Electrify your home bar lighting.
Home bar lighting is one of our favorite subjects. It can make or break a space. It can add that wow factor to your next big party, and it can “dim” the focus on less-than-optimal home bar furniture and furnishings.
Right now, Philips Hue lights are one of the most effective home bar lighting solutions on the market. But what’s the best way to use them? Here’s our take on how to use Hue lights in a home bar to their best effectiveness.
What Are Hue lights?
First things first – for those that don’t know about Hue lighting, let’s give you an elevator pitch primer. Hue lights by Philips (see here at Amazon) are some of the most popular smart lights out on the market. They are LED lighting, and that means they’ll last for 15+ years with normal usage. But the kicker is the millions of color recipes that are possible with these lights, as well as the flickering and pulsing effects that can be created. You can turn your home bar floor into a disco, or add a flickering candle dimness to your home bar lounge. They can also be controlled from your smart phone, both while at home and away.
Hue lights are more expensive than ordinary LED lights, but the decade+ of use along with the amazing scenes possible make them well worth the investment for a home bar. So what options are available?
Standard Hue Lights (A19)
These are the normal style bulbs that you use in typical room lamps.Home bar use:
If you’re creating a lounge vibe, standard Hue lights can deliver that low simmering scene that you want. Want to go ocean blue? Check. Fiery red? Check. It’s all possible. These are lamp lights, so with the lamps, you can create varying pockets of light around sets of furniture. It can make your space feel larger than it is.
Hue BR30 Downlight Bulbs
These are a standard downlight that can be used in recessed lighting. Check your current recessed bulbs to see if you are currently using BR30 bulbs. If you are (and you likely are) these will work fine. Hue also has PAR 16 and other sizes available too.Home bar use:
These are perfect to set the overall home bar scene, if, of course, you have a space with recessed lighting. Note the BR30 starter package comes with the Hue bridge, plus three lights. If you have a space with four recessed lights, you’ll need to pick up an additional bulb.
If you have the recessed space, these Hue lights can do some amazing stuff – from setting a red room tone to even pulsing to the music playing in the room (yes, there’s an app for that). The recessed lighting really fills up the space with light.
Hue Light Strips
Our favorite for making the actual home bar stand out! Hue light strips come in strings like other light strips, but of course you get the advantage of the millions of possible color schemes.Home bar use:
Turn any space behind the bar into lighting magic. You can backlight liquor bottles. You can string them underneath the lip of the bar to create some dramatic seat lighting. You can even string them behind a television to add backlight impact to any show or sports event. That’s perfect for the sports bar motif.
Hue Bloom
It’s the portable Hue – a little LED smart lamp that you can plug in anywhere.Home bar use:
The flexibility of a Hue Bloom for a home bar is where it really shines. It goes where you need it to. Want to add some backlight to your outdoor cabana bar? Take the Bloom out and program in some tropical pinks and greens. Another fun idea is to add color to an otherwise boring wall in your home bar. Just Bloom light on a blank canvas can be very dramatic.
There’s no denying the dramatic scenes that Hue lights can make in a home bar setting. It’s the type of professional lighting that once was near impossible to make in a home space. Now it’s as simple as plugging in and syncing with your phone. It’s a sure-fire home bar lighting solution to create an electric atmosphere in your space.
