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12 Lighting Ideas to Improve Your Home Cheap and Fast

Home remodeling is always costly and time consuming process. But, of course, there are some less expensive and much quicker ways to add value to your home. Changing or adding lighting can be a great solution for such a situation. We picked up 12 bright ideas that can help renovate your apartments without spending a lot of your precious time and money.

1. Install LED light strips behind TV

LED light strips on Amazon

There's no secret that most of us love TV-shows. But we rarely remember that spending hours before the screen causes headaches and eyestrain, and this problem is becoming more and more frequent especially for children. This issue can be solved in an elegant way while at the same time changing the room's ambiance. All you need to do is install LED light strips on the back of your TV. These strips will reduce the contrast between the brightness of the TV and the room's twilight. The installation is simple: you can simply stick the strip to the back cover of a TV by some adhesive tape (we recommend using 3M tape as one of the best on the market today). In fact, most of LED light strips already come with the adhesive tape attached. The rest is down to you and your fantasy. You may use colored LED light strips or remote controlled lighting, just opt for a quality ones. You may find all the needed components in your local hardware store or online marketplaces like Amazon or others.

2. Install LED Downlights

If you wish to make a swift and not very costly upgrade to your existing recessed lighting, give a try to LED downlights. You won't even need to replace the whole piece �" modern LED downlights come with different bases and it's easy to find a bulb with the same base as your old lights.

LED downlights: compare prices

If you don't have a recessed lighting but still wish to install LED downlights, take into consideration the modern ultra-slim LED panels. They are much more easy to install than traditional recessed lights and will definitely save you time and money.

Again, you may also consider some smart LED lighting solutions to turn the lights on and off and even to change the intensity and color of the room's lighting.

There is one more great option for the LED recessed lights. You can opt for the bluetooth LED speaker downlights. In this way you'll get the new LED lighting and at the same time a nice Bluetooth sound system in one unit. Such downlights also may have the same base as your old bulbs so you'll be able to install them with no effort. Look for ETL certified units for wet locations and you'll have a possibility to install them into bathroom, kitchen or patio. These units can be easily pared with your smartphone, and in a few minutes you'll be ready to impress your guests during unusual and unforgettable parties.

3. Use a Lighting Control App

There are some great lighting control apps on the market today. They can be used in numerous situations. For example, you can turn on the lights at home before you arrive so that you are walking into a brightly lightened house and not in the dark one looking for a switch on the wall by feel. Or don't let the house look empty when going on vacation. Or simply turn the lights off in the living room when you're already in bed and don't want to get up. Lighting control apps will be in handy for these and many other scenarios. Some apps will also help you to control window blinds, the temperature in different rooms, even to turn on and off your smart tea pot. Some of these features will need more home remodeling work, some less. Sometimes it's enough to screw in a few smart LED light bulbs instead of your old ones and use them with an app to totally change the room's ambience and the user experience of the whole house.

4. Install an LED Light into a Shower

LED Lighting for Shower on Amazon

Sometimes adding an LED light into a shower can change the whole bathroom interior. You may use an LED light strip or some downlight fixture. Remember to choose the ETL certified items for wet locations. LED light strips and some LED panels can be easily installed by yourself using the adhesive tape, just remember to buy the quality one or else it will go unstuck in no time because of the wet conditions. It is better to call the trained electrician to install the recessed LED lights to make sure everything is made properly, taking into consideration the danger of using electric fixtures in a wet room.

5. Go with LED Holiday Lights

Although LED holiday lights are slightly more expensive than the traditional ones, in a long run they will save you hundreds of dollars on energy bills. And it worth mentioning that the quality LED holiday lights will last up to 30 years �" just imagine how many times you'll need to buy the new traditional lights instead. Besides, it is also a great eco option, since people in the US consume about 2.2 million kilowatt per year and reducing this number will help keeping our planet clean.

LED Holiday Lights - compare prices

6. Consider Edison LED Bulbs

There are a ton of retro-looking LED bulbs in stores today. These so-called Edison bulbs may totally change the ambience in the room. They come with all base styles so you can easily swap your old bulbs for these great-looking pieces. They usually produce a very warm light and have a slight tawny tint to bring the real antique feel to the room's interior design. However if you're not really into that warm yellow light, you can also find a brighter and whiter Edison bulbs with color temperature of 3000K or higher.

