Lighting design, done properly.

Lighting is the single biggest thing that separates a house that feels expensive from one that does not, and it is almost always decided too late, by an electrician working from a ceiling grid rather than a design. Here is how it should be done.

Good lighting is invisible. You notice a room feels warm, calm, generous and easy to be in, without noticing why. Poor lighting is just as invisible in reverse: a flat grid of downlights, one harsh colour, no way to soften it, and shadows in all the wrong places. The difference is not budget, it is planning. This is a thorough guide to how professional lighting design actually works, from the physics of the light itself to the position of every fitting.

The foundation: layered lighting

Every well-lit room combines three or four layers of light. This is the single most important principle in the whole subject. A room lit by only one layer, usually a grid of ceiling downlights, always feels flat and clinical.

• Ambient (general) light fills the room with a soft, overall level. It is the base layer, and on its own it should be gentle, not glaring.
• Task light puts brighter, focused light exactly where you do things: worktops, desks, mirrors, reading chairs, stairs.
• Accent light draws the eye to what matters: artwork, a fireplace, a textured wall, joinery, a plant. It creates depth and interest.
• Decorative light is the fitting you are meant to see: a pendant, a wall light, a table lamp. It is jewellery, and it sets the character.

The art is combining these on separate circuits and dimmers so you can shift a room from bright and practical in the morning to low and atmospheric at night. A room with only one switch can only ever do one thing.

Colour temperature: the warmth of the light

Measured in Kelvin (K), this is how warm or cool the light appears, and getting it right, and consistent, matters more than almost anything else. Mixing colour temperatures around a home is one of the most common and most jarring mistakes.

Temperature	Feel	Best for
2200–2400K	Candlelight, very warm	Mood and accent lighting, snugs, hospitality, dimmed evenings
2700K	Warm white, cosy	Living rooms, bedrooms, snugs, dining. The default for relaxing spaces
3000K	Warm neutral, clean	Kitchens, bathrooms, dressing rooms, hallways. Crisp but still warm
4000K	Neutral to cool white	Home offices, utility, garages, task-heavy areas only
5000K+	Daylight, cool	Rarely right in a home. Workshops and clinical spaces

CRI: how true the colours look

The Colour Rendering Index (CRI, or Ra) measures how accurately a light shows colours, on a scale to 100. It is a quiet mark of quality that cheap fittings skimp on. Low-CRI light makes skin look grey, food look unappetising and paint colours look wrong. Specify CRI 90 or above (often written Ra90) everywhere it matters, and never below 80. In kitchens, bathrooms, dressing rooms and anywhere you see faces and food, CRI 90-plus is not a luxury, it is the difference between a space that flatters and one that drains.

Brightness: think in lumens and lux, not watts

Watts measure energy used, not light produced. With LED, the measure of brightness is lumens (total light from a fitting) and lux (light landing on a surface). A rough guide to the levels a room wants:

Space	Target level (lux)	Note
Living room	100–300	Layered and dimmable; lower for evenings
Kitchen (general)	200–300	With brighter task light over worktops
Kitchen worktop	400–500	Task lighting, shadow-free
Bathroom (general)	150–300	With dedicated, even light at the mirror
Bedroom	100–200	Soft and warm, with bedside task light
Home office / study	400–500	Bright, even, glare-free task light
Hall / stairs	100–200	Even, safe, no dark treads

These are targets to design towards, not rules. The key point is to plan brightness deliberately and make it dimmable, rather than filling a ceiling with identical fittings and hoping.

Beam angle: how wide the light spreads

The beam angle of a spot or downlight decides whether it is a tight pool or a broad wash, and choosing it well is what makes accent lighting look intentional.

Beam angle	Spread	Use
Narrow (10–25°)	Tight spot	Accent on art, sculpture, a single feature
Medium (25–40°)	Focused pool	General downlighting, worktop task light
Wide (40–60°)	Broad wash	Ambient fill in larger rooms, lower ceilings
Very wide (60°+)	Wall wash	Washing a wall evenly to make a room feel larger

Positioning and spacing of downlights

This is where most installations go wrong. Downlights get placed in a symmetrical grid, centred on the room and dictated by the ceiling joists, lighting the floor and leaving the walls and the actual living areas in relative gloom. Done well, downlights are placed to light what matters and to graze the walls, which makes a room feel bigger and softer.

