Living Room Lighting: Wall Lights, Floor Lamps and Table Lamps

Living room lighting goes wrong in one particular way, and almost every British sitting room has it: a single fitting in the middle of the ceiling, doing the whole job on its own. It lights the centre of the floor and pushes the corners into shadow by contrast, which is why a room can feel smaller at nine in the evening than it does at noon. The fix is not a brighter fitting. It is more than one light.

Living Room Lighting in Layers

Living room lighting works when it comes from three or four places at different heights rather than one place overhead. The ceiling fitting gives the general level that lets you cross the room and find things. Lamps at seating height do the reading. Wall lights fill the corners the ceiling cannot reach.

Aim for the ceiling fitting doing about half the work and the rest spread around the room. That is the difference between a room that works in the evening and one that only works with the curtains open.

Wall Lights for a Living Room

Living room lighting benefits from wall lights more than most people expect, because they solve the corners without taking up a surface. A pair on a chimney breast, or either side of an alcove, lights exactly the part of the room a central fitting leaves dark, and does it at the height people's eyes actually are.

Mount them at roughly eye level standing, which puts the light above a seated head rather than in it, and get the pair level with each other — two wall lights at slightly different heights are obvious in a way a single fitting never is.

Floor Lamps for a Living Room

Living room lighting needs at least one light beside the seating, and a floor lamp is the one that needs no table to stand on. Behind or beside an armchair it puts light on a book instead of on the ceiling, and a corner position bounces light off two walls at once, which lifts a room more than the same lamp in the middle of it.

A floor lamp is also the light to add when a room has no spare surfaces, which is most small sitting rooms.

Table Lamps for a Living Room

Living room lighting reads better with two table lamps at opposite ends of the room than with one in the middle. Light crossing from two directions throws the shadows behind the furniture instead of across it, and it gives you the option of turning half the room off.

Height should follow the piece a lamp stands on: tall enough that the bottom of the shade sits near eye level for someone seated, so the bulb is hidden from where people sit rather than glaring at them. Table lamps on a sideboard want to be taller than the same lamp on a low side table.

Ceiling Lights for a Living Room

Living room lighting still starts at the ceiling, and what goes there depends on the height. Over a standard 2.4 metre ceiling a flush or semi-flush fitting keeps out of the way; a room with more height, or with the seating arranged around a centre, can take a chandelier that reads as an object rather than a light.

Pendants are the exception in this room. A single pendant hangs over the middle of a floor nobody stands on, so it belongs over a table rather than over a sitting area.

Bulbs and Dimming

Living room lighting wants warm bulbs, around 2700K, and the same temperature in every fitting in the room. Mixing a warm lamp with a cooler ceiling light is the mismatch people notice without being able to name it.

Dimming matters more here than anywhere else in the house, because a sitting room is used for two opposite things — reading and sitting in the evening — and they want different amounts of light. Where a fitting is dimmable, the product page says so.

Living Room Lighting FAQs

How many lights does a living room need?

Living room lighting works best with three or four sources at different heights: a ceiling fitting, one or two lamps at seating height, and wall lights for the corners. One central fitting on its own leaves the edges of the room dark by contrast.

Where should wall lights go in a living room?

Living room wall lights suit a chimney breast or the sides of an alcove, mounted at roughly eye level for someone standing. Keep a pair level with each other, since a difference in height is immediately visible.

Should a living room have a pendant light?

A pendant is rarely the right fitting for living room lighting, because it hangs over floor rather than over a surface. A flush or semi-flush fitting suits a standard ceiling, and a chandelier suits a room with height.

What colour bulbs suit a living room?

Living room lighting suits warm bulbs of around 2700K. Use the same colour temperature in every fitting in the room, since mixing warm and cool light is what makes a scheme feel disjointed.

How do I light a living room with no ceiling light?

Living room lighting can work entirely from lamps and wall lights. Two floor or table lamps at opposite corners, plus a pair of wall lights, give a better result than most central fittings manage on their own.