Bedroom Lighting To Create A Sanctuary And Relaxing Space At Home

Many of our bedrooms are lit more like a kitchen than a room that should provide us sanctuary and relaxation at the end of the day.  Often lit with 4 downlights in the ceiling, even if the room is only 20sqm in size (or smaller!) many people would rather stub their toe creeping through the dark to bed than turn on their lights.

We’re so accustomed to seeing 4 downlights in a bedroom ceiling, that many people have come to expect that in their home – and often the advice they are given when they ask in the usual places is that 4 downlights are needed.

With this approach to lighting a bedroom, you have two choices - the searing blinding pain that comes from turning on those 4 downlights on while you are settling down to sleep – or alternatively living practically in the dark, and stumbling your way to bed each night because you simply can’t stand the idea of frying your brain with that much light immediately before sleep.

Standard Master Bedroom Lighting

Standard Lighting Plan

Standard Master Bedroom Lighting

Most of our clients report that they in fact never turn these lights on, but use their bedside lamps instead – which is actually a completely viable way to illuminate a bedroom, so I ask you – why did we destroy that ceiling with 4 downlights when we didn’t need to?  Design habits perhaps, or worse – the “just in case” argument.  You know the one don’t you?  It goes something along the lines of – I’m not sure that will be enough light you know, better put in a couple of extra downlights – just in case.

The second problem is the glary light brigade. 

Starting with our old friend the Pancake downlight, and working through to spotlights as reading lights, the lights considered for a bedroom are often more appropriate for highly functional lighting than they are for ambience or joy.

In my own bedroom, we use a 3W reading light 90% of the time – it’s more than enough to see and doesn’t wake us up on the way to bed.  In the morning, when our brains need to be jolted awake, we have one bedside lamp with a “normal” globe in it, which is more than enough to tell our brains it is time to wake.

Now, would I light your bedroom with only those two lights? Probably not – I would take into consideration the way you use your bedroom, and give you layers of light that allow you to choose if you want gentle relaxing light, or enough light to find your socks hidden under the bed in the morning.  Everyone is different, and ever home needs a different solution.

So how do we light a bedroom?  Let me count the ways, well no, let’s not, we will be here forever but a couple of ideas and rules of thumb to get you going…

 Size matters in the bedroom.

A 12sqm (that’s 3Mx4M) room does not need a lot of light – it is not a particularly big space.  You need light at the wardrobe (built in light is LOVELY, and highly practical, but not always in the budget) so often, when we’re keeping budget in mind a well placed low glare downlight at the front of the robe is all you’ll need.  Beyond that a bedside lamp or reading light is going to give you the layers of light you need – and add an app controlled light globe to the equation, and you’ve got amazing scope for changing the mood in your bedroom. 

Bedside lamps are magical things – you can have a little light or a lotta light from them, depending on the light globe you choose.

Light a 60sqm bedroom this way however and you will be bumping around in the dark.  You can still focus light to the robe (if it’s not in a separate room) but you are also going to need to fill that space with light that is gentle and allows you to feel the overall size of the room.

If you are working with ceiling heights of 2.7M of higher, get that light UP onto your ceiling for a bedroom with plenty of functional light, that is never directly in your eyes.  Pendants can be lovely also – but think outside the box a little (or outside the centre square) – pendants do not have to go in the middle of the room – in fact, more often than not, that’s the last place they should go. 

If your bedroom is intended to be your sanctuary, the place where you can go to collect yourself at the end of the day (or the middle and the start too – I know a lot of people have very hectic lives) then you’re going to want to consider layers of light in here. 

Building light into joinery offers calming low-level light, as well as beauty. 

Wall lights and pendants bring you texture, sparkle and delight and discreet light hidden in your architecture that allows you to see the volume of the room. 

Sometimes with bedrooms of this style, we’re really looking at a lounge room and bedroom combined (or these days, office and bedroom combined!) – so your lighting does need to reflect that, providing you with 2 completely different experiences, depending on what you feel like at the time.

No matter the size of the bedroom, the most critical time of light is right before bed, when we want our brains to stay sleepy and tired to help us drift off. 

Switching from the door and bedside for your bedside lamps is a very simple way to meet this need – especially if you’ve chosen low light lamps. 

Or you can get clever with smart lamps on a timer that controls both the colour of the light, and the brightness at each end of the day.  Evenings are deep golden light and not very bright, mornings, well they start gentle but as my husband and I are not really morning people, we use it as a brain hack.  Lots of sharp bright light kicks in when we really should be getting out of bed – it’s infinitely more effective than an alarm with a snooze button (especially when it comes with the first cup of coffee of the day too).

Of course, if you have an automation system and beautifully designed light, you can craft all kinds of wonderful magic with the light in your bedroom, making it just right for you no matter your mood. 

As always with lighting design, we find the solution that works best for the architecture, the style of the room, what you want to see in your home and that crucial element, your budget.

Whether you want to bring next level lighting to the bedroom in your new home, or renovate the lighting in your current abode, MINT has the expertise to craft the right light for you.

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