Bedrooms
 ONCE
THE REALM of a glare-producing ceiling globe and clunky plug-in
table lamps, the bedroom is now the setting for major news in
lighting design. Multiple, dimmable light sources can add welcome
flexibility – especially useful for today’s open
master-suite schemes.
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| On the subtle end of the bedroom
lighting scale, soft ambient levels create a quiet aura. Decorative
sconces, torcheres, or built-in cove lighting can provide soft,
glare-free fill light. If you’re replacing an existing
ceiling globe, consider an opaque pendant that directs light
up and off the ceiling. Check to ensure that glare won’t
be a problem for someone reclining in bed: overhead fixtures
should be carefully aimed and fitted, as needed, with tight
trim covers and baffles or louvers. And be sure the bedroom
fixtures and bulbs you choose produce minimal noise or “hum.”
Bright, directional reading lights on either side of a bed
allow one person to sleep while the other reads into the wee
hours. Such fixtures should be adjustable and well shielded.
Or use a pair of dimmable low-voltage downlights, cross-aimed
like overhead airline lights to prevent shadows.
A bedside switch to turn off main room lights is handy.
A second switch can control night-lights. A recent innovation
is bedside master switch to control computerized security
lights both indoors and out.
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The pewter bedside light
in this guest room has been custom-fitted to a mounting block;
it rides up and down the post of a steel canopy bed, tightening
with the turn of a brass knob.
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 There's
a soft look overall here-appropriate for a master bedroom-but
it's built up from several flexible sources. Recessed downlights
with aimable slot apertures direct ambient wall-wash to the
headboard area. Monospots with honey-combed louvers create tight,
low-glare accents on paintings. A pair of bedside task lamps
provides adjustable light for reading. |
"Classic but clean" was the plan, and recessed downlights helped carry it out. General lighting is via dimmable PAR lights with polished reflectors; smaller MR-16s with louvers spotlight planter. When it's time for relaxing, the downlights are turned off, leaving the soft indirect glow from strip lights in the coved ceiling (they're hidden behind classic crown moldings). |
 A multilayered lighting scheme, usually reserved for formal living rooms, comes to this master-suite conversation space. Punchy PAR downlights wash the fireplace; low-voltage downlights pinpoint mirror and mantel. Strip lights tucked behind a ceiling cove furnish ambient fill. There's more accent lighting inside the display cases. A table lamp lends a cozy, traditional feel and ample reading light. |
This minimalist bedroom
scheme includes no night table, so it features an articulating
reading lamp (with its own switch) housed inside the recessed
headboard. Low, wall-recessed lights mark the path from bed
to bath; they can be turned on separately for soft fill or to
guide a late-night bed-to-bath stroll.
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 The
closets in this basement bedroom are faced with translucent,
sliding shoji panels that match and overall oriental theme-and
add soft ambient light. The glowing panels are lift from behind
and are washed from the front by downlights fitted with slot
apertures. |