Edison LED Bulbs - Bestsellers on Amazon

These retro bulbs also come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. You may find these bulbs in a form of a large sphere or even polyhedron, everything is up to your fantasy and creativity.

7. Pick a New Lamp Shade

Lamp Shades on Amazon - compare prices

There is a simple and effective way to try a different color or pattern in the room before planning to totally remodel it. Swap your existing lampshades to the new different ones and you'll be impressed how it will change the ambience of the room. The influence of lampshades on the interior design is often underestimated so don't make this mistake. And remember that dark lampshades create a focused light stream, giving the opportunity to accentuate the décor elements you wish, while the light-colored shades produce a diffused light to light up the whole room.

8. Install an LED Under Cabinet Lights

Find Under Cabinet LED Lights on Amazon

A quick way to renovate your cabinets is to install LED under cabinet light fixtures or LED light bars. There are a huge variety of options for under cabinet lights so it will need some home work to understand which one is good for your particular situation. You may opt for the interconnectable plug in fixtures to ease the installation process. In this way it is enough to plug your lights together and then plug the cord into the closest outlet.

LED Under Cabinet Lights - compare prices

Of course this process will require certain skills so if you are not sure what you're doing, the best decision is to hire a qualified electrician to do this job for you.

9. Invest in Outdoor LED Lighting

Outdoor lighting serves for both aesthetic and practical purposes. And do not forget that the brightly lightened porch, garage door, or side door are more safe. A wall sconce or a set will do the trick.

To boost the exterior design even more while not spending a fortune on it, try the outdoor string LED light sets. They are easy to install and can be plug in to the common outlet. Simply hang them up in your backyard and enjoy the whole new feel of your regular exterior.

Outdoor LED Lighting - Amazon Bestsellers

The exterior LED string lights can be hung on a post or a few posts. If you don't have any, you can build them by yourself. Buy the needed quantity of wooden posts and attach the c-hooks to the top of the posts. You'll need the same quantity of large planters to install the posts. Fill the planter with the quick concrete and put the post inside it. You'll need something to hold the post in place while the concrete dries. After that your post is ready and you can hang your new outdoor lights on them.

A quick tip: Do not fill the planter with concrete fully. This will give you the opportunity to add soil and plant some grass or flowers right by the base of your post thus making it even more attractive!

10. Try LED Strip Lights

LED strip lights are the most versatile solution for almost every interior design. They come in different length, color temperatures, colors and brightness. They also come with the adhesive tape already attached, making installation easy even for inexperienced users. You can place them almost everywhere, limited only by your fantasy and creativity. The most common places to put LED tape lights are under cabinets, shelves, TV, bathroom vanity etc. But of course you may find many different places in your home which could be decorated with these versatile lights. There are T, L and Plus sign-shaped connectors to create different patterns and designs with LED strip lights.

LED Strip Lights - compare prices

If you plan to install this type of lighting in the bathroom, in the pool, or somewhere outdoors, go with the waterproof LED strip lights. They are covered with clear silicone and have different IP ratings to fit different needs and budgets. Some of them can even withstand water immersion up to 6 feet. Also consider using aluminum profile with these LED strips. They often come with the light diffuser making the light stream more soft and attractive while giving another level of protection to your LED strip.

11. Use LED Bulb for the Light You Use Most Often

Look for the Star-labeled energy-efficient LED light bulbs to use in the fixtures you leave on for the longest. Doing this will not only cut your energy bills up to 75% and generate less heat, it will also add to your overall home design since you'll be able to leave the light on for more time. This will make your home more attractive in dark time of the day.

12. Use LED backlighting for long corridors and stairs

LED Steps Lights on Amazon

In case you have some long passageways in your home, you can install LED backlighting and leave it on 24/7. These backlights consume a negligible amount of energy and give a subtle light to such spaces in the house with no need to turn on the full light. You may want to mount these lights not higher than 10 inches over the floor since they are mostly designed to light up the flooring while giving minimum ambient light to the room.