Lighting New Heights
Vaulted ceilings can make or break the look of a room. A well-lit room with a vaulted ceiling can be a welcoming and inviting space; on the contrary, a poorly lit one can be perceived as dreary and almost depressing. Choosing the best options to light a room with a vaulted ceiling can be daunting, but luckily 1000Bulbs has got your back.
Achieving the main goal of lighting the whole space with a vaulted ceiling is easier said than done. With so many options, how does one go about deciding which light works best? Here are five popular options for adequately lighting a vaulted ceiling.
Recessed Lighting
Let’s start with one of the most commonly chosen—recessed lighting and downlight fixtures are a popular go-to option for filling a space. The fixtures can be seamlessly placed throughout the space to provide a consistent light level from corner to corner. By design, they are recessed into the ceiling, making them discrete, yet highly effective.
Spot Lighting
Spot lighting is ideal for areas with high focus; often referred to as task lighting. These fixtures tend to hang down from the ceiling to illuminate specific areas, but they can also be a more highly concentrated form of recessed light focused at one focal point. Spot lighting is best used in kitchen workspaces, craft rooms, offices, game rooms, reading nooks, and similar spaces.
Track Lighting
Track lighting is great in a space that has multiple uses. Light head positions can be adjusted along a track and can be angled in whichever direction needs the most attention. Perfect for serving areas of a kitchen, a party space, or a bonus room that serves as an office during the day and a playroom at night where light needs to be shifted from place to place. Track lights also work well when used in conjunction with recessed fixtures. The recessed lights provide the bulk of light with tracks filling in the gaps as needed.
Pendant Lighting
Pendant lights are great for adding a bit of flair to your space. They allow your lighting to contribute to the décor and accent the architecture of your specific room. Pendant lights are typically attached to the ceiling via cables, wires, chains, bars and more, and they hang down to provide a closer source of light than recessed lighting. This is especially beneficial in larger rooms where the recessed lighting towards the peak of the vaulted ceiling can be excessively far from the area to be lit. Pendants are often employed over dining tables and counters.
Natural Lighting
When installing any one of the above-mentioned types of lights, make sure you account for natural light. It’s important to note the position of windows so that you can keep an even light throughout the day and into the night. Skylights are a common method of letting warm, natural light in through glass windows in the ceiling. Since what can be a better light than the brightest object in our solar system?
Additional Considerations
As with any lighting installation, there are many ways to personalize your space with your choices. Chandelier lighting is similar to pendant lighting. The major difference is a chandelier features multiple light bulbs while a pendant is just a single bulb. Chandeliers can be extravagant. A massive ornate light fixture that hangs in the centermost part of the room is a great option for consistent light throughout a space. And it makes a bold statement! Most chandeliers need assistance filling out the corners of a room, so combining with recessed fixtures or other light sources could be the way to go.
Install dimmer switches to manually set just the right amount of light for the space or activity. Fill in pesky shadows with wall mounted lights (sconces), lamps, or other accents. These can help provide full illumination from the ground up to the fullest height of your vaulted ceiling to create a warm, welcoming environment.
Need advice for your vaulted ceiling? Give the lighting experts at 1000Bulbs a call at 1-800-624-4488 today!