The spacing rule

As a starting point, space downlights apart by roughly half the ceiling height. In a standard room with a 2.4m ceiling, that means fittings around 1.2m apart. Set the outer fittings about 0.6 to 0.8m from the walls, closer if you want to wash the wall, further to avoid bright scallops on it. But treat this only as a grid to start from, then move fittings to suit the room.

The principles that matter more than the rule

• Light the walls, not just the floor. Wall-washing brightens the vertical surfaces, which is what the eye reads as a bright, generous room.
• Position to the use, not the joists. Put task downlights where you need them, for example aligned to the front edge of a kitchen worktop so you are not working in your own shadow.
• Fewer, better fittings. A room does not need to be peppered with downlights. Combined with lamps, wall lights and accents, a handful of well-placed fittings does more.
• Avoid glare. Use recessed, anti-glare downlights with a deep baffle so you see the light, not the bright source, especially in rooms where you sit and look up.

Heights: pendants, wall lights and mirrors

Mounting height makes or breaks a decorative fitting. Useful starting points, to adjust for the room and the people:

Fitting	Guide height
Pendant over a kitchen island	Bottom of the pendant roughly 700–900mm above the worktop
Pendant over a dining table	Bottom roughly 750–900mm above the table top
Wall lights (general)	Around 1.5–1.7m from the floor, and above eye level to avoid glare
Bathroom mirror lighting	Light at both sides of the mirror at around face height for shadow-free light, rather than a downlight above that casts shadows
Bedside pendants	Hung so the bottom sits around bedside-table height when seated in bed

Fitting types, and what each is for

• Recessed downlights: the workhorse for ambient and task light. Choose low-glare, fire-rated where needed, and the right IP for bathrooms.
• Pendants: decorative focal points over islands, tables and stairwells.
• Wall lights: add light at a lower level, soften a room and reduce reliance on the ceiling. Excellent in living rooms, hallways and bedrooms.
• LED strip and tape: hidden linear light for under cabinets, in coving, above wall units, under a floating vanity, along shelves and stair treads. One of the most powerful tools for indirect, atmospheric light. Buy good-quality, high-CRI tape with a proper driver.
• Track and adjustable spots: flexible accent lighting, ideal for art walls and changing displays.
• Plinth and step lights: low-level light for kickboards, stairs and hallways, gentle and safe at night.
• Lamps (floor and table): the layer people forget in new builds. They bring light down to human level and warmth to a room instantly. Wire in switched floor sockets (traditionally 5-amp circuits) so lamps come on with a switch or scene.

Dimming and control

Dimming is not a luxury add-on, it is what lets a room do more than one job. A few essentials:

• Use dimmable LEDs with compatible dimmers. LED needs trailing-edge dimmers or dedicated LED drivers; the wrong dimmer causes flicker, buzz and a poor low-end. Match the driver to the fitting.
• Zone the lighting. Split each room into circuits, for example downlights, wall lights, lamps and feature, so you can balance them independently.
• Consider scene control. Systems such as Lutron let you set scenes (cook, dine, relax, entertain, night) on a keypad or phone, so a whole room resets to the right balance at one touch. In a larger or higher-specification home this is transformative, and it is something we integrate as standard on projects that call for it.
• Plan controls at the design stage. Decide switch positions, two-way switching and scenes on the drawings, not on site, or you end up with banks of switches by the door and nothing where you actually want it.

5-amp lamp circuits: the professional’s trick

Table and floor lamps are the layer that makes a room feel like a home rather than an office, but in most houses they are marooned on ordinary 13-amp sockets, each switched at its own plug or an awkward socket switch behind the sofa. The considered alternative, and the standard in well-designed homes, is a dedicated 5-amp switched lighting circuit serving a set of round-pin lamp sockets.

The idea is simple. A separate lighting circuit runs to discreet 5-amp round-pin sockets (round-pin so no one ever plugs a vacuum or heater into them) positioned where lamps will stand, low on the wall or into the floor. That whole circuit is controlled from a wall switch by the door, and can be dimmed and folded into your lighting scenes. Walk in, touch one switch or a “relax” scene, and every lamp in the room comes up together at the right level. No stooping behind furniture, no cold overhead light needed at all.

