40 Bright Living Room Lighting Ideas

Welcome to our guide to living room lighting!

In order to come up with the very specific design ideas, we create most designs with the assistance of state-of-the-art AI interior design software.

So you have worked hard on your living room design, but you don’t want all that hard work to be left in the dark!

It’s time to light up your space and let those designs shine.

There are so many different kinds of lights; what kind of lighting would be perfect for your beautiful living space?

Here are some ideas and stunning pictures that will hopefully help you find your illuminating inspiration.

Costs of different kinds of lighting can vary widely. Factors that contribute to the cost of lighting fixtures include particular fixtures chosen, location, labor needed, and difficulty of the task.

In general, the installation of a new light fixture will cost between $130 and $350. For more high end fixtures, this cost may be even higher. (Source: Homewyse)

Want more living room design ideas? Check out our definitive living room guide!

Natural Light

Natural lighting is one of the best kinds of light. Letting sunshine into your room can brighten up your space in a way that artificial lights cannot.

A sun soaked and bright living room is a welcoming and wonderful place to relax and spend your time. But the sun isn’t always up, and when it goes down, your beautiful and bright living room will go dark if this is your only light source.

This living room uses a bit recessed lighting, but the majority of the light is coming in through the large windows. The recessed lighting is giving just a bit of help to the natural light in the day, but at night, these lights will light up this room without being in the way. Also, rope lighting is used near the bottom of the wall to add a bit of a design feature. 

See more of this home here. Designed by JM Architecture.

While this room does have some chandeliers, the primary source of light in the daytime comes from the skylights letting in the suns rays. Skylights are a great way to let in as much light as possible. In tandem with glass doors and windows, you can maximize your room’s exposure to the sun.

This modern and sleek living room is drenched in natural light from an abundance of windows. The white furniture and walls help reflect all of this light to make the best use of it.

This living room uses a number of windows and glass doors to maximize the incoming natural light, but also has a number of recessed lights. This is a minimalist version of a rustic design, and the recessed lights don’t intrude into the room.

Here is a another room with a skylight to maximize natural light. Any way you can maximize the natural light in your room is a good option for lighting. Everything just looks better drenched in natural sunlight.

In this room lamps are used to aid the recessed lighting, and skylights brighten this simple and modern design.

Pendant

Pendant lighting is a lone light that hangs down into the room from a cord, chain, or rod, and can be stylish in many designs. It has a sleek and modern look that is often used in kitchens, but in the right style they can find a good home in a living room. However, these lights are vulnerable and may sustain damage when being reckless around them.

Here is a room with an interesting pendant light along with a lamp and ample window space. This pendant light not only serves as a light source. but has an interesting design element that adds depth to the room.

When you consider pendant lighting, it does not need to be a singular light, and all the lights don’t have to match completely. With varied lights, hanging at different levels, you can create an interesting visual aspect.

Chandelier

Another type of hanging light is a chandelier. A chandelier is a hanging fixture with multiple branches containing numerous lights. Often, chandeliers have crystals or some type of glasswork as well.

These lights are great for designs which are looking for an elevated or sophisticated appeal. The glasswork and crystal do well to refract the light, spreading it over the area. Chandeliers are also vulnerable, and can be quite expensive, so you want to be very careful with them.

Chandeliers are used in this elegant living room. These chandeliers dangle high above the living room, illuminating the space with a warm and welcoming light. Such a light fixture is the epitome of luxury.

Here is a modern and interesting chandelier. The lights are increased in a white cloth. This helps to soften the light, as well as make the fixture fit the tone and feel of the room’s design.

Another luxury living room with a stunning chandelier and marvelous exposed brick walls. The massive windows ensure a great deal of natural light during the day. The chandelier is helped by a bit of sconce lighting that sit on top of the windows.

This picture shows a living room rich in nice wooden tones, and elegant furniture. To match this look, the light is provided by a stunning and intricate chandelier made from wrought iron.

This room uses recessed lights and chandeliers as well as lamps to create its lighting.While the chandelier provides ambient light, the recessed lighting lights give a nice focus on the entertainment area of the room.

Here is a bright and light living room doused in natural sunlight. There is a unique and interesting chandelier in the center of the room. There are also recessed lights around the room.

This living room as a unique and beautiful chandelier to provide the light. The silver adornments add a great deal of character to the room.

This living room has multiple elegant chandeliers, that works with the fancy and elevated design.

A single chandelier hangs in this living room, providing some light. Sconce lighting in nearby rooms help illuminate the area.

Recessed

A recessed lighting fixture is a fixture that is inside of the ceiling. These lights do not protrude, and thus do not take up much space. These kinds of fixtures have a modern appeal, and go well with designs that are looking for simplicity and sleek elements.

