Modern Bedroom Lighting Ideas 2024

Bedroom is the place that provides the greatest sense of security. For a bedroom, in addition to having functional lighting for reading before sleep or getting up at night, soft lighting is also necessary to relieve people’s pressure and fatigue. How should bedroom lighting be designed to create a sense of luxury and comfort?

Types of Bedroom Lights Used

Main Lights ( for basic lighting)

• Flush Mount Ceiling Lights—Easy for installation, with a simple and generous design, not requiring high ceiling height, and there will be no sense of space oppression. Moreover, the style is versatile and easy to clean. If your bedroom doesn’t have a suspended ceiling, you can preferentially choose ceiling lights, which are beneficial for soft and diffused light to spread throughout the entire space. Additionally, the lampshade material includes options such as plastic, paper, wood, and sand for you to choose from.
• Pendant Lights—With various styles and relatively complex shapes, and there are certain requirements for ceiling height. Generally, for floor height less than 2.7 meters, it is not recommended to use pendant lights. Pendant lights have evident decorative features, enhancing the design and sophistication of the bedroom space.

Secondary Lights ( for decorative and ambient lighting )

• led downlights—Nowadays, many bedroom lighting designs adopt a no-main-light scheme. In this case, recessed led downlights serve as the main lighting source. Recessed lights match with various home decor styles, and their brightness can meet the needs of the bedroom, providing uniform illumination.
• led wall lights
• Track lights ( magnetic track lights / traditional track lights)
• led strip
• led floor lamp
• led table lights

In the lighting design without main lights, downlights and magnetic track lights are used to provide basic lighting too.

8 Tips to Get Best Bedroom Lighting Effect

Specify the type of lighting design

Before starting, it is essential to determine whether you want a main light design or no main light in your bedroom!
Don’t think it doesn’t matter and consider that whether it’s a main light or not is just a matter of having fewer or more lights.
However, whether it’s a main light or not, if it involves embedding in the ceiling or wall, or creating light grooves, it’s not a trivial matter.

Know your Style

The current mainstream decoration styles are basically modern minimalist, light luxury, new Chinese, and American styles. You should choose the type of lighting fixtures based on the decoration style of your home.

Power Wattage

Bedroom is primarily a place for rest. Areas that require sufficient brightness are cleaning and reading. Generally, 10-15 watts of light , 50-100 lux is sufficient.

Room size	5-10m³	10-15m³	15-20m³	>20m³
Led Wattage	13-25W	25-38W	38-50W	>50W

Color Temperature

3000K CCT tends to have a warm, reddish hue, providing a cozy feeling known as warm light. On the other hand, color temperature exceeding 5000K tends to have a blueish tint, giving a cool sensation referred to as cool light. For bedroom lighting, one aims to create a warm and comfortable ambiance, so it’s advisable to keep the color temperature below 4000K.

LED lights appearance

Try to avoid choosing overly complicated light fixtures as they are challenging to clean and can quickly become outdated and less appealing.

Anti-Glare, High CRI, No blue light, no flicker

Poor-quality lighting fixtures can harm the eyes and lead to a decline in vision. Therefore, when choosing lighting fixtures, it is important to select reputable lighting suppliers with quality assurance.

Smart Led Light

Bedroom is the most worthwhile place for smart lighting. It’s beneficial to have different lighting modes for reading, bedtime, and daily activities. If you don’t want something too complex, at least having smart lights at the bedside can be convenient for elders and children during the night. Smart lighting fixtures tend to be more expensive. Some people complain that installing smart lighting fixtures doesn’t serve much purpose, and this ultimately depends on individual preferences.

Pay attention to the installation location of lighting fixtures

Attention! Bedroom lighting should avoid direct light shining on the bedside. It’s preferable to achieve a situation where one sees the light but not the source. So, generally, where is it best to install lighting fixtures? On both sides of the bedside, around the floor platform, near window curtain boxes, and inside or outside the wardrobe.

