By Flora Nicole. Light. Tuesday, January 23rd 2018, 02:20:05 AM.
A skylight is like a window on your roof. Simple skylights can be used to bring extra light to a room as a substitute for artificial lighting throughout the day. More complex skylights can even offer an access point for roof maintenance (ideal for checking up on a green roof for example). Skylights can be fixed vented tinted or even combined with an automated shutter system and can include a fly screen. A light tube on the other hand is good for rooms that don’t have a ceiling at roof level. It’s basically a reflective pipe that bounces the daylight down to the room where it is needed. Light tubes can be combined with lighting fixtures so the same area that lets in daylight during the day can double as a light for the evening.
It may seem impossible to add a pretty pendant light in many cases especially when working with a concrete condo ceiling. A dropped ceiling panel can provide a place to house lighting fixtures like pot lights or pendants or even a minimalist LED strip to brighten a passageway while creating a beautiful space-defining feature.
If your cabinets don't go to the ceiling consider adding lights above the cabinets. Using a more powerful light source such as a T5 fluorescent increases the reflectivity of the ceiling thereby increasing the light in the room. While increasing light levels is important it is equally important to minimize glare. Use matte finishes to reduce light flares and glare.