An experiment has been carried out to investigate the effect of lighting on the perception of atmosphere in a living room, using three types of light sources: halogen, fluorescent and LED lamps. In a psychophysical experiment, 29 native Chinese observers assessed eight lighting conditions having different luminances and correlated colour temperatures. For each condition, 71 scales were employed using the categorical judgment method. Factor analysis identified two underlying dimensions: liveliness and cosiness. This agrees with those found by Vogels who used Dutch observers to assess atmosphere perception. Both observer groups also agreed that an increase of luminance would make the room more lively. However, there were also some disagreements such as a higher CCT source would make the room more lively for Chinese observers but less lively for Dutch observers.