It’s no shocker that overhead, sterile lighting is a mood killer, especially in already crammed college dorms and apartments. Students have been revamping their lighting for decades, but the lava lamps and multicolor Christmas lights of the ‘90s have been swapped out for a much chic-er alternative: ambient lighting. Here’s a breakdown of the best, most college-friendly ways to elevate a space using ambient lighting.

The place where you eat meals, call home, and procrastinate big assignments should be a place of solitude, an escape from the craziness of college life. Without taking lighting into your own hands, you might feel like you’re living in a doctor’s office.

Enter ambient lighting. The terminology might sound like something you’d tune out while HGTV is on the television in the background, but chances are you’re already familiar with it or have implemented it in your own space.

Ambient lighting is essentially just lighting that illuminates the entirety of a room, rather than the targeted ceiling lights. It’s usually much softer and warmer, giving the space a cleaner, cozier tone.

It’s also frequently used in forms that have color-switching abilities, letting you reflect your mood on a day-to-day or even hour-to-hour basis — a considerable improvement from the sad fluorescent overhead lights that many residential buildings have.

Ambient lighting and college students may be a match made in heaven –drab dorms in need of an upgrade, and many cheap options to transform a space. The fan favorite seems to be LED strips, which are sold on numerous platforms and can start as low as $10. Just look in the windows of Lakeside Village — every room is a different color.

The adhesive strips are easy to install and take down, and often come with a color changing remote. If you want a little more bang for your buck, check out the Philips Hue line, a form of ‘smart lighting’ that allows the user to pick a specific color hue using an IOS app. It comes in strip form, but Philips also makes lightbulbs with this same feature if you’re in a space with capabilities to swap out lighting entirely.

Another ambient lighting source rising in popularity is the LED sign. Sophomore Skye Anker said that elevating the lighting in her Vox bedroom was a no-brainer.

“I knew I wanted an LED light, specifically something funny because I thought it would make my room more fun and feel personalized,” Anker said. She landed on a green LED sign from Amazon in the outline of an alien’s head. “It doesn’t really make sense, which is perfect for me. I like having it on in my room because the color makes my room feel cozy and the alien is different from other neon lights I’ve seen.”

While bedrooms are typically the most popular rooms to use ambient lighting, you shouldn’t limit yourself to just your sleeping space. Sophomore Jenna MacMillan lives in a Lakeside Village apartment with a red LED sign in her bathroom that reads ‘please don’t do coke in the bathroom.’

“We thought it was a funny way to lay a few ground rules for those who come into our home,” MacMillan said. “It’s definitely a funny conversation piece and I’ve noticed that people like taking pictures with it too. It totally transforms the vibe of the bathroom.”

Ambient lighting can also do a lot for a shared living space or gathering room. Sophomore Emerson Kouri has a large wavy LED light fixture on her living room wall in Lakeside Village that emits a soft pink light onto her living room where she and her roommates gather at the end of the day.

“We got it mainly for decoration, but after putting it up and using it, I realized it adds a lot of character to the room and makes it ours,” Kouri said.

She and her roommates turn their light on every day at sunset, and it provides a backdrop for doing homework, watching TV, or just hanging out.

While LED signs and strips are the hottest in 2023, there’s nothing wrong with going back to the classics. String lights have long been used as a cheap way to spruce up a space, and the former two options of white or multicolor have expanded tenfold. Nowadays, you can find string lights woven into faux vines, little Edison lightbulbs, or shapes like butterflies or mushrooms.

There are also the TikTok-famous lights such as the sunset lamp, which casts a golden-hour-esque pink and yellow halo on a wall in the room, or the Sky Lite, which projects a spinning starry night sky onto the ceiling. There’s even a motion activated light for your toilet seat if fluorescent lighting is interfering with the vibes of your midnight bathroom trips.

With endless options for ambient lighting, how do you know what’s right for you? If none of the ultra-specific lighting shapes or signs are calling you, your best bet is to go with a reliable LED light with color changing abilities that can reflect your mood.

There’s even an implied code for students of what colors to use when. Most notably and humorously, red has been tied to sexual activity. Having your LED lights on blue might can mean sadness, while pink and purple are more questionable but are typically used in party or chill settings.

Ultimately, ambient lighting is meant to complement a space, so use it in the way that’s most true to you and you’ll surely feel the positive effects.

WHERE TO SHOP:

Philips HUE: Will cost you more than your average lighting, but with way more capabilities.

Nanoleaf: They sell LED lights in the form of geometric shapes,

Twinkly: A leading brand in twinkly string and other LED lights.

words_julia hecht. photo&design_lizzie kristal.

This article was published in Distraction’s Summer 2023 print issue.