Determining your navy blues from your blacks seems like a minor thing in life – but walk out the door with a mismatch and suddenly it feels epic. Or foolish to say the least.

Good lighting is an important factor in getting the colors and hues correctly – so here are some guidelines to adding lighting into your closet so it’s easier to pull together your outfits and show yourself in your best light.

So, where to start?

First, a basic introduction to get started.

There are three “groups” of lighting categories that we should first shed some light on. They are – LED, Incandescent and Compact Fluorescent.

For those of you who are less concerned about details and more concerned about effects, LED is the “present” and the “future”. Its’ predominant benefit is that it uses less energy than other light sources and lasts longer. It also doesn’t get hot like most lighting does, which is a big benefit when putting lighting near clothing.

Then there’s the aspect of what you want the lighting to do.

Is it task lighting? Ambient lighting? Are you not sure?

Here’s the difference:

Task lighting is directed at a specific area to make it easier to complete a visual task, like determining if you have grabbed the navy blue shoes or the black shoes.

Ambient lighting is designed to illuminate areas of space in order to create certain effects.

For the majority of people with Reach In Closets or small Walk In Closets (5 x 7 or 8 x 10), TASK LIGHTING is the most appropriate.

So what choices do you have when it comes to task lighting?

Here are some great options:

Cordless LED Rechargeable Lighting (Hafele makes a product like this). There are magic words here. Cordless means you can put this anywhere and not have to be concerned about hiding wires. Rechargeable – we know what that means. And LED means long life (it also technically means Light Emitting Diode). All great contributing elements to a successful closet lighting venture. www.hafele.com/us/products/led-lighting-system-loox.asp

Recessed or Surface Mount LED Puck Lighting – Puck Lights have been around for a long time. They’re shaped like they are named and work in a wide variety of situations.

Remote Controlled Lighting ( Rev-A-Shelf makes a product like this). This option is great for the gadget friendly amongst us. As you can see from the picture, there is a remote control that looks much like your car key Fob. This feature allows you to control your lighting from the remote from a distance of up to 30 feet. And it’s dimmable, so you can have the results of task lighting with the added benefit of ambient lighting.