Small Living Room Lighting Ideas

Small Living Room Lighting Ideas

Lighting for Small Living Rooms

When you're choosing your home, there will always be at least one compromise that you have to accept which is a change from your ideal scenario. With space at a premium coupled with kitchen diners replacing the popular lounge diners from a bygone era, one space we're seeing generally decreasing in size is the living room, so, what is the best way to light small living rooms?

1. Create a lighting plan
2. Understand how much light you need
3. What ceiling lights are best to use?
4. Add warmth and visual space with wall washers
5. Layer with lamps
6. Don't forget the two 'd's; diffusers and dimming
7. Save space with multi-functional lights
8. Try our top-tips for making a small room feel bigger

Creating a lighting plan for a small living room:

With a small living space, you will need to plan where you put your furniture carefully, so do this first so that you have a working template to start with.

From there, you'll have an idea of how you will use the space and what light you will need where. There are 3 distinct types of light that you will need to consider:

• Ambient Light
  • This is the 'overall' light that replaces the natural light that comes into a room when the sun sets.
• Task Light
  • This is a focused light that enables you to carry out a specific task, such as reading.
• Accent Light
  • This is the decorative light that accents artwork or architectural interest in the room, such as alcoves.

A successful lighting plan should really incorporate all three types of light into the design, to ensure an effective spread of light that's there, ready and waiting when you need it.

How much light do you need for small living rooms?

Lighting used cleverly, can have the effect of stretching rooms out to appear visually larger. Equally, utilising an inefficient design can make your room feel smaller.

One of the key things to making a small room bigger is teaming good lighting with pale walls. Along with this, there is a calculation that you can use which will roughly provide the number of lumens (light output measurement) you should aim for to optimise the light levels in your room.

We have provided an approximation in the chart below:

What ceiling lights are good to use in small living rooms?

This largely depends on your ceiling heights. If you're lucky enough to have high ceilings in a smaller lounge, opt for a small, sleek ceiling pendant to elongate your vertical space.

If your ceilings are less than lofty, we would recommend having a minimum clearance of 7 feet or 2.15 metres. You may therefore be better off using a semi-flush or flush ceiling light. However, avoid a boring design; try one with multiple arms or a wide design that spread the light to the walls. If it is an eye-catching look, it will make the room seem bigger, as your eye will be drawn up to the light as a focal point, adding precious inches to your dimensions.

How can you make a small room feel cosy?

One of the key things that makes a room cosy is wall washers. Wall washers do exactly what they say on the tin; they wash light up against the wall which makes the walls light up appear further away. Due to the nature of their design, they automatically reduce glare into the eye, so they create a welcoming, warm ambience into a room.

Another tip for creating a cosy and tranquil mood is to use natural materials. Textures and warm colours will cultivate a tactile effect, making the room welcoming and inviting. Table lamps are a wonderful way to introduce this effect.

Introducing pastel shades into a room, will add a sense of depth. Avoid anything too patterned and bright, unless you are choosing to have a focal point. If so, ensure that it is placed centrally at the furthest point of the room from the door.

Add in some cushions and throws, it adds a sensory trigger for feeling comfortable. Stick to one or two pale shades, you can introduce simple patterns here too.

What's the best way to layer lighting in a small space?

This is an easy one; lamps. Table and floor lamps are often underutilised in interior designs, but they are a simple plug-and-play option that will instantly add layers of light to a room. Whilst there are a few 'rules' you can follow here, in my opinion there are only two that really matter:

1. Place the lamps to shed light where you need it
2. Avoid placing where they will cause glare in our ever-increasing TV screens

What are the benefits of dimming and using diffusers in small living rooms?

The main benefit of being able to dim lights, is the ability to create the right ambience and light levels to suit your needs. If you have a number of lights in the room, you can also choose which lights to have on at any one time which gives you the ultimate in flexibility. This will allow you to seamlessly adapt from lighting for tasks such as sewing and reading, right through to the low light levels that are perfect for relaxing and watching a film.

Diffusers will protect the eye from the glare of a bulb – and it's potential reflection in mirrors, windows and the TV screen. For more information on diffuser materials and their effects, read the lighting and lights guide on diffusers here.

What are the best space saving lights?

Lights that perform more than just lighting are an absolute perfect partner for a petite palace, as they will save the need to have multiple pieces of furniture. Lights that have chargers or storage (or in some cases, both!) will be a positive factor to the convenience of your interior design. For a full and comprehensive guide to multi-functional lights, read our blog here.

Top Tips for making small living rooms feel bigger

1. Painting or papering the ceiling will instantly make your room feel taller. Avoid dark colours and fussy patterns.
2. Use light reflecting colours on the walls and floors, satin paint is good for reflecting light too.
3. If you can, position pieces of furniture away from the walls to create the illusion of space.
4. Choose furniture with clever, hidden storage to keep the space clutter free.
5. A single shelf on one wall near the ceiling draws the eye upwards to give the feeling of space.
6. Use small pieces of art and ornaments that are taller than they are wide.
7. Try and choose a sofa that is large enough to seat all of the occupants in the house so that no more space is needed for seating. You can always bring dining chairs into the lounge when you have guests and need more occasional seating.
8. In addition, furniture with exposed legs that allows you to see underneath will also help to make the room feel bigger.
9. Stripes work well to elongate a space – try running stripes parallel to the longest sides of the room for the best effect.
10. Use mirrors; it's an old one, but a good one and is a tried and tested method to make spaces feel bigger as well as lighter and brighter.
11. Keep an overhead light, but only use it when you need a bright light. Instead, use lamps and wall lights to accentuate the walls.

Take the challenge to create a cosy snug with your small lounge that will create envy amongst the large sitting room owners!

For a full guide on getting your ceiling lighting right, read our ultimate guide to buying the perfect ceiling light.

Small Living Room Lighting Ideas

Source: https://www.lightingandlights.co.uk/blog/2019/06/how-to-light-small-living-rooms/