Why it is worth doing

• One-touch control. All the lamps in a room switch, and dim, from the door or a keypad, alongside the rest of the lighting rather than fighting it.
• Designed-in, not tacked-on. The 5-amp sockets sit exactly where the lamps belong, including floor sockets beside a sofa or bed, so there are no trailing leads across the room.
• Scene-ready. On a system such as Lutron, the lamp circuit becomes just another channel, so “evening” can dim the downlights and bring the lamps up in one command.
• Safer and cleaner. Round-pin plugs keep the circuit reserved for lighting, and the load is small, so a single 5-amp (or 2-amp for a few lamps) circuit comfortably runs a roomful.

Getting it right

Plan the lamp positions with the furniture layout, not after it, so the sockets land in the right places, and decide early which lamps go on the circuit. Keep the circuit to lighting loads only, size it correctly (a 2-amp circuit suits a handful of LED lamps; 5-amp gives more headroom), and use a dimmable switch or module compatible with your lamp bulbs. It is a small first-fix decision that costs very little while the walls and floors are open, and is disproportionately expensive to add later. We specify these circuits as a matter of course in living rooms, snugs and principal bedrooms where lamps do the real work.

Bathrooms: IP ratings and zones

Bathrooms have their own rules because of water. Fittings are rated by IP (Ingress Protection), and bathrooms are divided into zones:

• Zone 0 (inside the bath or shower tray): fittings must be low voltage and rated at least IP67.
• Zone 1 (above the bath or in the shower to 2.25m): at least IP65 typically.
• Zone 2 (0.6m beyond zones, and around basins): at least IP44.
• Outside zones: standard fittings, though good practice still favours sealed, moisture-resistant ones.

For the mirror, light from both sides at face height gives flattering, shadow-free light for shaving and make-up, which a single downlight overhead never will. Use 3000K and CRI 90-plus so skin tones read true.

Room by room, in brief

Kitchen

Layer it: general downlights for ambient, dedicated task light over every worktop (downlights aligned to the front edge, or continuous under-cabinet LED strip), pendants over the island, plinth lights for a soft night glow, and consider lighting inside glazed cabinets. 3000K, CRI 90-plus, everything dimmable.

Living room

Resist the downlight grid. Build the room from wall lights, table and floor lamps, and a few accent spots on art or a fireplace, with any downlights kept low and dimmed. 2700K, warm-dim if possible, on separate circuits so you can go from bright to intimate.

Bedroom

Soft and warm. Avoid downlights directly over the bed where you lie looking up. Use bedside reading lights or pendants, wall lights, and gentle ambient light, all at 2700K and dimmable, with a two-way switch at the door and the bed.

Hallways and stairs

Even, welcoming light with no dark treads. Wall lights, step or plinth lights and well-spaced downlights work together. Motion sensors are useful for landings and at night.

Home office

Brighter and cooler than living space, around 4000K or a crisp 3000K, with even, glare-free task light on the desk and no reflection on screens.

Exterior lighting

Outside, less is more, and warm is better. Use 2700K, keep fittings shielded to avoid glare and light pollution, and light for effect: graze a textured wall, uplight a specimen tree, wash a facade, and mark steps and paths for safety. Downlighting from eaves or trees (moonlighting) looks natural and elegant. Put it on timers, photocells or motion sensors, and use properly rated (IP65) outdoor fittings.

The mistakes we most often fix

• A grid of downlights as the only light in the room.
• One central pendant lighting a living room flatly.
• Mixed colour temperatures in the same space.
• No dimming, so the room only has one mood.
• No task light where people actually work.
• Cheap, low-CRI fittings that make everything look grey.
• Switch and control positions decided on site instead of on the drawings.

How we help

On our projects we treat lighting as a design discipline, not an afterthought. We plan the layers, circuits, colour temperature, fittings and controls on the drawings before first fix, coordinate with your architect or interior designer, and integrate smart control and scene lighting such as Lutron where the project calls for it. The result is a home that feels considered at every hour of the day, and that is genuinely nice to be in after dark.

General guidance for 2026. Specific fittings, IP ratings, circuits and controls must be designed and installed to current wiring regulations by a qualified electrician for your particular project.