{"id":166,"date":"2025-12-12T10:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/?p=166"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:02:49","slug":"coloured-bulbs-when-to-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/coloured-bulbs-when-to-use-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Coloured Bulbs – When To Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Posted on 15 May 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Charles Barnett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last updated on 29 July 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The coloured light bulb is hardly a new technology. Indeed many people might remember them from teenage years, as they are perfect for customising your room, being cheap, easy and quickly reversible, so they wouldn\u2019t make your parents scream. While there is a lot more to coloured bulbs than simply popping in a purple one in so you can listen to Pink Floyd, there\u2019s still an undeniable truth in there. Coloured light bulbs<\/a> are a cheap and convenient way to completely change the look of a space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coloured bulbs for all purposes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The classic coloured GLS bulb<\/a> is still available, in a wide range of colours, not to mention energy-saving and G9 halogen variants. But rather than blitzing the entire room with one colour, like an 80s nightclub, why not use the palette available to you creatively? For a peaceful sanctuary of a room, mix up green and blue bulbs, while a games room or bar would suit bright, vibrant reds and oranges. Interestingly, if you\u2019re planning on a bit of poker, red lighting apparently encourages people to gamble more boldly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coloured bulbs are also great for seasonal celebrations \u2013 deck out a Valentine\u2019s Day party (or a small girl\u2019s bedroom) with pinks and reds, while greens and reds are great for truly festive feeling Christmas, and blue and green light will create a suitably monstrous Halloween.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change the context<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t just limit yourself to using coloured light bulbs on their own. You can achieve amazing results when combining them with more traditional white lights, to add context and life to a room. This works particularly well when you\u2019re trying to make a dull-looking room really pop. If you have a hallway, bathroom or other area that could best be described as \u2018institutional\u2019, replace the central lighting with coloured bulbs, and then use white spotlighting or table-lighting to create smaller, more intimate pools of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To break up long expanses of plain coloured wall, use splashes of colour to make the room interesting and break it up a bit, again using brighter spotlighting if you want to create smaller, more cosy feeling areas. At the other end of the scale, make a small room seem larger by shining coloured lights into every corner of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coloured spotlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For subtle splashes of colour, spotlight bulbs, available both in halogen GU10 and LED GU10<\/a> types for standard spotlight fittings are perfect for adding a delicate flush to surroundings. Spotlights in particular are great for highlighting ornamental items, architectural features and art, as you can pick a shade that will really bring out the colours in whatever you\u2019re illuminating. Best of all, spotlights can be recessed unobtrusively, so you can achieve some startling effects. Mount spotlights in narrow alcoves in an otherwise brightly lit room, for striking red or green features to break up the space. And if you can\u2019t decide what colour you want, just get colour changing bulbs that change colour between red, green and blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festoon finale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finally, don\u2019t forget those festoon lights. Yes, draping multi-coloured ones all the way round a garden or patio can make it look like a 70s holiday camp, but there are ways to use them strikingly. One of the most effective is to use just a single colour, such as all red or all white. This works particularly well with golf ball<\/a> or pygmy bulbs, but is effective with coloured GLS bulbs<\/a> too. Also, don\u2019t just leave them outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stringing up festoons around a living room or dining area can give it a bit of a festival bodega feeling, which works well if you have a basement living area. Don\u2019t feel bound to string them up in the traditional fashion either \u2013 a great alternative is to wrap festoon lights around a pillar or beam, something best done with LED bulbs, as they hardly heat up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking for a different type why not take a look at our full range of coloured bulbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on 15 May 2013 Author: Charles Barnett Last updated on 29 July 2021 The coloured light bulb is hardly a new technology. Indeed many people might remember them from teenage years, as they are perfect for customising your room, being cheap, easy and quickly reversible, so they wouldn\u2019t make your parents scream. While there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}