It seems obvious really - stairs can be dangerous things, even for grown adults, but often very little thought goes into lighting them! Whilst there are many tried and true solutions, there's a few key things to keep in mind when thinking about lighting stairs to create the best result.

In the commercial world, staircases have their own standards for minimum light levels for safety, but in our homes there are no rules. So, use the following information to arm yourself, and make sure you end up with a stunning (and safe!) staircase in your home.

To make stairs easy to see, we need to create contrast. And if we have any kind of vision impairment, or are elderly – then we need to have consistent contrast. That means every step is lit with the same contrast of light.

We often see step lights used every three treads, which with the right light can be perfect – but if you’ve chosen the “wrong” step light for the job, you end up with one bright tread, one half lit tread and one dark tread, which can be a visual disaster for anyone with a vision impairment.

I was speaking recently with a colleague who described a pure white space - white walls, ceiling and pure white stairs - that had a coloured lighting display filling the area with light. Unintentionally the designers of the space had created an environment where no one could get their bearings. As an art installation it would be dramatic, controversial and thought provoking. As a pathway from one level of a building to the next, it was a disaster! Everyone got stuck on the stairs. They couldn't perceive the space, couldn't see where to put their feet and had no confidence to move.

Whilst it's highly unlikely that any of our homes would end up so stark, it is a great example of how dramatically light can affect our confidence to walk forward through a space.

CONTRAST - is this context, is "light and shade". By this I mean - parts of an area are brighter, and then the less bright (or shadowed areas) give us a sense of depth and space. This contrast allows our brains to navigate the complex task of walking up or down stairs. With stairs, the idea that “more is better” can work against you – if you have too much light, you lose your shadows and reduce the ability to clearly perceive the step.

It's very important when you're adding light to a staircase that you take GLARE from that light into account. Finding yourself blinded by a light as you walk upstairs is almost as disconcerting as finding yourself in a totally uniform space like the one described above.

Here are some of the more common ideas for lighting stairs:

1. Lighting Stairs - light goes DOWN to the treads.

We've all experienced "step-lights" - those little lights on the wall that throw light down onto the steps. They can be every tread, or every three treads - depending on the specific light fitting selected, they can be placed just about anywhere. There are a few different styles - and we highly recommend trying to find lights that have glare control. Glare control in step lights is usually a downward facing light source in a surface mounted fitting, or a deep recess into the wall concealing the light source.

If it has a white diffuser on the face – AVOID IT! This is the pancake of the wall light world and will be horribly glary and produce very little light for your steps.

2. Lighting Stairs from the Handrail

** Handrails are a great place to hide light, and with the easy availability of linear LED lighting, this can be accomplished in any number of ways. It is important to select for uniform light coming from a strip - as you will see it from some angles in most staircases, and the LED dots detract from the overall effect.

There are two main types of illuminated handrails on the market, timber or steel with a linear LED, and timber or steel with a little "puk" light regularly placed. When designed well, both are a great solution, although with the puk style you want to be completely sure you don’t end up looking up into the handrail as they can be a little glarey from underneath.

3. Lighting stairs from the tread

Running linear light through every tread can look amazing - but be careful you don't end up with stairs that look like they belong in a Casino! Getting a good result from this lighting approach requires making sure you use a good quality linear light, with an excellent diffuser that creates consistent light across the width of the tread (that means no dots!). Also, you want a linear LED that isn't too bright. You want to see the steps - not be blinded by them. No more than 200lm per meter from the LED strip.

4. Lighting stairs from the stringer or wall

If you're going to run light up a stringer, you want the LED tape to be completely concealed and just reflecting it’s light out if it’s aiming up. If it’s aiming down, you want to make sure it’s not too bright – same as when you’re lighting from the treads. Generally speaking we don’t want to see the diffuser of the light source in our stairs as the contrast between that and the step can be visually distracting.

If you want to get really dramatic with your stair lighting and turn it into a feature, there are many different control technologies available that can enable you to set brightness levels for different times of the day. And if you want to go all out, you can create dramatic coloured lighting displays that can tell a story with light, and totally transform the mood of your home with the simple selection of a program.

Just remember to make sure you don’t create a perfectly uniform space, or you'll end up with something that looks amazing - but makes it nearly impossible to move from one level of your home to the next!