Lighting Makeover

The giveaway below is now closed.  Congratulations Mary (commenter #4) You’ve won a GE Reveal makeover!

Professional designers often emphasize the importance of lighting when decorating a space and I never paid much attention until I redecorated our living room.   Along with new paint color and new accessories, I added three more lamps to the room and learned how to factor in the two types of lighting, natural and artificial, when decorating a space.

Even a room with plenty of natural light filtering in on a sunny day will need some assistance at night or on a cloudy, gray day.   That’s where the three types of artificial light (ambient, task, accent) come in to play.   My living room is long and narrow with a double window at one end and a pair of french doors on the other end.   The french doors don’t offer much light because they lead to a screened porch.  So, the majority of the natural light streams in from one end of the room, kind of like a tunnel.

Before the room makeover a few years ago, we used the main overhead light and that one tall floor lamp, to the right of the fireplace, as our only lighting in the room. Adding the three new lamps added both ambient (indirect, soft) and task (specific to one area to allow more light for working on one thing) lighting and really changed how we enjoyed and utilized the room as a whole.

We changed out all of the old, incandescent bulbs and have used compact fluorescent light bulbs for a few years.  I have even tried out different bulb ‘colors’, some giving off a warmer light and some giving off a cooler light.   What I did not realize until now is how yellow the light from these bulbs looked.  This month, I replaced the bulbs in every lamp in the living room with GE reveal® bulbs.  These bulbs filter out the dingy yellow tones unlike standard incandescent bulbs. The color-enhanced full spectrum light bulbs make your whites appear whiter and your reds even more red.

Replacing your current bulbs with GE reveal® bulbs is a fast and easy way to makeover the room.   I was really surprised. I honestly did not expect much of a difference.  But just look, the light really is cleaner and bright without that yellow hue!  And the wattage is actually the same (both bulbs are 75w).   Notice how the wall color looks different!  Imagine how other vibrant patterns and colors in your own home would change!

Here’s the good news:  These bulbs are available at Target and Target is currently offering a discount in their Cartwheel app for 25% off .  Simply download the app (available on Apple IOS here and Android here) and search for “GE Reveal”.   If you don’t already know about the Cartwheel app, with it you can browse for savings ahead of time or while at Target, you can scan the barcode of any product to see if there is a Cartwheel savings.

Additionally, here’s an opportunity for Design OCD readers to win a $10 Target gift card and GE reveal® bulbs (along with a free music download of the first track featured in this GE Lighting video)!   Just share this post on your social media and let us know which room you would like to makeover with GE reveal® light bulbs.

Rules: 

1. Contest will close Monday, February 24th at midnight EST.  Check back Wednesday, February 26th when I will announce the winner.  Updated:  A winner has been selected via Random.org. Congratulations Mary (commenter #4)
2. Must be U.S. resident
3. Share this blog post on your social media and comment below with which room you’d like to makeover.
   Hashtag #GEreveal + #Targetgiftcard
4. Bonus entry: Follow Design OCD on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest (any ONE of those or all!) and leave a SEPARATE comment on this post.

 

GE Lighting provided the product for my honest feedback and review. All expressed opinions are my own.