They do not suit designs that rely on ornamentation or elegant adornments. Recessed lighting is minimal and simple.

This living room uses a number of recessed lights and a single pendant light to create a bright atmosphere in this simple and clutter free living room. Having bright lights shine against white surfaces is a great way to maximize your light without it being harsh.

In this living room there is more going on with the design, but the recessed lighting is working well with lamps to light up the room. The lamps are used as design elements, and the lighting slack is picked up by the recessed lights, so the lamps don’t leave the room too dim.

Here is a bright and simple modern living room that uses a number of simple recessed lights to brighten up the area. The black and white decor and natural wood floors reflect the light well, making the space really light up.

Recessed light is used in this simple and beautiful modern living room. This room is minimal, but with the lighting is welcoming and makes you feel at home.

Rope

Rope lighting is a string of small bulbs linked together, often encased in a PVC jacket. These are great for decorative elements, to add to features, or for a bit of accent lighting, but are rarely powerful enough to add much illumination to an area.

This living room has a number of different lighting elements all working together. There are pendant lighting elements, track lighting highlighting the artwork, recessed lighting brightening up the room, and rope lighting.

A mixture of sconce and rope lighting is used to point as much light as possible at the ceiling, letting the light reflect down on the room. This creates a warm feel and keeps the lights from being harsh.lighting adding some design elements.

Track Lighting

If you are looking for something a bit more flexible, you may like track lighting. Track lighting is a system in which a number of lights are attached to a track. The lights are often mobile and can be positioned to face in different directions.

These are great for spotlighting different features, or if you want to add a bit of extra light to specific areas at different times, but they are not often strong enough to use as a primary lighting source.

In this room, we see track lighting used to highlight gallery walls. This is a great use of track lighting, as they can be focused on piece of art to draw attention to them.

Here we can see a track lighting system. This is great when you want to change the focus of light in your room. You could go to each of these lights and change their direction.

See more of this home here. Designed by Forma Design.

Here are some great track lights in this bright and modern living room. The track circles around the seating area, so that the light can focus on where people gather.

This living room has a stunning window wall that opens the room to an amazing amount of natural light. On top of this, there are track lights that can be focused in different directions to change the light focus in the room.

See more of this home here. Designed by Fougeron Architects.

Sconce

Another lighting element is sconce lighting. A sconce is a light fixture that is attached to a wall, using only the wall as support. Sconce lights often project their light upward, but not always.

Sconce lights are a wonderful way to add some character to your place. They can provide a lot of flare and tie into themes very nicely. On the other hand, sconce lighting does not have much variability and is not often great as a primary light source.

Here is a living room well lit by the natural light coming through the tall windows. The sconce lighting works to bring a bit of brightness to those areas that the sunlight cannot get to. Sometimes there are these dark corners where you need a light fixture, even if you have ample natural light.

Here is a sconce lighting fixture that shines its light down as well as up. It is a great design feature that could be put in many different patterns and places to create dynamic and interesting designs.

This simple but elegant living room uses lamps, a chandelier, and sconce lightning to provide illumination. Mixing and matching types of lighting is a great idea, and allows for a great deal of creativity.

See more of this home here. Designed by Crosby Creations.

This sconce lighting is designed like a torch to give an antique appeal, while still having a shiny and modern appeal.

Here is a room that has large windows for natural light, but on the wall we see that there is also a nice bit of sconce lighting. This is a great design feature that allows the lighting to be layered and suitable for any time of day.

See more of this home here. Designed by Nordby Design Studio.

The light pours out from the top, bottom and the sides of this sconce lighting. The walls are illuminated by these lights, brightening up the room significantly.

This room as a number of windows on different sides, as well as a number of sconce lighting fixtures that shine the light right up into white ceilings letting the reflection warm the room with light.

See more of this home here. Source: Zillow Digs™ / Listings.

Here is a sconce lighting fixture designed like candles. These bring an old fashioned appeal to the room, while increasing the elegance.

Lamps

If you are not interested in installing a new fixture, you can always opt for lamps. There are lamps in every shape, size and design. No matter the look and the style you are going for there will be a lamp that will fit your style.

Here is a stylish floor lamp that lights up this modern and simple living room. This is a wonderful warm lamp to sit by and read a book. Learn more here.

Some floor lamps have long and adjustable arms. This makes them great for changing the focus of your light when you need to. This lamp is one such lamp. Learn more here.

Tall floor lamps can provide that extra bit of light that your room may need. They go well next to seats where one may do a lot of reading or writing. This way, when it is dark you can conserve energy by turning all the lights off but the lamp, and really get absorbed into your book.

Floor lamps can also work well to light up those dark corners that may be out of reach of your primary light source. Lighting up these corners assures you that your room does not come across dark or gloomy. Learn more here.

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