The Art of Accent Lighting: How to Highlight Your Home’s Best Features
Arranging the final touches in your living room before your guests arrive, you dim the overhead lights and turn on your accent lighting. These space-enhancing lights illuminate your room beautifully, drawing attention to all of its best features.
As the visitors to your home start to pour in, each of them compliments the style of your interior. From the décor and the ambience to the design of the eye-catching lamps and lights themselves, everything looks perfect. You thank your guests and smile, feeling glad that you took the time to get the accent lighting just right.
Discover how to elevate your space through lighting with our guide to the art of accent lighting.
What is accent lighting?
Accent lighting is designed to highlight certain features or areas within a room, drawing attention to key elements of the décor. The light fittings themselves are often sculptural or decorative to enhance the aesthetic of the room, whether they’re statement-making table lamps or striking wall lights.
Accent lighting also helps to create atmosphere in a room and can even be used to change its appearance, making it feel either more expansive or more intimate than it really is.
Incorporating accent lighting into your home lighting scheme is essential for setting the right mood. Balance it with ambient lighting and task lighting to create a multifunctional layered lighting scheme that can provide the right type and amount of light for every time of day.
How to use accent lighting to elevate your interiors
Deciding how to add accent lighting to a home that lacks it can be tricky. Use these accent lighting tips to effortlessly illuminate dark corners and add visual interest to your key living spaces.
1. Accentuate your wall décor
Accent lighting can be used to draw attention to your wall décor and create an attractive feature that complements the rest of your interior design.
The best way to add accent lighting to your wall displays is through the use of accent lighting. ‘Wall lights are great for providing accent lighting, whether illuminating an architectural feature or a treasured piece of art’, says Ally Dowsing-Reynolds, lighting expert and co-founder of Dowsing & Reynolds. ‘They can even become part of the feature if chosen wisely.’
One of the most common wall features you might want to highlight is artwork. To accentuate a single large piece of artwork, opt for a large wall light that will fully illuminate it. If you have several smaller pieces of artwork you want to show off, use a small wall light to highlight each one individually – a style like the gold Waldorf wall light would be perfect for this.
“Wall panelling is another beautiful detail that can be highlighted by placing wall lights within some panels.”
Ally Dowsing-Reynolds, lighting expert and co-founder of Dowsing & Reynolds
‘Wall panelling is another beautiful detail that can be highlighted by placing wall lights within some panels’, says Ally. Consider choosing a simplistic design like the antique brass small porcelain wall light to let the wall panelling take centre stage.
2. Create a beautiful focal point
The right accent lighting can bring your statement pieces to life, drawing attention to the features that you want your guests to notice. This could include anything from a central fireplace illuminated by classic wall sconces to an architectural structure highlighted with a statement table lamp.
Your accent lighting can even become a focal point itself if you choose a unique decorative design. Opt for a playful character wall light like the Odetta swan light, or consider a stylish table lamp like the cinnamon arch table lamp.
‘Art Deco-style wall lights, like the Belgravia with its two bulbs, are ideal for bringing light to dull alcoves and providing an eye-catching feature in and of themselves’, says Ally.
3. Set the right mood
Accent lighting is great for setting the right tone in a room, whether you’re trying to create a lively and welcoming atmosphere or a cosy and intimate one.
Put your lights on dimmer switches for full control over your accent lighting and the effect it has in the room. This will enable you to create different moods and emphasise different areas within your space.
Put your lights on dimmer switches for full control over your accent lighting and the effect it has in the room. This will enable you to create different moods and emphasise different areas within your space.
It’s also a good idea to have your accent lights on different circuits so you can turn the brightness of certain ones up or down depending on the mood you want to create. Floor and table lamps are a great accent lighting option as they can be switched on or off individually at the socket.
Finally, think about the colour temperature of your light bulbs. Warm bulbs with a colour temperature of 3000 Kelvins or less are best for accent lighting because they create a relaxing ambience, in contrast to cool bulbs which are more suitable for task lighting.
4. Make your space feel larger
In small rooms, the right accent lighting has the capability to make the space feel much larger than it actually is. You can achieve this by choosing lights that project large and bright beams of light and positioning them so that the light is cast onto the walls and ceilings.
Wall lights such as the large porcelain wall light are a brilliant option for vertically expanding your space, while strategically placed floor and table lamps can make rooms with low ceilings feel more inviting.
Show us your accent lighting ideas
We’d love to see how you’ve used these accent lighting tips to elevate your interiors. Tag us on Instagram @dowsingandreynolds – we can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!
