What transforms a dull, lifeless space into one that feels warm, inviting, and genuinely homely? The answer is often the right lighting. Setting up a basic rental apartment is easy enough, but the biggest downfall in many apartments for rent is poor lighting design.
Most rentals rely on a single harsh overhead light that creates a dim, unwelcoming atmosphere and takes away from even the best décor. Thankfully, giving your space a cozy upgrade doesn’t require major changes, long projects, or landlord approval. With a few simple lighting updates, you can completely elevate the mood of your rental.
And just as renters focus on creating a comfortable home, property managers prioritize clear processes – like tenant screening – to ensure a positive living experience for everyone. Smart lighting choices improve the feel of your home, while smart management practices help keep rental communities running smoothly.
Understanding the Three Types of Lighting
Professional designers depend on three different forms of lighting to achieve balance and comfort within spaces. Knowing these lighting types allows the most effective lighting budget to be achieved.
Ambient lighting is the room’s foundation and is the overall lighting that allows you to get oriented and move about the room safely. In a rental unit, this is often a single ceiling fixture or flush mount that provides dull, though adequate, coverage. Better ambient lighting is achieved by even distribution of the light with several light sources. Like, for example, a pleasant even glow you might achieve with the use of a few floor or table lamps or even a pendant light instead of relying solely on the overhead light.
Task lighting is used for the purpose of illuminating close work that requires attention, and in this case, would be focused on activities like reading, cooking or working at a table. This lighting needs to be of a brightness level that is enough to prevent eye strain, and casting of shadows on the work surface. Think of what is used for desk lamps, what is found in kitchen lighting under cabinets, or bedside lights.
Accent lighting is used for decoration and to outline different elements that are within the room. That may be simple a string light that is fixed behind a headboard to lighting that is used for picture frames illuminating wall art. Accent lighting adds dimension and style. It is what is used to personalize and decorate the otherwise basic unit you are renting.
It is always recommended to merge all light approaches for effective lighting. An example of this combination is pair in ambient lighting for the living room with floor lamps, a reading lamp beside the sofa, and led strips with accent light behind the television. This combination of lighting is more affordable than expensive living room ceiling light fixtures, plus it is a more elegant design overall.
Ambient Lighting on a Budget
To achieve good lighting in spaces where you can’t install ceiling lights, you will have to use lighting in a different way. For example, in bedrooms and living rooms where you need to avoid shadows, you can use paper lanterns ($20-40) and pair them with a plug-in cord to get a nice gentle glow.
If you need to, you can remove the ceiling fixtures and put them back in their original boxes, you can install flush mount lights ($30-60), and when you take them down, you can put the original flush mount back. Most leases don’t mind this temporary change. Torchiere style lamps ($40-80) that projector light to the roof are a great way to make a space feel comfortable and are also great at getting rid of dark corners that make rooms feel tiny. Usually large, you can put these behind furniture to light the room in a way that makes the light feel like it comes from many sources at once.
You can modify lamps for slightly more than 10 bucks ($15-25) by adding dimmer plugs, which allow you to control the brightness of the lamp and the brightness through the day. You can change the ambiance of the light for the day from bright to soft, and do the same for the evening, all without the need to install a wall switch or permanent dimmer.
Task Lighting Solutions
Having appropriate lighting for your tasks can make a difference in comfort and ease and can help prevent daily activities from being a pain in your neck (or eyes). For $50+ you can find desk and study lamps that you can adjust and have focused light where you need it. Look for lamps with moving arms and multiple joints that help you position the light where you need it instantly and avoid bright distracting light from the screens.
If you want to avoid installation in your rental, try battery-operated under the counter lights that can be stuck and removed ($20-35). USB rechargeable battery lights provide bright light that can completely change the lighting in the room.
For reading lights, choose bedside table lamps with a focused shade to avoid waking other people. And look for upward-facing, opaque cylinders that cast light through the shade to keep the light more contained and direct the light down. It adds to the softness of the lighting, but it will also throw a lot of light and prevent it from lighting the whole room.
In the living area, tall floor lamps with large opaque shades provide a lot of light. Look for them with adjustable arcs to create a light zone where people can do different tasks, and keep it low to avoid a lot of direct light.
Accent Lighting Ideas
Artificial lights with no permanent setup needed are a great way to add character to a space. String lights add a warm tint to the walls. Small battery-operated string lights are purchasable for $10 to $20 and are easily placeable along walls, around windows, and behind furnishings to comfortably highlight a space.
LED to battery-operated picture to battery-operated lights for around $30 to $50 are great for highlights to provide contrast for walls, and they’re great for a moveable picture light to provide contrast and focus on specific pieces of art.
Unique decorative table lamps can work in juxtaposition with pieces of decor to emit light, and they can reflect light throughout the room. From the floor to shelves, these lamps work multilayered and hung throughout a room, and lamps are a great decorative choice.
Colored LED lights are great to add behind televisions and mirrors. They create a modern space and are great to reduce eye strain in a darker room and many even come with customizable remote controls for a perfect brightness for a current mood, and some even come with a customizable remote for enough brightness to match one’s mood and current activity.
