The Complete Guide to Attractive Living Room Home Lighting

Living Rooms Are for Living

Choosing the right living room home lighting is important. After all, the living room is an important multi-use space. It’s probably one of the largest rooms in your home. The living room is a great gathering place for family and friends. It’s also one of the most-used rooms in your home. For all these reasons (and more), we understand why you want to get your living room home lighting right.

If you are looking for new ideas and inspiration you’ve come to the right place. This article will break down the components of living room home lighting. Let’s approach your living room as a blank canvas and allow your space to shine.

Layers of Light For Your Living Room

When it comes to transforming any room – many people start by placing some large, ambient lighting in the center of the room and then add accent lighting around the perimeter. While that may be a common approach, it isn’t necessarily best.

Start by deciding where to place smaller lighting accents and features and then work towards inserting any central lighting fixtures – if you decide to use them at all.

A good rule of thumb is to start by deciding how you will use the room or how you want to use the room. Build some lighting anchor points around those functions of the room. Then you can add lighting layers from there. What might those layers include? Well, keep reading to find out. 

Bright Ideas for Living Room Lighting

The best lighting for a living room will typically include a balance of ambient lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting. What’s the difference?

Ambient lighting brings a general level of light to the whole room. Task lighting illuminates specific task or activity areas. And accent lighting? It’s not there to generate light for the room, per se, but rather exists to highlight specific features of the room that you want people to notice.

Now that we’ve established those concepts and have laid down a baseline of understanding around layered lighting, let’s look at some different types of living room home lighting you might consider.

Overhead Lighting

 Overhead lighting should be one of the last layers to consider, but since it’s probably the first thing many people think of we’re listing it here first.

When it comes to overhead lighting, your options are almost endless. There are many ceiling light fixtures, pendants, or chandeliers you can consider. Anyone can use an overhead light to simply illuminate a room.  We encourage you to choose an overhead light that can help to illuminate your personality and taste too.

Ceiling Fan Lights

 We’ll be honest –  we are not a fan of ceiling fan lights.   Ceiling fan lights are usually mounted in an unattractive globe that dangles awkwardly below the fan.

Having said that, we like the light options in modern ceiling fans. You can find fans with built-in LED lights that don’t protrude below the fan, including some “smart” light options that can be operated by remote. Ceiling fans certainly serve some useful purposes and now their built-in lights can too.

Task Lighting

Task lighting provides focused light for specific tasks like reading, crafting, playing a board game, or working a puzzle. Table lamps, desk lamps, and floor lamps are great additions for putting some extra light right where you need it.

When it comes to task lighting, there are many options when it comes to sticking with a particular décor style or theme, from modern to contemporary to traditional.

Track Lighting

This type of lighting can be a great choice for homeowners who require flexibility.   Track lighting can double as both ambient lighting and accent lighting, depending on how you use it. You can use it to highlight a particular piece of artwork or decoration, and you can also opt to angle some of the track lights to illuminate other parts of the room in general.

You can swivel track lights to bring light into a dark corner, or can direct more light anywhere you want it. Beyond the traditional track light format, there are also lots of recessed track lighting and recessed can light options you can consider.

Arc Lamps

Don’t want to place a central light on the ceiling? Well, you’re certainly not limited to that. An arc lamp is another way to provide a central light source for your room, with a creative flair. These types of lamps tend to work best in contemporary settings, but you can mix and match with your motif as you see fit.

Accent Lights

There are many lighting options for accenting specific room features, including traditional accent lights – light fixtures that are installed directly above pieces of artwork or specific architectural details you want to highlight.

Accent lights of this nature can include everything from picture lights, display lights, spotlights, and table lights. LED bulbs are a good choice for lights of this nature, as they are generally safer to use over artwork and other light-sensitive pieces.

Sconces

A sconce is a type of accent lighting mounted on the wall. These lights do not provide illumination for specific features but they do make a statement in themselves.

Sconces come in a variety of styles, ranging from traditional to modern. They can be mounted either vertically or horizontally, and some sconces are works of art in their own right.

Make Your Living Room Really Shine

Living rooms and common areas are used for gathering, socializing, enjoying specific activities, and sometimes relaxing. Don’t leave your living room in the dark! Use these living room home lighting tips to help light your way for you, your family, and your guests. 

Looking for some other ways to add some style and panache to your living room, den, bedrooms, or other living spaces? Head on over to the Home Décor + Living Collection at Jennifer Adams, where you can envision some more great possibilities for your home.

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