Lucas Roberts
Living room ceiling light ideas have to deliver both good looks and functionality in a space used daily by everyone in a home as well as for entertaining. From dramatic chandeliers to simple stylish pendants, we’ve found some truly inspiring examples of living room lighting ideas to create a centerpiece for the design.
‘The ceiling of this space was enough to celebrate and act as the main stage,’ says Marie Soliman of Bergman Design House (opens in new tab). It is made of three different strings with three looping heights in a mix of Murano handblown glass and walnut timber, and manufactured by Northern Light. ‘I achieved this by bringing in fuchsia and cognac colored yarns, sitting within the neutral string form.’ Use living room ceiling lighting ideas to bring a cozy ambience to the space.
These functional and decorative lights by Rothschild and Bickers (opens in new tab) create an atmospheric warm glow. It’s a strategy that can work well in newer homes without generous ceiling heights, but make sure to factor the cost to install new lighting into your plans. With such an elaborate ceiling design, we wanted a pared-back aesthetic for the pendant, which is why we chose the modern Castle light by Roll & Hill (opens in new tab).’
‘Putting an industrial style lamp or a graphic mid-century form in a traditional stucco setting injects excitement, equally an Art Deco chandelier in a stark, modern plan.’ This is not the time to be shy – oversized designs are one of the top living room lighting trends. In this example, a dark metal chandelier is not only tall, but sprawls dramatically across the central third of the room to create a really impressive feature.
‘From sculptural singular wow-factor pieces to sleek cluster designs, striking pendant lighting will be a popular fixture in homes [in the next year].’ Pendant lights are great for creating a focal point usually in the center of the room or highlighting a significant seating zone, such as the one in this example, situated in a separate nook. Chandeliers aren’t the sole preserve of period properties, and neither do they need to look like they’ve been plucked out of the 18th century. Take a contemporary approach instead – in this Salt Lake City home by designer Alice Lane (opens in new tab), a Sputnik-style chandelier gives off a mid-century modern vibe, made contemporary through the luxurious combination of brass and black.
Among the white living room ideas here, the hoop light fitting designed by Laura Kirar (opens in new tab) for Arteriors (opens in new tab)aims to create a balance between traditional lighting forms and modern concerns. Natural materials like rattan, terracotta and wood are having a huge moment in lighting, and look great among bohemian living room ideas .
Compliment with house plants, wooden furniture, textured furnishings to keep it stylish, yet understated.’ This may sound like a daring and impractical strategy, but hanging a low pendant over your living room seating ideas helps to create a dedicated glow around the comfiest area of the room, and placing the light over a coffee table means no need to worry about people walking under it and bumping their heads. In this room, the metal lampshade also adds a modern industrial touch to a traditional space.
They can be used to create highly inventive and unusual light fittings such as this stunning gold hoop fixture with an LED bar across its center, or can be used more discreetly for traditional or modern downlighting. Perimeter lighting helps define the size of the space and avoids any dark living room corners.’ Of course, your ceiling lighting doesn’t have to be a showstopping affair – keeping it simple and stylish can be just what a living room needs.
In this living room, a very simple black lampshade around a pendant light is the perfect balance to the black table below and the white walls surrounding, offering a grounding antidote to the colorful, artistic scheme across the rest of the room. Choosing a ceiling light is hugely personal, but ensuring it’s the right fit for your space can make or break a room scheme.
In smaller rooms, choose large fittings that have a lot of negative space – like Sputnik chandeliers or lampshades with openings – to make sure the fixture doesn’t feel too dominant. Founder of Pooky (opens in new tab) Rohan Blacker believes measuring the height of ceiling is most crucial, as this will dictate what fixtures you can use.
If you have slightly higher ceilings, you can look at having larger more statement pieces, perhaps a chandelier or a cluster of pendants to act as a focal point within the space.’ Central lights tend to throw multiple shadows around the room and produce harsh contrast.
