Home With A Bright White Color Temperature
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Kitchens = 3100K – 3500K
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Bathrooms = 3100K – 3500K
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Offices / Homework Stations = 3100K – 3500K
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Reading Areas = 3100K – 3500K
There are times where wall colors that are cooler in undertones require brighter color temperatures or in some instances a kitchen, bathroom or office may require a higher kelvin temperature.
Calculating The Necessary Lumens For Each Room In your Home
Remember when I said in order to calculate the necessary lumens for each room in your home you needed to understand footcandles? Well, here you go.
What Are Footcandles?
Let’s not get too granular here but a footcandle is how bright or intense a light is — one foot away from the source. And obviously, depending upon the task: cooking, sitting in a living room, eating in a dining room — the required footcandles for adequate lighting will be different.
Isn’t interior design fun *wink* but truth is… WE LOVE THIS STUFF! And it’s how we ensure that a room we’re designing has the right amount of light for the appropriate mood 🙂
Here’s a quick breakdown of how many footcandles are needed:
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Living Room 10-20
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Kitchen General 30-40
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Kitchen Stove 70-80
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Kitchen Sink 70-80
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Dining Room 30-40
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Bedroom 10-20
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Hallway 5-10
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Bathroom 70-80
Determining Lumens
You’re more than likely SO glad we do this for you when we design your home BUT if you’re still interested… here’s how determining lumens breaks down.
Remember, we need to multiply square footage by the footcandles from above.
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Living Room: 100sf x 10 footcandles = 1000 Lumens
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Kitchen General: 100sf x 30 footcandles = 3000 Lumens
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Kitchen Stove: 6sf x 70 footcandles = 420 Lumens
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Kitchen Sink: 5sf x 70 footcandles = 350 Lumens
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Dining Room: 100sf x 30 footcandles = 3000 lumens
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Bedroom: 100sf x 10 footcandles = 1000 Lumens
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Hallway: 50sf x 5 footcandles = 250 Lumens
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Bathroom: 60sf x 70 footcandles = 4200 Lumens
For simplicity’s sake, we’ve kept the square footage relatively conservative but regardless whatever the square footage of the space is we know that to enjoy spending time in those spaces + to have adequate bright light this is how we determine lumens.
Alrighty boo, we know that light bulbs aren’t the sexiest topic when it comes to interior design BUT it’s still an important one to ensure each area in your home has adequate lighting + sets the appropriate mood for the space.
Don’t hesitate reaching out to our team + asking for help –– let’s chat.
And if you absolutely loved this article about Selecting The Perfect Light Bulbs For Your Home then trust me boo, you’re going to really enjoy this FREE video course: 4 Days To A More Beautiful + Functional Home