Advice on bedroom lighting

[GrendelsMum]

We're about to re-do our bedroom and as part of that, need to put in new lighting (at the moment, it's all table lights, which is atmospheric but not very practical for sorting laundry, vacuuming, etc). We wondered about doing downlighters, and if so, going for dimmable LEDs.

Does anyone have any advice / experience / views on the subject of the ideal bedroom lighting? It will be rather expensive to fit all the new lights, so part of me wonders whether we stick with table lights!

Hello! Will reply to your email once I have looked at your all links etc.

What I have done in our last two bedrooms is to have bedside lamps wired into a 5 amp circuit so they can be switched from the door and by controls by the bed too, both lamps can be dimmed.
I then have an overhead chandelier which also has 2 way controls, ie from the door and from one side of the bed.

IMO spotlights are not right for a bedroom, not very restful. Our glass chandelier with clear bulb is bright enough for cleaning etc if its on full whack.

I'd suggest having just one spotlight in each corner of the room or along one wall only, rather than rows and rows of them which looks a bit too kitcheny or bathroomy. LEDs can have a very bright white "cold" sort of light, so be careful which you go for.

I think you'd also want some lamps as well in any case. Panna's idea of a 5amp circuit is a good idea, so you don't have to go round switching all the lamps on individually. Having an extra switch by the bed would be good too.

An alternative is wall lamps - either side of the window or chimneybreast for example. A softer effect than spotlights.

Thanks very much, both of you! We've sat down and gone through bedroom lighting on Houzz, and you're clearly right.

Back to the drawing board on this one...

We can't fit in a pendant light, unless it goes in a corner / against a wall (which DH thinks is 'too try hard') because of the low cottage ceilings. My original plan was for wall lights, but it's a little awkward because of the 'feature beams'.

I wonder if a row of (warm) spotlights along the bed wall, plus one in each of the other corners would work? Plus then a bedside light and a floor lamp, perhaps, wired onto a circuit.