Recessed Lighting: The Modern Way to Brighten Your Home
Call them what you will – recessed lights, inset lights, can lights, or downlights – today’s recessed lighting options are sleek, unobtrusive, and undeniably modern. Gone are the days of outdated fixtures or discolored baffles: these space-saving fixtures will coordinate with any decor, providing everything from ambient light to focused accents. In this guide, we’ll answer all of your questions about this versatile and attractive type of lighting.
Advantages of Modern Recessed Lighting
Because they are cut into the ceiling, with the housing inset out of sight, recessed lighting is perfect for just about every room, from kitchens to bathrooms, living rooms to entryways.
Clean Lines and a Modern Look
The clean lines and lack of hanging implements mean that recessed lighting works well with any other type of lighting, from ornate chandeliers to modern chandeliers, ceiling fans with lights, and decorative and beautiful table lamps. Because recessed lighting provides evenly diffused light throughout a space, reducing shadows and giving constant illumination, it gives a solid base layer of ambient light that allows you to play with other options to your heart’s content.
Ambient or Accent? It’s Your Choice
Most homes use recessed lighting to give this kind of ambient light, but you can also use it for accent or spot lighting. Because many recessed lights include an interior axis, you can adjust the angle of the light to feature a piece of art, fireplace mantle, or any other feature that you want to highlight in the room. You can even use them for “wall washing,” a lighting technique where you place a recessed light close to a wall, effectively bathing it in light that creates a dramatic effect and bounces light into the room in a less harsh way than direct downlighting.
Property Value
Unlike some lighting choices that are installed in your home, which might appear dated when you’re ready to sell the property, recessed lighting brings a modernized appearance that will appeal to potential buyers. Its minimalist fixtures allow them to bring their own design style to rooms, incorporating their own style and making the house a home.
Selecting the Right Recessed Lighting Fixtures
The first consideration is choosing the right type of trim, which depends primarily on your design preferences. Round lends a timeless look and square conveys a more modern vibe, while the design of the trim itself makes a big difference.
Baffle trim is a classic style with narrow grooves along the edges, blocking out extraneous light while focusing brightness downward. Reflector trim increases brightness by concentrating the light into more of a beam, perfect for task areas that require focused light. And decorative trim comes in many different textures, patterns, and finishes, transforming the recessed lighting into a design feature in the room.
Perfect for Low, High, or Sloped Ceilings
While recessed lighting is often thought of as the best option for rooms with lower ceilings, as its fixtures sit flush with the ceiling itself and reduce visual clutter, it is also a great option for rooms with higher ceilings. Working hand in hand with a chandelier or other statement fixture, it provides general light without overwhelming the space.
Recessed lighting can even work for sloped ceilings! Look for a can light that has a 30º sloped trim and adjustable angle, so you can use it to create a unique wall wash effect, highlight artwork, or provide focused light in a reading nook.
Guidelines for Placement and Spacing
Your next consideration is the size of each recessed lighting fixture. Most recessed lights designed for home use are 4-7 inches in diameter. Keep in mind that higher ceilings may call for larger widths.
Once you have chosen the size of your recessed lights, you want to create a grid on your ceiling. A good starting point is to place one recessed light per every 4-6 feet of ceiling space, with 2-5 feet of space between them, while keeping the fixtures 24 inches from walls or cabinets.
Recessed Lighting Placement in Bedrooms
Because bedrooms do not need as much light as living rooms, you can typically install fewer fixtures here. There is no hard and fast rule for placement, so begin by thinking about how much ambient light you want in your bedroom, remembering that you will have other light sources in the space such as bedside table lamps, and place the recessed lights appropriately.
Recessed Lighting Placement in Kitchens
For kitchens, 4 or 5 inch recessed lights are a good size for bringing adequate brightness above countertops and cooking surfaces. When planning recessed lighting for your kitchen, think through the areas that will not be lit by other fixtures, such as pendant lights or under-cabinet fixtures. For walkways around a kitchen island, a single row of downlights will bring ambient light to the whole space, while open kitchens with no table or island are best served by a grid pattern.
Recessed Lighting Placement in Bathrooms
Unlike other ceiling mounted lights, recessed lights can be installed in showers or over your bathtub, as well as throughout the bathroom. Always be sure to choose a waterproof light that is rated for wet locations, as even steam from the shower can impact a fixture. Once these are installed, you’re free to combine the recessed lighting with wall sconces or over-the-mirror lights, to give you the perfect layering of light.
Recessed Lighting Placement for Porches
Recessed lighting is not only for indoors! Installed into the ceiling of your porch, it can help create a warm and inviting atmosphere when seen from the street, as well as helping boost security of your home and even casting the ideal light for enjoying a glass of wine and a book.
Creating Desired Ambiance with Recessed Lighting
When selecting bulbs for your recessed lighting fixtures, keep in mind that light bulbs come in a range of color temperatures, measured in kelvins. The lower ranges create warmer light, with subtle tints that range from red, orange, and yellow to warm white. Warm light has been shown to promote relaxation, while cool lighting (similar to bright daylight) is stimulating and tells us that it’s time to be active. For a choice that is more soothing on the eyes and creates a cozy atmosphere, start by looking for a warm white bulb, around 2,700–3,000 kelvins. If you’re going for a clean, modern look then choose a cool white bulb of 4,000 kelvins or more.
You can also install dimmer switches on your recessed lighting, enabling you to dial up or down the brightness depending on the mood that you want to set, or the time of day. For example, if your family is relaxing in the evenings then you might want the lights to be dimmer, while if you are working in the space you might want it to be brighter, so you can stay alert and focused.
Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
Recessed lighting is perfect for LED bulbs, which are energy efficient and long-lasting. Compared to incandescent bulbs, they use up to 90% less energy and often do not need to be replaced for years, reducing costs, waste, and the hassle of changing bulbs. The use of smart lighting systems is also on the rise, enabling automated brightness control throughout the day.
Retrofitting Existing, Outdated Recessed Lighting
If you have moved into a home that already has existing recessed lighting, but it is dingy or outdated, then making a change is quite simple. Retrofitting these fixtures is often a good strategy, not only for style or design reasons but also because many of these older recessed lights are not energy efficient and provide a lower quality of light quality compared to today’s models. You can even install a LED retrofit kit, enabling you to use LED bulbs in existing recessed lighting housing.
Determining the appropriate size is as easy as measuring the diameter of your existing cut-out, not including the trim (the visible portion of the fixture). Choose a recessed lighting fixture that is the same size and with a trim that you like, and simply pop out the old fixture and replace it with the new one. To see how simple this process is and follow along yourself, check out this helpful video from PrettyHandyGirl.com.
We’re Here to Help with Your Lighting Needs
No matter what sort of space you’re lighting, here at Visual Comfort we are pleased to bring you many options that will coordinate with your recessed lighting. Visit visualcomfort.com to start exploring!
FAQs
How do I plan a recessed lighting layout?
Generally speaking, you want your recessed lighting to provide adequate diffused light to illuminate your space. This means starting 24 inches from walls or cabinets and creating a grid with one recessed light per every 4-6 feet of ceiling space, with 2-5 feet of space between them. Note that if your ceilings are higher, you might want to opt for larger recessed lighting fixtures (greater than 6 inches in diameter).
Can recessed lighting be installed in any ceiling type?
It can be! Flat ceilings, sloped ceilings, vaulted ceilings, and even soffits (structural features that cover ductwork of beams) are all great places to install recessed lighting. No matter where it is placed, recessed lighting helps to create a beautiful and functional ambiance in just about any room.