Accent lighting is a new trend. It started, as a luxury mean of enhancing the interiors and exteriors of hotels, high-class restaurants or corporate buildings and it is now an affordable home design technique. There are enough lighting fixtures you could use for interior design, but the ones that could provide for the most spectacular accents are the LED light sources. These come in different shapes, sizes, viewing angles, effects and colors. You could even ask a manufacturer to create a LED luminary of your design (but take care: development costs are high and any non-standard product is expensive). The LED lights contain no harmful UV rays. Take that and their low power consumption and you’ve got a highly reliable lighting fixture to replace other conventional lights and create unexpected lighting accents and designs.
Let’s take a look at what LED light sources you could use (and where) to create spectacular accents that will mesmerize your visitors.
LED spots are perfect for bathroom vanities, cupboards and lockers. They make nice accent lights especially when they come in their RGB option. A quality RGB LED spot not only saves energy and can be programmed to create special light and color effects, but emits a uniform, consistent lighting , with no shadow or glare, far superior to what has up to now been possible with halogen or neon lights. Yes, LEDs can replace traditional halogen and other conventional lamps. So if you have such lighting fixtures you might consider buying some MR16 or GU10 LED bulbs that will emanate enough light (for accent and not for illumination purposes).
LED stripes – either flexible or standard – are perfect to create trails on the floors, walls or ceilings. The best part about such lighting fixtures is that they are really slim and you could insert them in tiny niches, behind different pieces of furniture for instance, to create “hidden lights”. You could also use these stripes to mark outdoors paths or for edge lighting . For indoor applications, where you don’t want to make holes in the walls or floors, you could always choose LED stripes with adhesive tapes (these are extremely easy to mount and provide for increased flexibility, as you can always change their place if you look for new accents). If you are looking to replace neon tubes, LEDs are the best alternative. Modern LED tubes or ropes have a viewing angle of 360° (due to a special positioning of the LEDs inside the plastic or Plexiglas composite profile), are flexible and safe.
But the most popular accent lighting source so far is the LED tile. You probably know it as “Mood light” a Traxon brand. However, Traxon is not the only manufacturer. If you cannot afford a Traxon product, you could always perform a search for “LED tiles” in Google and you’ll find other manufacturers that will sell you similar products, made of high quality materials, for half the price. With a few LED tiles, you could create a “wellness wall” or place them randomly around the room and control the light effects, color and intensity to create a special atmosphere in your home.
