A ceiling with exposed beams has always been a predominantly characterizing element of rustic living.
However, today it has become a particularly appreciated and widespread element even in other types of homes, where, if the height of the ceilings allows it, clients request them for decorative purposes.
Whether the structure was built with exposed beams or they were added later, these architectural elements should be enhanced by your lighting design project.
To achieve this goal, you should consider the following elements: the height of the ceiling, the width of the room, and the overall mood that you and your client want to give the space.
In this article, we will focus on the lighting for a living room with exposed beams and useful tips to accentuate them, without forgetting to provide the space with the functional light it needs.
In particular, we will look at:
- Lighting for a living room with exposed beams: point the light upwards
- How to illuminate high and low ceilings
- All the solutions for lighting a living room with exposed beams
- Designing the lighting for a living room with exposed beams: dare and layer
Sherwood e Robin
Every insider knows and should be able to convey to their clients as well that the role of lighting is essential in the design of any type of environment.
In particular, when talking about the living room, the area of the house that you spend the most time in, where you receive guests and eat and entertain, the lighting must help you perform all types of activities comfortably while creating the right atmosphere.
If there are exposed beams in the living room, illuminating them correctly and in an original way will make them real furnishing accessories and give character and personality to the room.
The first two factors that you should take into consideration are:
- The height of the ceiling will especially affect, as we will see later, the choice of lighting fixtures;
- The size of the room will help you decide how many lights are needed and how they will be distributed.
Having made these assessments, when choosing the lighting for a living room with exposed beams, keep in mind that simple lighting from top to bottom is not the best choice.
On the contrary, we suggest using technical systems that also direct the light from the bottom upward, whether they are recessed, such as spotlights for example, or not.
This is a classic example of indirect lighting which, in addition to giving prominence to the beams, allows you to give volume to the room, eliminating shadow areas and at the same time making the environment more dynamic without blinding you.
Indirect lighting alone will not be sufficient to guarantee the right light intensity. Therefore, it is wise to combine it with direct lighting, creating a double illuminating layer. As a result, you will enhance the architecture of the ceiling (accent lighting) and the other, positioned lower, which will illuminate various daily activities (task lighting).
Umarell
How to illuminate high and low ceilings
A room with exposed beams can have a particularly high ceiling, perhaps with large windows that provide a lot of natural light or, on the contrary, particularly low and darker areas.
When illuminating a living room with high ceilings and exposed beams, keep in mind that height causes light to scatter, so you’ll have to adjust them accordingly.
If this is the case in your project, add lights at eye level: choose spotlights and floor lamps, but also pendant lamps and chandeliers that, when descending, provide practical light where needed, above the dining table, for example, enriching and filling the space at the same time.
On the contrary, if you are dealing with rather low ceilings, choose recessed spotlights which, positioned at strategic points, illuminate the environment and enhance the beams without occupying an already small space.
All the solutions for lighting a living room with exposed beams
In addition to providing light points that direct the light upward, we will now take a look at the main solutions for illuminating a living room with exposed beams, taking into account the principle, valid for each project, of seeking the best balance between decorative and technical lighting.
Before proceeding with the choice of lighting fixtures for your lighting project, it is essential to establish the mood you (and the client) want to give the home to perfectly integrate the lighting with the style and furnishings of the house.
It is worth remembering that we are not faced with an exclusive choice but that the different solutions can and must be integrated to satisfy all lighting levels: ambient lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting.
Recessed spotlights for wooden beams
Spotlights and LED spotlights go well with any context.
You can opt for recessed ones, making a hole in the wood to apply them, or external spotlights.
This solution is well suited to both small rooms, where a series of spotlights will give a sense of amplitude, and larger living, guaranteeing uniform ambient light without shadow areas.
Spotlights are also extremely flexible and can be spread out according to the desired lighting effect, offering the possibility of orienting them downward (the floor will have the function of a sort of "reflector") or toward the walls to obtain a softer light that highlights certain furnishing accessories.
The perfect spotlights are minimalist, able to blend in, or even hide so that the ceiling will be illuminated as if by magic.
24 Karati
Lighting for a wooden ceiling with chandeliers and suspensions
Chandeliers and pendant lamps are perfect for and will have an aesthetic impact in a living room where the ceiling is high and the room is large.
By choosing the style and structure of the lamps based on the style and personality of the environment, as well as providing practical light, they will become real furnishing elements.
When choosing materials, take into account that glass lamps, thanks to their transparency, will give the room unexpected glows, creating pleasant lighting effects.
If the living room in question is particularly large, add a mix of wall lights, floor lamps, and ceiling lights in the darkest points of the room as long as they are well coordinated with each other and in line with the overall mood.
Otherwise, the use of decentralized systems allows the suspensions to be taken where they are needed, thus managing to create groups of lights that meet the needs of the space.
We could have, for example, a group of lighting fixtures for ambient lighting and decide to place other elements as a source of task lighting over the table.
If the style of the environment you are designing is modern, you can opt for suspended lighting profiles, systems with integrated LED strip aluminum bars that contain one or more supports for lighting and that, following the linearity of the beams, will highlight their charm.
Ginger
Electrified track: how it works
An electrified track is a structure that contains one or more lighting supports installed on the walls and ceiling and has the advantage of being able to insert the desired number of lighting fixtures and move them as desired.
This system allows you to position the light sources exactly where they are needed and are capable of responding to situations that would be more difficult to manage with other light fixtures, allowing you to illuminate the entire context.
Thanks to a special keypad, the various lights can also be controlled individually.
LED strips to accentuate the ceiling
Placed along the length of the beam, the LED strips highlight its direction.
Or, in your project, you can insert them into the grooves of the beams to make them look sculpted.
What is another original way to illuminate a living room with exposed beams?
Illuminate upward using the furniture. Cabinets, kitchen wall units, or shelves, as long as they are over 2 meters high, can hide LEDs capable of giving great visual impact to the ceiling.
Nilo
Designing the lighting for a living room with exposed beams: dare and layer
In this article, we have seen that a lighting project for a living room with exposed beams must start from a premise: the ceiling must be enhanced as an element that makes the environment unique.
Layering the light and mixing the three lighting levels (ambient, task, and accent) turns out to be the winning choice in this case, too.
You can offer your client more traditional solutions but also dare with more modern and innovative systems based on the client’s taste and the character you want to give the room.
