Tips for lighting your home office

What is the best light for a home office?

At home, the office or study is a place for working, sharing and creating. To make working there comfortable, several factors need to be considered: the workspace itself, whether or not there is natural light, the age of the user and the type of activity. These criteria also bring to light something vital for working comfort: lighting. Good lighting makes reading, drawing or working on a computer much easier on the eyes. It is therefore essential to light a home office well, using natural light as well as light fittings. Here are a few practical tips to bear in mind when choosing the best lighting for a home office.

Where to put your desk

First of all, it is essential to choose the right spot for your desk. A desk in a dedicated room does not always have the same lighting needs as one in a bedroom, a living room or even a hallway. Where you put your desk therefore also affects the type of light that suits it. If the desk is in a dedicated room, place it near natural light sources such as windows. As well as saving energy, natural light makes a big contribution to visual comfort by protecting your eyes from fatigue. This is especially true during long working hours. If the desk is in a living space such as a bedroom or living room, it is a good idea to add a desk light on top of the existing fittings. Choose desk lamps with an adjustable head and dimmable light, placed directly on the desk. This avoids casting shadows and limits the risk of glare.

A ceiling light as the main lighting

To make your home office as comfortable as possible for your eyes, install a suitable main light source. Ceiling lights are best suited to lighting a large area. Their output gives excellent light in a large room while limiting eye strain. What's more, once correctly positioned, a designer ceiling light limits the shadows cast on your desk, eliminating the eye discomfort they cause. Spotlights are best avoided, as they have an unfortunate tendency to dazzle and cast shadows on the work surface.

Use several light sources

Once again, to minimise the shadows that come with a single light source, it is strongly recommended to install several lights in your office and around your work surface. Table lamps and lamps with articulated arms are the timeless classics of office lighting. As direct light sources, they even out the light on the work surface while dispersing shadows. As well as lamps, floor lamps can also play a key role in lighting a home office. Less powerful than desk lamps, floor lamps nevertheless give a more pleasant, even light. What's more, designer floor lamps give off very little heat and therefore use little energy. If your desk faces a wall (as is often the case in a child's bedroom), you can also install a wall light. As an indirect light source, a wall light is perfect for giving even, gentle light over a desk.

The right lighting for computer work

Working on a computer is inherently tiring for the eyes. As the screen already gives off strong light, suitable lighting helps protect your eyes from chronic fatigue, guards against damage to the retina, and reduces the risk of sleep problems and stress symptoms. A desk lamp is the ideal tool for this. A desk lamp offsets the blue light emitted by a computer screen, greatly reduces eye irritation and provides lasting visual comfort. Today, desk lamps with a colour temperature between 2700 and 3000 kelvin are the most popular. This type of lamp gives a warm white light close to natural light. This helps maintain visual sharpness and limits fatigue, especially during long periods in front of a screen. The lamp's output should not, however, exceed 1000 lumens, or it may cause glare. Choose freestanding or clip-on desk lamps with articulated arms and a dimmer. This lets you control the brightness according to the time of day while limiting contrast and reflections. It is worth noting, too, that we need more light as we get older. It is therefore essential to adapt the light intensity to each person's needs, and desk lamps with a dimmer are more than welcome here.

Choosing the bulb

For optimal visual comfort in a home office, the ambient light level should be between 400 and 500 lumens. Choosing the right type of bulb is therefore essential. 9 W compact fluorescent bulbs are a good choice, as are LED bulbs, which have the advantage of not getting hot. Alternatively, 15 W incandescent bulbs can also give enough light to illuminate a desk without dazzling. Once again, freestanding desk lamps fitted with LED or fluorescent bulbs are highly recommended.

Guidelines for installing lights in a home office

If the main light is a ceiling light or a bell-shaped pendant, place the desk slightly in front of it. This is sure to prevent glare and reflections. Freestanding and clip-on desk lamps should be placed about 40 cm away, so that your eyes are not directly exposed to the light. If you are left-handed, place the desk lamp on your right, and the other way round if you are right-handed. This reduces the shadows cast on your workspace. Keep a minimum angle of 30° from the horizontal in your field of vision free of any light source. For smaller desks, clip-on desk lamps or floor lamps are recommended. These take up very little space and add a real decorative touch to your interior.

Choosing the right desk surface

This last point is very important, as a lacquered desk reflects light from the lamp, floor lamp or pendant. Choose a desk with a matt surface. The colour of the desk also plays a part in visual comfort: a more muted colour such as ash grey or black greatly reduces glare.