There are a lot of lighting fixtures on the market today and choosing from among the countless designs could be a daunting task. Knowing the different kinds of lighting fixtures and what is readily available will help us choose intelligently.

A ceiling fixture is probably the most familiar and common lighting fixture and the following are some of the most readily available.

1. A socket with a bare bulb in it is probably the simplest ceiling fixture. Although it gives off lots of light it doesn’t have any decorative value.
2. Frosted Globe is perhaps the simplest decorated ceiling fixture. This is what your builder usually provides as a basic ceiling light for foyers, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Though this fixture may be sufficient for the laundry room and workshop, try to avoid it in the other rooms and choose other, more attractive ceiling fixtures like chandeliers, track lights or down lights, just to name a few.
3. Chandeliers are hanging fixtures. Originally, Chandeliers were used to hold candles but the advent of electricity has replaced candles with electric lamps. These come in a variety of styles, ranging from traditional to contemporary depending on the mood you want to create in a room. An opulent crystal chandelier will set the mood for a traditional formal dining room or a center hall. A rustic Early American farmhouse can make use of a chandelier made of wood, pewter, or iron. A sleek metal or plastic chandelier will fit beautifully in a contemporary setting.
4. Downlights are ceiling fixtures which project light downward, as their name implies. There are two types of Downlights – Recessed downlights and Surface Mounted downlights. Recessed downlights are fitted into a space inside the ceiling, also called High Hats. Some High Hats direct light towards the wall and these fixtures are called wall washers. Wall washers are usually used to light objects on or along the wall such as paintings, tapestries, bookcases, draperies and other window treatments. Another type of downlight, which is a very specialized type of a ceiling fixture, is the Focusing Lens Projector. This is specially used to highlight paintings, sculpture, vases or other works of art. You have a choice between either floodlamps or spotlamps with your recessed downlights. While a floodlamp casts a broad beam, a spotlamp casts a narrow beam of light. Surface Mounted surface mounted downlight  are easier to install than recessed mounted downlights since no cutting of the ceiling is required. Surface mounted downlights do not disappear into the ceiling. Matching the color of the surface mounted downlights with the color of the ceiling will achieve a unified look.
5. Track Lighting is the fastest growing type of modern lighting. This is made up of a metal track attached to the ceiling with individual lighting fixtures inserted at any point along the track. Currently, there is a wide range of available fixtures which can be used for track lighting, ranging from narrow focused pin-spots to broad floodlights and wall washers.

In The Beginning: There Was Light

Light is not only an expression of heavenly awareness, it is one of the designer’s basic tools through which architectural invention is reflected. Without light, neither the aesthetics nor the function of a room would be highly visible. Light, cleverly employed, can create subtle refinements of space. It is both direct and indirect, focused and ambient.

To begin, there are two basic types of light: natural and artificial. God and nature supply the natural, such as daylight and starlight. The sun is the main source of illumination during the day. And, clearly, we have been moved by such natural resources. The Pantheon, for example, with its light-bathed oculus, pays homage to the sun, by opening its eye to the sky.

In terms of artificial light, the designer / architect uses different types of illumination to create mood and purpose. Cove (or uplighting) and downlighting are two functional and indirect types. With downlighting, light, though visible, is recessed into the ceiling, casting a downward beam. Oftentimes, installed in a soffit, it is a particularly useful tool for displaying art. If used in a kitchen over the cabinets, it’s glow reflects upon the counters below. In the case of cove lighting, indirect light is bounced off the ceiling and then redirected back downward. It provides a more theatric, uniform, and subtle display of illumination and is most effective when the ceiling is polished or glazed, so that the light beams play cleverly upon it. Probably the most dramatic of these hidden types is backlighting, where a glow so uniform and subtle is created, it seems that the very thing it hides behind, is the light source itself.

Decorative and Ambient

For more decorative and ambient forms of light, sconces, lamps, tracks, and picture lights do the job. Track lighting, so popular in the ’60’s and 70’s, is task oriented. That is, it is focused on an object. As the humorist Thurber notes “There are two kinds of light – the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.” And, so it is here, where the track’s glare strikes hard on the eye. Task lamps work similarly. Their beams of light are sharply focused on the subject at hand, such as the desk or bedside table lamp, casting a bright, concentrated cone of light. Lastly, a picture light throws it’s direct glow upon the picture above which it sits.

With ambient lighting, an overall glow of light is dispersed. Here, lamps, sconces, and ceiling mounted fixtures are most effective. Lamps provide a dispersed shed of light. As simple as a globe upon a pole or as ornate as a Tiffany creation, they light up a room. So, too, with sconces where, with its even glow of light, they shed a wide array of light, like the sun. Used in pairs, they frame a mirror, adorn a fireplace, embellish a console.

Ceiling mounted fixtures are of a double variety: the surface mounted and the pendant / chandelier. The former is particularly useful on low ceilings where headroom is at a premium. The chandelier, most commonly used over dining room tables and in entry foyers, is equally decorative and functional. Usually the’ piece de resistance’ in its dramatic appeal and location, the chandelier can be like a starburst, shining brilliantly within the space.