Ask Wirecutter: My House Is Lit Like a Warehouse Basement. How Do I Make It More Serene?

Herscovitch and Gottlieb gave me a primer on how best to set up your space so it’s comforting and not calamitous.

Let the sunshine in. First, think about the cycle of your day and how the lighting plays into that. Maximize morning light. Get some sun on your face when you first wake up. Start winding down a couple of hours before bed. You can even set your lights to do this by using the circadian-rhythm mode the WiZ bulb has, by setting your own schedule, or by using a smart plug to control a lamp via an app.

I have a lamp in my living room plugged into Wirecutter’s top-pick smart plug, the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (EP25). It turns itself on every morning so that I walk into a lit space when I come downstairs to get my family’s morning routine going. It then turns itself off after the kids leave for school, and it turns itself back on when they come home from school.

Top pick

This smart plug worked reliably in tests, and it includes real-time energy monitoring and an Away Mode. Plus, it’s widely compatible with major smart-home platforms.

Use light to define spaces. Herscovitch and Gottlieb have a trick for spots where light is needed but would otherwise require a professional to install. They recommend adhesive “chip on board” (COB) LED strip lights, which can be tucked in discreet locations like bookshelves, window moldings, or mantels to create a beautiful glow.

“We’ve seen a couple examples where people just taped it up, and you can see the LED strip itself,” said Herscovitch, who told me they installed them in their own 1950s-era home. “The goal would be to bounce the light, so find somewhere to hide the strip.”

For an even more polished look, you can buy an aluminum extrusion; this is basically a metal tube you can slide the light strip into, and it helps hide the strip and disperse the light.

The COB LED strip has a single, continuous line of light, rather than individual spots throughout the strip. Wirecutter has reviewed only the dot-style strip lights, so we don’t have a specific product to recommend. But Herscovitch and Gottlieb say they are readily available on Amazon. They recommend that you get a kit like the Pandery COB LED Strip. And check that it includes everything — including plug and remote control — so you aren’t trying to figure out how to power it later.

You can get a high-end look on a budget by installing warm, cozy lights in little nooks. And don’t just look up for lights. Low-to-the-ground lamps help to create a calm environment.

Avoid glare. Paint your walls a light color in a matte finish. “Otherwise, you’re going to see that line of light reflected,” Gottlieb said. “Even with a semi-gloss, sometimes you can see the typing that’s on the LED or on the bulb reflected in the wall. And that’s a little distracting.” Add diffusers to bare bulbs, and angle them toward the wall to further reduce glare.

Move lights down. Most people think lights need to be high up and overhead. But consider looking lower, since this can have a calming effect, like the setting sun, according to Gottleib.

In the US, pendant lights are usually hung 30 to 36 inches above a table. Yet Gottleib recommends going as low as 25 inches. “In this small pool of light and everything around them is a little bit darker, you’re going to feel like you can have a more intimate conversation,” he said. “You don’t have this feeling like everybody’s looking at you.”

Cozy, warm, and calm, as opposed to bright, flickering, and unsettling? Now that sounds perfectly restful.

This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Maxine Builder.