Bedroom Lighting Ideas for the Ultimate Relaxation Space

What’s your bedroom lighting like? Not really thought too much about it? The bedroom is often overlooked as important space to light properly; it’s mainly for sleeping after all. But when you really think about it, most of us use our bedrooms for other tasks such as reading, getting ready for work or an evening out, doing the housework or simply relaxing.

All of these tasks require lighting of varying degrees and types, so we’ve put together a guide of bedroom lighting ideas to help you create the perfect combination of bedroom lights to suit your needs.

General Bedroom Lighting

A good source of even, central lighting is a good place to start when choosing bedroom lights, and is usually something that most bedrooms already have to begin with. If you hardly spend any time in your bedroom except to sleep, this general lighting can often be all you need, but it still needs to be well placed and bright enough to ensure you can do everyday tasks such as getting dressed in the morning and general cleaning.

Aim to hang a good quality pendant light from the ceiling in the centre of the room to cast an even amount of light across the entire space. You don’t want this lighting to be too bright, however, so aim for a low-lumen bulb and, if possible, a dimmer switch so you can achieve the optimum level of light for your needs.

Bedroom Task Lighting

We all use our bedrooms in different ways. Some of us have desks and office spaces in our bedrooms, while a great deal more of us like to read books in bed before going to sleep. These tasks require strong task lighting to prevent eye strain, so a good quality bedside table lamp or desk lamp is an essential addition to any bedroom where reading and writing are regular activities. Your main pendant lamp also makes an adequate bedtime reading light, depending on its brightness, though a bedside lamp is often preferred for creating a more relaxed atmosphere.

What other tasks do you carry out in your bedroom? Everything from doing your hair and applying makeup to ironing your clothes requires specific task lighting to aid you, so make sure you’re adding extra lighting in key areas of your bedroom for these. Directional spot lights make great dressing table area task lights, while stylish floor lamps also create concentrated pools of extra light to help you with those extra day-to-day tasks.

Bedroom Accent Lighting

Accent lighting is ideal for perfecting the art of subtlety in your bedroom. This is where you can get creative with your lighting and create that wonderful, cosy glow for added romance or relaxing ambience. Accent lighting is purely aesthetic, so you don’t have to worry about practicality, bulb brightness or positioning. Bedroom accent lighting can be achieved using anything from strings of fairy lights and candles to corner uplights and even by simply dimming your main light sources.

Try arranging fairy lights around the head or base of your bed, placing candles on bedside tables or adding wall sconces with uplighting on either side of your bed for varying levels of accent lighting.

Need more inspiration? Our full range of bedroom lighting here at Moonlight Design includes an extensive variety of modern and traditional bedroom lights to suit all tastes and needs.