Lighting for a Relaxing Great Room

Lighted ceiling fan and lamps in great room with fireplace

Guest Post iconToday, our friends at Progress Lighting are sharing a few tips to help choose your lighting for a relaxing great room!

From holiday celebrations with family to cozy movie date nights, the living room is essential to planned gatherings, as well as everyday life at home. The key to creating an inviting space for your guests is using a layered approach with your lighting.

A layered lighting approach involves using a combination of different fixtures to create overall illumination in a space. Instead of choosing just one decorative fixture for the center of the room, consider combining recessed lighting, chandeliers, pendants or wall sconces for different levels of lighting. Each of these fixture types serves a unique purpose and can create a stunning and relaxing design when used together. Keep reading to see how each kind of fixture can be utilized:

Chandeliers

Begin with a decorative fixture, such as a ceiling fan or a chandelier, to serve as the focal point for your living room and a central source of ambient, or general lighting. For some examples, see Progress Lighting’s ceiling fans here, and chandelier selection here.

The Caroline chandelier hanging over table in dining room
Progress Lighting’s Status collection shown.

Recessed Lighting

Recessed lighting is also a source of ambient lighting, but can be spread throughout the room to illuminate evenly (examples).

Fresnel Lens pendants, Cherish chandelier and recessed lighting in kitchen and great room
Progress Lighting’s Fresnel Lens pendants and Cherish chandelier shown.

Pendants

Many of today’s homes feature an open floor plan, and more homeowners are combining their living space with the kitchen and dining area. Pendants can provide task lighting for cooking, eating and entertaining as you host guests in this central great room space. Looking for inspiration? Start with Progress Lighting’s pendant lighting selection here.

Sofa with Penn pendants hanging in background in kitchen
Progress Lighting’s Penn pendants shown.

Wall Sconces and Lamps

You can also bring in task lighting to this space with smaller lighting fixtures, such as wall sconces and lamps. Place these smaller sources of light near seating areas for tasks such as reading and visiting with friends. These fixtures help to fill the room by adding to a layered lighting design. Progress Lighting has a selection of wall sconces here.

North Park ceiling fan and lamps in great room with fireplace
Progress Lighting’s North Park ceiling fan shown.

Be sure to follow Progress Lighting on social channels to stay up to date on more lighting design trends! Be sure to follow Richmond American’s Bright Ideas in Home Lighting Pinterest board to see examples of Progress Lighting in action in real homes.