Five ways to light your workspace brilliantly
Getting the light right in your workspace is just about as important as making sure you’ve got the right desk and chair set up.
Not enough lighting means you could be straining your eyes, too much and for too long can trigger headaches and cause insomnia. Your workspace needs to be lit well with a mix of lighting types and ideally, change throughout the day to support your natural circadian rhythm.
We’ve put together an explanation on types of lighting that you can follow to make your home workspace lighting work support your productivity and wellbeing.
1 - Natural lighting
Having natural lighting is hugely beneficial to your working environment - it’s proven to help alertness, productivity and the battle against Seasonal Affective Disorder. Although it would not be recommended to work outside on a computer (outside light would overwhelm your screen light), working near a window does a huge amount for supporting our natural circadian rhythms and hormone release. If you don’t have natural lighting in your workspace then it’s even more important for you to take regular breaks to go outside - we should all be following that advice! If you have a room with a window (lucky you), try to make sure it’s adjacent to your desk. That way, natural light will light up your workspace not conflict with your screen or cause glare.
The Dove Grey task light Anglepoise features in our HomeWork for Business packages
2 - Overhead lighting
The purpose of your overhead lighting should be to generally light the room without creating glare and casting lots of shadows. Fashion wise, it’s like a base layer staple. It shouldn’t be your only light source though and you should try to avoid working directly beneath it. It’s a great idea to try to diffuse this light with a beautiful lampshade (in case you needed an excuse).
3 - Task lighting
Task lighting or desk lamps are designed to provide focused light so you can see the details of what you’re doing without straining your eyes. Look for desk lamps with a flexible arm so it’s easy to adjust their height and angle to suit the task at hand. Remember though, task lighting alone can quickly give you eye strain so combine with other lighting. We have always been huge fans of the beautifully engineered Anglepoise which we can provide through our HomeWork Business range.
The beautiful new Alumina lamp from Tala is available through our HomeWork for business range
4 - Ambient lighting
Lighting that you can change throughout the day is a great idea to help soften the harsh light that can come from just using overhead or desk lighting alone. We recommend the beautiful new Alumina Lamp from Tala. Another light we’ve incorporated into our HomeWork Business range, this light is dimmable and can be used on a desk or on a wall. Incredibly stylish and useful, this is definitely one to add to your HomeWork set up.
5 - Colour temperature
If possible, change the lighting ‘temperature’ during the day. Without getting too technical, bluer light keeps you alert, redder light helps your brain to wind down. It’s why fluorescent light has been shown to be quite difficult to work under all day every day. At the beginning of the day, light should be brighter and cooler going to warmer as the day goes on which will match with your circadian rhythm.
For more Home Office Design tips check out our blog post 8 ways to ergonomically improve your WFH set up
Author: Nadia Themistocleous, Lead Interior Designer
Nadia has worked with Trifle* since 2016 and has been the interior lead for some of our most ambitious projects to date including MVF, BenchSci and TriliTech. Prior to Trifle* and managing her own interior design company, she worked for a decade in advertising and the music industry creating and executing creative campaigns and events. She is passionate about translating our client’s culture, identity or ways of working into the spaces they inhabit ensuring that every space created for our clients is as unique as their business or home is.