For me (personally) I separate lighting into task lighting and ambiance / mood lighting. Sharing my personal experience with you below, hope it helps.

I have a mixture of the following:

- LED downlights in all areas of my house which provides bright-enough lighting when needed.

- Most of the time, I defer to recessed / indirect lighting (cool/warm white) which promotes a soft glow throughout the area.

- Low-power edison bulbs in selected places for timer switches. Bulbs because they are easy to replace since lights on timer switches may be switched on throughout the night so they get more use and burn out faster.

- I have a couple of track lights installed and pointed towards a feature that I wish to highlight (for example, an accent wall, or a set of musical instruments).

- Spotlights near sleeping areas for reading, although they rarely get used as most of my reading is done on the phone. Overall not a good idea in hindsight as it may also disturb your partner, unless you can find one which produces an acceptably narrow beam.

- Low-powered spotlight centered above a painting - I find that having tracklights directly shining on it produced too much glare.

- 1' LED tubes under bedside furniture (mine is fixed so can install lighting) - serves as night lights and appreciated by relatives with small children staying over.

Having good lighting can transform the look of your interior & it ultimately boils down to personal taste.

This post has been edited by phoenixxx: May 31 2019, 11:34 PM