As the daylight is giving way to darkness heading into winter, this one little lighting and decorating tip may make a huge difference to your well being in the coming months. Choose your light bulbs carefully. Be energy efficient and still have a cozy home with GE Reveal CFL bulbs.

We’ve talked before about how the standards in lighting are changing very, very rapidly. Last year I even went so far as to install LED recessed lighting in my living room, and I don’t regret it one bit. But LED bulbs and fixtures aren’t right for every space yet.

For example, in my bathroom, the 3-bulb fixture above my sink is a perfect candidate for CFL bulbs. You usually see them in that curly corkscrew design, but GE knows we designers and everyone else hated them, and they created these CFLs that are encased in a glass skin that looks very much like our old bulbs. Even better, they give off a really lovely light. It’s a crisp but warm light, very similar to true daylight, and not yellow like traditional incandescents.

In this shot below, you can see the difference between the GE Reveal bulb on the left, a similar glass-encased CFL from IKEA in the middle, and a standard CFL on the right.

You notice right away the difference in the color and brightness in the lights.Do you also notice how much and how far the light pattern is projected? In this shot below I’ve changed my camera exposure to show it more clearly.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that one is always better than the other, but rather that you want to choose your bulbs carefully for each situation. In my bathroom, I’d rather have three of the Reveal CFLs, but in some other places in my home, the IKEA CFLs will still save me money and might give exactly the mood I want.

Also, if you find that some rooms just seem somehow “off” when you turn on your lamps, consider whether your light bulb is casting a yellow glow into the space, and whether that is what you intended or not. In the last 100 years we’ve gotten used to the yellow cast of incandescents, but we we no longer have to live with that color shift after the sun sets. But as you can see here, even the CFL’s and LED’s can impact how we see color in our homes as well.

I have loved the GE Reveal light bulbs for many years now, and definitely think they are worth the price. This is a not a sponsored post, but rather my Public Service Announcement to all of us heading into winter to replace burned out bulbs and replace poorly performing or energy sucking bulbs to something that will improve our homes and possibly our mental health this winter, too!

I’d love to hear what you are doing to improve lighting in your home this season. Please leave a comment below.