Lighting fixture suggestions for different areas in the bedroom

Gerneral Lighing for the whole place

Bedside lights

Bedside lamps are essential, especially for those who enjoy reading in bed. Bedside reading lamps can be either pendant lights or LED wall lights. They should support directional adjustment. It’s recommended to choose lamps with a color temperature of 3000K, a power range of 3-5W, and it’s preferable if they come with adjustable heads for easy maintenance. For wall lamps, the ideal height from the bottom of the lamp to the floor is 1.5-1.7 meters.

Foot of Bed area

At the foot of the bed, there is often a small pathway. Adding two spotlights or a linear spotlight in this area can provide focused light, allowing for more comfortable and safer movement in the bedroom, eliminating dark areas. And better use a Motion sensor footboard lights for getting up at night. It is recommended to use a light color temperature of around 3000K, and keep the power within 2W.

Wardrobe

Wardrobe lights with motion sensors make finding clothes hassle-free. However, when installing these lights, carefully regarding the switch location and orientation to avoid awkward situations. Recommended color temperature: 4000K, power: 6-10W.

Case Study

This bedroom is about 12 square meters, which is a relatively compact . It includes two wardrobes, one large and one small. The customer emphasizes the importance of the lighting atmosphere and hopes to get soft lighting. We mainly adopted a no main lighting design using linear lights, wall lights, and downlights.

Both wardrobes are equipped with bottom cabinet lights. Compared to the design of a row of downlights shining on the cabinets, the advantages are: ① providing a soft ambient light, allowing the bed to be well-lit without facing the light source directly; ② functionally illuminating the area underfoot, preventing collisions, and providing a certain brightness.

The brightness of linear lights is not very high, so to ensure sufficient illumination, recessed spotlights are added to the wardrobe area. The spotlights in the large wardrobe are not positioned in the middle of the aisle to avoid too much brightness overhead, making the lighting more comfortable.

Concealed lights in the curtain box are a popular design nowadays. Led strip lights shining on the curtains create a gradient light cascade, transforming linear light into “ambient light,” creating a full sense of atmosphere and enhancing the thickness of light. Moreover, the curtain box is an excellent place to hide transformers, making installation more convenient.

There are wall lights on both sides of the bed, which do not take up space on the wall and have a simple design, making them very suitable for small bedrooms. For reading or using the phone at the bedside, only the bedside wall lights are turned on; in rest mode, only the light strip or bedside wall lights are turned on.

From this case, it can be seen that, a no main light desigh does not mean a large layout of spotlights. Instead, using various light sources to achieve a balance between functionality and aesthetics can be made.

The floor-to-ceiling windows bring in more natural light during the day, and at night, the city lights make the bedroom warm. To enhance the outdoor view and create a cozy atmosphere, we installed led strips around the curtain box. This not only elevates the bedroom’s sophistication but also complements the urban night scene.

On one side of the floor-to-ceiling window, there is a desk, and the illumination from the strip lights alone is not sufficient. Therefore, we added a recessed spotlight to ensure adequate brightness on the desktop. The recessed light reduces the glaring sensation when looking up and can also serve as a bedside lamp. On the other side, the pendant lamp above the bedside hangs low, minimizing interference and adding a bonus to the spatial design.

Both the top and bottom of the wardrobe are embedded with light strips to ensure sufficient brightness for retrieving clothes, while also avoiding harsh lighting and creating a warm atmosphere.

Place a pair of spotlights near the foot of the bed, positioned along the central axis of the bed, serving both as bedside lighting and corridor illumination. Compared to traditional ceiling lights, this arrangement effectively avoids glare.

Another spotlight, aligned with the one near the foot of the bed, is also positioned along the central axis of one side of the wall, enhancing the aesthetic design. It can serve as an art or wall washing light and also provides illumination for the walkway.

Typically, lighting in corridor is evenly distributed along the central line with recessed lights. However, we opted for an uneven layout, allowing the light to be more dispersed and softer.