25 Just-Right Bedroom Lighting Ideas

Embrace Eclectic

Is your style a little bohemian, a mix and max of textures and styles? Then let your bedroom lighting reflect it! Embracing different aesthetics, like a modern bedroom chandelier overhead and an updated classic desk lamp as bedside lighting, gives the room cohesion in a room full of differing styles

Balancing Act

An unusual statement piece, like an asymmetrical headboard, can be a challenge to design around. One way is to use fixtures in the Danish minimalist style, which emphasize simple lines in proportional shapes, to balance and highlight the featured piece.

Soften Your Space

When working to make a bedroom that's soft and inviting, we immediately think of soft textiles. But consider adding lighting fixtures with a softer silhouette as well. A curvy chandelier goes well in a bedroom with high ceilings and creates a lush and welcoming feel.

Lower Your Profile

In a bedroom with a lower ceiling, a bedroom flushmount light is a great option. The unobtrusive low profile doesn't barge into the living space while the LED provides plenty of light to illuminate the entire area. Plus, there are so many designs to choose from.

Bring the Drama

Statement art pieces aren't the only components that can provide visual drama in a bedroom. An eye-catching chandelier can pull the spotlight and provide drama and texture to an otherwise neutral room.

It's Complementary, My Dear

Fixtures don't have to be matchy-matchy to coordinate. By incorporating similar shapes into different lighting fixtures, like table lamps with metal circular elements paired with a drum-shaped pendant light, you pull attention to their geometric elements. Similarly, coordinating lampshades with the colors of other features in the room gives a feeling of cohesion without being overbearing.

Beauty as Purpose

In a bedroom where all the furniture is low to the ground, a low-hanging pendant light can add visual interest and give the room additional spatial dimension and height. A luminous, abstract modern pendant light, particularly hung by thin wires that seem to disappear, becomes a visual feature as much as a functional lamp.

Pull Out Feature Components

Add cohesion to your bedroom lighting design by choosing materials used in other elements of the room for your lamp shades. For example, a natural wooden headboard can be a jumping-off point for natural wooden or woven elements.

Oh, Hang It All

Ditch the tabletop lamp and try multi-pendant lighting by your bedside. Hanging lights free up space on your beside table, and you can diversify the types of light provided by hanging each at a different height. Lower bulbs can provide bedside task lighting, while the upper lights provide ambient room lighting.

Environmental Influences

The right shade can be an integral element in your design plan, so choose shades that match your overall aesthetic. Whether it's shiny metal for an ultramodern room or organic and grass-like for a modern coastal room, these textural elements add depth and cohesion to a room.

Bring the Bling

Don't be afraid to add some glitz. You can go extra-glam with a sparkly crystal chandelier and shiny side tables that bring to mind the mirrored walls of Versailles. Temper those flashier items with cushy furnishings and neutral walls or go all-out with all that glitters—it's your bedroom, after all.

Harmonize Color Schemes

Picking lighting fixtures that match the color tones of other elements in the room is a great way to quickly and easily provide a harmonized palette in a room. They don't have to match exactly, but keeping it to a color family can bring the space together.

Hang It Up

A linear suspension light adds so much drama while providing versatile bed lighting. This unexpected choice provides both downlight for reading and ambient light for the rest of the room.

Spotlight on Your Light

To highlight a statement light, keep the rest of the room neutral. A coordinated color scheme in the rest of the room draws the eye right up to a dramatic and different fixture, particularly if it's a totally different tone.

Quirky Does It

Don't be afraid to use unusual fixtures or creative modern components in your bedroom design. Hanging lights in abstract, sculptural shapes draw the eye while providing ambient light. Add an iconic table lamp for extra artistic flair.

Glorious Glass

Groups of glass pendant lamps add a glamorous touch to your bedroom lighting design. Elegant shapes provide decorative appeal and the glass allows the bulb, and light, to shine through. Hanging them in matching pairs provides symmetry around the bed, while coordinating the shades with other accessories like vases adds visual harmony.

Lots of Layers

When working on small bedroom lighting ideas, it's especially important to use a layered lighting approach. A freestanding mini-pendant light provides general light while taking up little space, while an adjustable bedside table lamp provides task lighting for reading in bed.

Mount Up

If you like reading in bed, consider a wall-mounted reading lamp. They open up surface space on the bedside table or even eliminate the need for a nightstand altogether. Look for lights with adjustable angles to provide perfect lighting whether you're sitting up or lying down.

Plug Into Features

Some wall-mounted lighting fixtures have exciting multi-functional options, like USB charging and additional spaces for your phone or other accessories. Plus, many multipurpose wall lights have a totally separate, adjustable arm to provide directed reading light. So cool.

Everything Old is New Again

Vintage lamps can be beautiful, but they can also be hard to find, tough to match and hazardous to work with. Consider traditional, farmhouse or restoration modern lights that look like period fixtures but provide modern features.

Maximize the Mod

The simple, clean lines of mid-century modern décor give a room a bright, open feeling. To get that vibe with your lighting design, ditch the extra furniture and open up some floor real estate with a wall mounted fixture. Geometric shapes combined with metal and wood play off the angular shapes of the mid-century movement and keep that airy feeling.

Find a Balance

To hang a pair of bedroom wall sconces in a way that looks balanced, plan out the location so each one is at the same height and distance from the bed, as well as in similar positioning based on any wall features like wainscoting or trim.

Size Matters

The scale of your bedroom lights is especially important in a small bedroom space. Look for lamps that put out a lot of illumination, but that also are in proportion to the room and the furniture.

Thin for the Win

LED floor lamps are a great way to add general ambient lighting to a small space. With a minimal footprint, it can add a lot of light, particularly for a reading or lounging area, without taking up a lot of room.

Bring in the Breeze

For brightness and breezes, consider installing a bedroom ceiling fan with a light. You get the same ambient room illumination as any overhead light fixture while keeping the room more comfortable in summer and winter alike.

No matter what size your bedroom or what activities you use that room for, there are lighting options that will fit your needs. By taking the time to think about what uses you want the room to cover, you can determine the perfect lighting scheme to make your bedroom your perfect retreat.