Creative Accent Lighting Ideas to Illuminate with Purpose
Looking to create an inviting ambiance in a room? One where friends and family feel welcome, or where you feel comfortable kicking off your shoes and soaking up a warm evening of reading or relaxation? Accent lighting is one of the most effective ways to bring visual interest, drama, and even functionality to any space. Read on to learn how to become a pro at implementing it throughout your home.
What Is Accent Lighting?
There is a technique in interior design that is known as “layering” light. This practice recommends that there should be three layers of light in any given room: ambient, task, and accent lighting. By judiciously using all three, you can bring general visibility, focused light for specific purposes, and highlights that draw attention to cozy nooks, favorite works of art, and much more.
Ambient Lighting in Your Home
Ambient lighting refers to the general brightness that fills your space. When it’s not daylight outside, you want artificial light to provide sufficient illumination for people to see. In a living room, this might mean hanging a beautiful chandelier – chandeliers come in a wide variety of styles from ornate to modern, all of which will elevate the look of the entire space. Or it might mean recessed lights which are installed into the ceiling, for a modern look. It can even come from pendant lights; when they are placed in the center of a room, they cast general light for all to see and so are considered ambient lighting.
Task Lighting in Your Home
Task lighting is designed to bring focused brightness where you need to for performing tasks. For example, track lighting over a kitchen counter enables safe chopping and cooking, pendants over a dining room table invite you to share meals with loved ones, and in the bathroom mirror lights provide clean, clear brightness for when you are fixing your makeup or shaving.
Accent Lighting in Your Home
Accent lighting, on the other hand, highlights and singles out special features or areas of the space. This might mean showcasing a particular artwork or sculpture, spotlighting an architectural detail, or otherwise creating small pockets of brightness in the space.
It’s generally a good idea to plan out your accent lighting once your ambient and task lighting are in place. Step back and look at the room, remembering that shadows are just as important as light. Then use accent lighting to make particular areas shine, while leaving other areas in relative shade. By highlighting special areas, you bring the whole room together and create a wonderful ambiance.
Types of Accent Lighting Fixtures and Where to Place Them
Spotlights
Spotlights are perhaps the most popular accent lights, because they can be installed onto a wall or ceiling and then adjusted to shine on a particular feature of the room. Since they cast a narrow beam of intense light, they can draw attention where you want it as well as create a sense of drama.
Track Lighting
Although they are most often used as task lighting, track lights can also make great accent lights. They can be relatively easily installed, don’t take up much space, and can be angled in any direction that you want to cast the light. Because they typically have minimalist fixtures, they allow the art or feature that you are highlighting itself to be the center of attention. As a general principle, for every 3 foot 3 inch of wall space that you want to illuminate, you will need around 3 foot 3 inches of track and one track light.
Pendant Lights
While pendant lights can be used to create ambient or task lighting, they can be used as accent lights. Install a softer bulb and place a pendant over a section of the room that you want to highlight to create a soothing, relaxed glow and atmosphere.
Sconces
Wall-mounted sconces are a wonderful way to provide accent lighting while also adding an ornamental element to the room. Install them on either side of a beloved painting, above a mantel, or alongside a mirror in the hallway. Whether you choose sconces that are ornately detailed or ones that have clean, industrial, modern shapes, they will become an integral part of the room’s design, helping bring a luxurious and elevated feel.
Downlights and Uplights
Recessed lights, also called can lights or downlights, are installed into the ceiling or walls, and many of them can be angled to provide directional light, like a spotlight. Use them as accent lights by placing them directly over a piano or sculpture. Or you can situate them close to the edge of a room and direct their beams at the wall to create a stunning effect. For a variation on this look, you can even install them in the floor at the base of the wall and direct them upward, a technique known as uplighting.
Lamps for Accent Lighting
Lamps are one of the easiest ways to add accent lighting, because they do not require installation and can easily be moved and repositioned to create the overall effect you want in the room. Simply find the right lamp, plug it in, and move it to wherever it illuminates the right spot.
Table lamps come in an incredible variety of styles, shapes, shade colors, and sizes – so whether your room’s style is upscale and chic, Art Deco inspired, minimalist and modern, or farmhouse rustic, you’re sure to find table lamps that fit the bill. Floor lamps are another option to consider. They also come in many different styles, sizes, and finishes – from understated floor lamps that you can place at either end of a sofa to large, elegant brass floor lamps that arc gracefully out into the room.
