Innovative Living Room Lighting Ideas to Elevate Your Home
Living Room Lighting Design
When designing your living room lighting, consider the many ways your living room could be used. It may be a hub of activity in the daytime, a conversation pit with friends in the evening, or a place to snuggle and watch movies after dark. Your family might do projects, coordinate outings, have quiet reading time, or get together for family games in the most shared room of your home. Not to mention clean-up.
You want to create a layered lighting design that can accommodate all these uses, while providing a space that feels elegant no matter which lights are switched on. Many people find that a combination of statement light fixtures, recessed lights, and table lamps create the right ambiance and versatility for living room lighting design.
Types of Living Room Lighting
There are approximately ten different types of lights that are popular in living room design. Many living rooms feature two or three of these types creating functional layered lighting. Living rooms with just one type of lighting can appear minimal, while you almost never see more than three types of lighting in a single room.
1. Recessed Lights
Recessed lights, often called canister lights, are recessed into the ceiling. Light emits from a small opening in the ceiling itself, allowing for both clear, downward illumination without a blinding bulb in anyone's direct eyeline. Recessed lights are often used in grids to provide full illumination throughout the room.
2. Trough Lights
Trough lights are ambient lights that are hidden behind molding, often crown molding. They glow indirectly into the room providing soft illumination around the edges. Trough lights are ideal for conversations and movies in comfortably dim lighting. They also give a room a more dramatic look.
3. Track Lights
Track lights are individual spotlights on a sliding track. They have faded a bit from popularity but can still be a stylish way to light your living room.
4. Flush Lights
Flush mount lights are the most standard type, with one or two bulbs behind a cover that is flush with the ceiling. These sometimes use frosted glass or have seeded shades that extend only six inches to a foot from the ceiling level.
5. Chandeliers
Chandeliers are statement pieces that give a room flair and personality. Many living rooms feature a modern chandelier that provides both ample illumination and signature style.
6. Pendant Lights
Pendant lights are ideal for smaller living rooms or to indicate different sections of a large room. They can hang solo or in clusters of pendants, providing artful and long-stemmed sources of lighting in living room design.
7. Ceiling Fans with Lights
Ceiling fans with light kits are a strong choice because they both provide lighting and increase the healthy airflow of your home. Ceiling fans can be quite decorative and there are many unique styles to choose from.
8. Sconce Lamps
Sconce lamps are wall-mounted lights that should be positioned attractively alongside your décor. Sconce lights are uniquely stylish depending on the home's architecture and design.
9. Table Lamps
Table lamps are a popular choice for living room lighting, providing welcoming pools of light near seating for reading and personal tasks.
10. Floor Lamps
Floor lamps are more dramatic, creating larger pools of light. Floor lamps often stand in places where other furniture cannot fit and brighten far corners of a large living room.
Living Room Lighting Ideas to Explore
How to Light a Molded Ceiling
If you have a dramatic molded ceiling in your living room, recessed lights and specialized trough lights are a great way to bring that molding to life. Molded ceilings often feature a square or circular pattern that centers in the middle of the room. At the absolute center is the perfect place to hang a chandelier or a statement cluster of pendant lights.
The molding itself, however, can be subtly lit with recessed or trough lights that make your beautiful ceiling patterns truly stand out. Work with a lighting designer to determine the best places for hidden lighting to make your molded ceiling into a glorious work of art that adds style to your entire living room by drawing the eye upward.
Smart Trough Lights Behind Crown Molding
Trough lighting carries an eternal elegance that speaks of time-honored theater décor. However, smart home light strips are also the most cutting-edge way to decorate your home. Combining the two methods provides a graceful yet high-tech way to show off the beauty of your home. Use smart home light strips as trough lighting behind a shield of crown molding to make the upper corners of your living room glow.
Because you are using smart lights, you can do more than just turn them on or off. You can set the color, display a rolling color pattern, and raise or dim the brightness using a mobile app or smart home voice commands. This is perfect for mood lighting, at-home streaming, and of course, movie night to impress your friends with an elegantly cutting-edge living room lighting style.
Get Comfortable with Stylish Ceiling Fans
If your living room needs lighting and better airflow, a stylish ceiling fan can be a great choice. There are "invisible" ceiling fans in which the blades are hidden behind a sculptural mesh cylinder, frosted ceiling fans that hide the exposed bulbs behind frosted glass, and ceiling fans with many different blade styles that can better personalize your space.
With a large living room, you might light the space with two ceiling fans for optimal airflow and an attractively matching style that balances the visual design of the room.
Stunning Sculptural Chandelier or Pendant Cluster
If you're looking to make a splash, many living rooms feature a stunning chandelier in the center of the room. Not the traditional type dripping in crystal, but masterpieces of modern metalwork. Sculptural chandeliers are a great way to give your living room personality and style with an eye-catching centerpiece that also provides plenty of illumination.
In today's styles, the central chandelier can also be exchanged for a beautiful cluster of pendant lights. To achieve this look, hang matching or similar-styled pendants at different levels, six inches to two feet apart. Clusters of three to seven are standard depending on the size of pendant and the style you are going for.
A Warm Bohemian Blend of Pendants and Lamps
Lastly, many living rooms are made more welcoming with a bohemian style of layered materials, ceiling lights, and lamps. Fabric or woven pendant lights distributed through the room can create a "boho cafe" feel to your living room, while personal table lamps near each seating space provide a cozy and personable ambiance. With a bohemian style, you can mix and match materials and lampshade styles as long as the total look comes together in a shared color scheme and visual balance.
This gives you the opportunity to try several different types of pendant lights, lamps, and shades without needing to worry about filling your living room with perfectly matching lights. Your guests will love the welcoming vibe and your family will find it easy to relax in your shared space.
Light Your Living Room with Urban Ambiance
No matter what style you've envisioned for your living room, Urban Ambiance can help you bring it to life with modern lighting solutions. Contact us today to explore our lighting inventory or consult with lighting specialists on the best light designs for your home.
