Bedroom Lighting: Wall Lights, Bedside Lamps and Ceiling Lights

Bedroom lighting has a requirement no other room has: it must work lying down. A fitting that looks right standing in the doorway can shine straight into your eyes from a pillow, and that single fact rules out more choices than style does. The light in a bedroom wants to land low, land warm, and be switchable from the bed.

Bedside Lighting

Bedroom lighting starts at the bedside, because that is the light actually used most nights. The height is what makes it work: the bottom of the shade should sit at about shoulder height for someone sitting up in bed, so the light falls on a book rather than on the wall above it or into a face.

Two ways to get there. A pair of table lamps is the flexible one, moved and swapped without an electrician. A pair of wall lights does the same job and gives back the whole bedside table, which in a small room is worth more than it sounds.

Position matters as much as height. Light coming from beside and slightly behind the shoulder lands on the page; a lamp placed in front of you lights the room and leaves the book in your own shadow.

Wall Lights for a Bedroom

Bedroom wall lights beside a bed need one thing above all: a switch you can reach lying down. Around half the wall lights here have a switch on the fitting itself; the rest are wired to a switch elsewhere, which in a bedroom means getting up to turn the light off.

Mount them lower than you would in a sitting room, level with each other, and far enough apart that neither is in the way of sitting up against the headboard. Where a fitting can be angled, aim it down at the pillow rather than out into the room.

Bedroom Ceiling Lights

Bedroom ceiling lights are seen from directly below by someone lying flat, which is the angle nobody considers in the showroom. An exposed bulb that looks fine from the door is glare from a pillow, so a shade or a diffuser matters more in a bedroom than in any other room.

A flush or semi-flush fitting suits a standard ceiling. A small chandelier works too, and a bedroom is the commonest place for one, since it is usually the room with the most empty ceiling. Centre it on the room rather than on the bed, and keep the width clear of the walking space either side.

Lighting a Chair in a Bedroom

Bedroom lighting changes if there is an armchair in the room. A bedside lamp is the wrong height and the wrong place for a chair in the corner, and that is the one position in a bedroom where a floor lamp earns its keep — particularly an adjustable one, which tilts the light onto a book rather than out across the bed.

Without a chair, a floor lamp usually overshoots. Built to sitting room height, it stands taller than a bed or a chest of drawers and lights the room from above the furniture rather than at it.

Bulbs and Dimming

Bedroom lighting wants the warmest light in the house, around 2700K, and it wants to be dimmable if anything is. A bedroom is used for winding down and for finding a sock at seven in the morning, and those need different amounts of light from the same fittings.

Keep every bulb in the room the same temperature. A warm bedside lamp beside a cooler ceiling fitting is the mismatch that makes a room feel unsettled without anyone being able to say why.

Bedroom Lighting FAQs

How high should a bedside wall light be?

Bedroom wall lights beside a bed sit with the bottom of the shade at about shoulder height for someone sitting up, which is lower than a wall light elsewhere in the house. That puts the light on a book rather than on the wall above the headboard.

Are wall lights better than bedside lamps?

Bedroom wall lights free up the whole bedside table, which matters in a small room, but they need wiring and a switch you can reach from the bed. Bedside table lamps need neither and can be moved, so the choice is between a tidy result and a flexible one.

What ceiling light suits a bedroom?

Bedroom ceiling lights should have a shade or a diffuser rather than an exposed bulb, because the fitting is seen from directly below by someone lying down. A flush or semi-flush fitting suits a standard ceiling, and a small chandelier suits a room with height.

Should bedroom lights be dimmable?

Bedroom lighting benefits from dimming more than any other room, since the same fittings are used for winding down at night and for getting dressed in the morning. The product page states where a fitting is dimmable.

Do floor lamps work in a bedroom?

Floor lamps suit a bedroom with an armchair in it, where an adjustable one puts light on a book at reading height. Beside a bed they usually overshoot, since they are built to sitting room height and stand taller than most bedroom furniture.