Warmth of a Room

I live in Puerta del Sol, an apartment complex across the street from Albertsons. When I first moved in, one of the first things I noticed was the poor lighting in the bedroom. Innocently, I just assumed it was the light bulb warming up or something like that. However, it never really got better. I then elected to bring a floor lamp into the room to rectify the situation. All of a sudden, it was brighter and homier. 

Jump a couple months into the future, and my roommate moves in for the year; he's a great guy, don't get me wrong. The thing is, he keeps to himself most of the time at his desk and has a desk lamp that he utilizes. The floor lamp is right next to our beds and he's more than welcome to use it to brighten up the room, but he just uses his trusty desk lamp. Now, I'm not in the room that much to really notice anything, but I have these past couple of weeks after talking about lighting. 

The picture above is a shot of my wall on a daily basis in the evening with just the main light of the bedroom (my roommate's desk lamp is not visible in any way). It's a fluorescent light bulb lamp and I just have a lot of problems with this. While green is my preferred color, I'm just not digging this in my sanctuary room where I recover after a day's events. The atmosphere is very dim, cold, and it honestly looks dirty. If I were to try and read in my room, it just wouldn't be conducive to doing so. It honestly makes me tired with how little light there is in the room. 

One night, however, my roommate was out and about and I had the room to myself for a couple of hours. Seeing that floor lamp wasn't going to be bothering anyone and it was right there asking me to use it, I of course turned it on so I could do some reading. The result? Let's just say I was surprised when I keep comparing the two images. 

It's a different room! While of course the upper half is where the star of the lighting resides, it was still incredible how much of a difference that one floor lamp made for the atmosphere of the room. All of a sudden, it was warmer and more inviting. Felt cleaner and more productive (if that makes sense). The floor lamp was, in a sense, washing out the uncomfortable lighting. Now this is a room I want to spend time in! 

As an artist, lighting designers look towards creating a mood through lighting, but can lighting itself change a person's emotional mood at the same?