Top bedroom lighting tips

The bedroom is a space where you can experience the entire myriad of natural light presented every day.

It is imperative that you get the lighting in this room right, so that you can rise and shine bushy-tailed in the morning, relax in the afternoon and drop into a deep slumber in the evening.

Getting the lighting right can be quite a tall order though, so lighting expert Melissa Davidson of The Lighting Warehouse shared her top bedroom lighting tips:

Layering your lighting is the key to any successful lighting design, especially in the bedroom.

Find the perfect balance between ambient, task and accent lighting to create various moods to suit the different times of the day.

Ambient lighting provides the room’s general lighting – pendants, chandeliers, flush and semi-flush mounted ceiling lights. Multiple downlighters installed in a grid format on the ceiling are also ideal.

Task lighting provides targeted illumination for specific tasks, such as reading or doing your make-up, for example – table, desk and floor lamps, and wall lights are great options.

Accent lighting draws your attention to a particular feature, be it artwork, an architectural element or an antique piece for example – picture lights, wall lights, spot lights and tilt down-lighters can be used to provide great accent lighting.’

Dimmers are an incredibly important tool for layered lighting design.

Dimmers allow you to add an extra dimension to the room’s environment, and they have the ability to make your existing lights multi-functional, moving between low lighting, to full brightness and accommodating multiple lighting needs in the process.

‘The trick to getting a lighting design just right, is all in the planning’ said Melissa.

‘You really need to measure the room out and then plan where the best place to put the lights will be.

‘For example, if you want to highlight a specific artwork, install ceiling spots about 0.5 metres from the wall for a ceiling height of 2.5 metres, or farther in if the ceiling is higher.’

If you want to include a pendant or chandelier, then it is usually best either centred in the middle of the room, or above the bed. Unless your bedroom has an unusually high ceiling, it is advisable to hang pendants or chandeliers about 30cm from the ceiling.

Include multiple types of fixtures in your lighting design.

For example, you can place a floor lamp next to an occasional chair in the corner of the room, include a statement pendant light in the centre, bedside lamps on either side of the bed, a feature table lamp on the dresser, and perhaps one or two wall lights, or two to three down-lighters in other unlit areas of the bedroom.

The goal behind this practice is to direct the eye right around the bedroom, instead of it just focusing on the bed. Bringing light to the different corners of the room makes it seem larger than it actually is.

‘To create more visual interest, you can include shades to give the room a warm glow, as well as indirect light, such as wall lights, that throw light back onto the wall behind, for example.