Specialty Accent Lights
For displays and shelves: if you want to feature books, photos, or other items on a shelf in your library, living room, or bedroom, then consider installing shelf lights. Mounted directly onto the shelves themselves, these cast a warm glow. You can also use under-cabinet lighting, which is often used as task lighting in kitchens, especially if you install them on a dimmer switch so the brightness can be fine-tuned up or down.
If you are looking for diffused light but don’t want to add fixtures that might make your space look cluttered, look no further than LED strip lights. Not only does their light cause less eye strain than more intense fixtures, they also draw much less energy than incandescent or halogen bulbs. Place them strategically to shine on an artistic or design feature, by installing them into the ceiling or in baseboards.
Last but not least, don’t forget about picture lights, which can be installed on the wall above a piece of art and pointed to shine downward, or even mounted on the picture frame itself. Each piece of artwork should have its own picture light, adjusted at a 30 degree angle, to emphasize colors and textures and invite viewers in for a closer look.
Specialty Accent Lights
Highlighting Art and Plants with Accent Lighting
When the right light hits a work of art or architectural detail, it draws your eyes to it. When you use light to feature these extraordinary details, your whole room is elevated. Accent lighting can be used to spotlight paintings, sculptures, photographs, and even textiles. To read more about how to light art correctly, read our article Art Lighting Techniques to Showcase Your Home Collection.
If you have gorgeous indoor plants, accent lighting can help them look their best at night, accentuating the color and shape of every leaf and blossom.
Creating Unique Spaces with Accent Lighting
A reading nook is a great place for accent lighting, as it will give just enough light to create a small oasis within the room. If you have niches in which you display collectibles or curiosities, you can draw attention to them with accent lighting.
Textured walls invite dramatic accent lighting, too. Whether the texture comes from natural stone or exposed brick, or through wallpaper or artistic plaster applications, use an accent light positioned so its brightness falls onto the wall at a slight angle, to bring the texture to life.
Creating Unique Spaces with Accent Lighting
Choosing the right color temperature for your accent lighting can also make or break the atmosphere in your room. All light has a color temperature that is measured in Kelvins, ranging from 1,000 to 10,000. For accent lights you typically want warmer light that has a slight tint of amber or yellow, so select a bulb with a lower color temperature (under 3,500 Kelvins).
When choosing bulbs, be sure to look at LEDs, many of which come in color-tunable versions. LED bulbs use around 90% less energy than other types of light bulbs, and often only have to be replaced about once a decade – reducing hassle as well as the waste generated by your home. Just as importantly, if you are using accent lights to illuminate artwork, LED lights will not emit harmful UV rays that can damage or degrade the art.
What Are Some Common Mistakes to Avoid with Accent Lighting?
The first error to avoid is having accent lighting that is overly bright or harsh. You don’t want to overwhelm the ambient light in your room, you want to create small pockets that are brighter than the rest, to add visual interest.
Another mistake is incorrect placement of accent lights. Once your ambient and task lighting is in place, consider the room as a whole and use accents to highlight the areas you want featured.
Explore Our Remarkable Selection of Accent Lighting
Whether you are looking for accent lighting in your living room, bedroom, or anywhere else throughout your home, we have a tremendous selection of options that have got you covered. Visit visualcomfort.com to start exploring.
FAQ
How is accent lighting different from ambient and task lighting?
Ambient light refers to the general light in a room, providing visibility. Task lighting provides focused brightness in work spaces, kitchens, or other areas where functional lighting is needed to see and to help keep you awake and alert. Accent lighting rounds out the picture by enabling you to highlight and feature works of art, architectural details, or particular areas of the space.
What is the easiest type of accent lighting to install?
Spotlights and track lights are relatively easy to install, although many of them need to be hard wired into your electrical system and so might require the help of a professional electrician. The simplest way to add accent lighting to your home is through table and floor lamps, which simply need to be plugged in and positioned as you want them.
What color temperature do I want for my accent lighting?
Look for a bulb that is around 3,000 Kelvins, to bring a warm white light that has subtle hints of red or yellow. Also be sure to consider LED bulbs, which use much less electricity, don’t need to be replaced often, and will not damage artwork such as paintings or photographs.