What are the best lights to use with a pitched ceiling?

As with lighting in any home, there are more than a few factors to consider when creating your lighting plan.

  1. Consider how much light you need in the room
  2. Locate available fixing points in the ceiling and walls
  3. Consider the both ambient and task lighting
  4. Avoid recessed spot lights if they will protrude into your insulation
  5. Consider any dark areas and plan to add lamps – these may occur at the highest point of the slope
  6. Choose hanging lights that will hang straight – avoid clusters which could easily look askew
  7. Using existing joinery and beams in the room (if available) will create a great customised look
  8. Select your style and keep to it for a cohesive look
  9. Select adjustable and flexible lights to ensure that your lighting can adapt to every situation
  10. Make a feature of any tall walls and highlight with wall or picture lighting

Take out the guesswork!

Lights for Sloping Ceilings and Vaulted Ceiling Lights

Lighting a sloping ceiling does not need to be complicated, by paying attention and getting the basics right, you'll feel confident that you are making the best choice when selecting your lights.

First things first – and a must for all rooms, is to consider how much light you need in a room. This will vary, depending on the situation of your room, the amount of natural light, the colour of the walls, personal preference and the room type, but there is an approximate guide to get you started.

The calculation:

  1. In metres, measure the width and length of your room
  2. Multiply these two figures together
  3. Multiply this number by 25
  4. This will give you an approximate total number of old fashioned watts which should adequately illuminate your room.
  5. Multiply this number by 10 to get an approximate and more relevant lumen level requirement.
  6. This total number can be split across multiple lights to ensure that you still have light where you need it the most.

For example, this room below measures 5 metres wide by 6.5 metres long.

  • 5m x 6.5m = 32.5m2
  • 25 x 32.5m2 =812.5 watts
  • 812.5 x 10 = 8125 lumens

You can then split the lumens effectively around the room depending on how much light you need.

If you don't have a calculator to hand, we have prepared an easy to use grid below which will give you an approximation:

The Lighting Company - How much light does my room need?

The chances are that you have inherited the points at which you can site your lights, but if you are re-plastering as part of a refurbishment then make sure you take the opportunity to plan exactly where you want them with your electrician. If you don't want to go to the hassle and expense of re-plastering the walls and you have off centre ceiling roses and wall light cables all over the place, there are styles of light that can help you.

Wall Pendants:

These are great to use with sloped ceilings, especially where vertical wall space may be shorter than you'd like, for example in the eaves of an attic room. They will help to add much needed ambient light and many can be maneuvered to suit your rooms specific needs. They also ensure that floor and surface space remains clutter free.

The Lighting Book BOOM antique chrome adjustable wall light fitting
Original BTC HATTON 4 wall light with suspended faceted white bone china shade
TOMMY Hanging Pendant Wall Light Industrial Style Polished Nickel bulb included.
The Rebell Coolie adjustable light from Mullan Lighting. Image credit Mullan Lighting / Atelier ES.

Ceiling Lights for Off Centre Ceiling Roses:

A single pendant usually comes with plenty of cable or chain suspension, so you can always use a ceiling hook to allow your pendant to hang in the correct place. It also looks great!

The David Hunt Lighting Collection DALLAS traditonal style polished chrome ceiling pendant

If a single pendant does not provide enough light for your needs, then you can consider a cluster, but beware that they can look askew very easily and you are better to choose a rustic or eclectic design that will work with this look. Separating them with ceiling hooks will also help.

The David Hunt Lighting Collection HUCKLEBERRY vintage 7 light cluster pendant with ceiling hooks

Considering how you use your space will really help with your plan. For instance, you won't necessarily want a super bright and focused light on the sofa! But you may well want them in the kitchen area and bathrooms.

Kitchens will generally need the most careful planning to ensure that you get the right light on to your worktops. Supplementing your lights with under cabinet lights will ensure that you always have uninterrupted illumination for the preparation of your meals, but more careful implementation is needed for ceiling lighting in a kitchen with a pitched ceiling.

The Lighting Book JAYSON brushed copper and satin brass ceiling pendant

Ceiling pendants are always great thanks to gravity's effect of making them hang straight, regardless of the ceiling. However, you will need to be careful using pendant bars as you can only site them horizontally on the pitch, not vertically:

How to hang multi pendant bar on sloped ceiling

They are simply ideal over kitchen islands, breakfast bars and dining tables due to the shape of illumination that they offer out.

The One SEK LED ceiling pendant bar in red anodized finish

If you like clean lines and minimalism, surface mounted spot lights may well suit you too. Choose adjustable spotlights so that you can angle the light effectively, as they nestle in to the ceiling they naturally follow the lines, ensuring that they always look in place. You can also use recessed spot lights, but you will need to check to see if they will protrude into your layer of insulation. There are some versions available that have specialist cap on which will allow you to cover them with insulation safely, but many do not, so either go for surface mounted (better to be safe than sorry!) or ensure that you consult with your electrician.

saxby-lighting-amalfi-single-spotlight-in-antique-brass-p7192-11569_image

If you're after a wider spread of illumination, you could also consider multi arm ceiling pendants. These will still hang straight as their single pendant counterparts do, but the multiple bulbs will ensure that there is a wider spread of light for larger rooms or other situations where it may be required.

Quoizel WHITNEY 5 light chandelier in imperial silver with organza shades

Another characteristic that you may be lucky enough to have alongside your sloped ceiling are beams or aesthetic joinery. These can be a great place to hang your ceiling lights from as it makes a feature of the wood and the lighting – win; win!

So, now we've sorted the ceiling lights, on we go to task lighting; it's really beneficial to think about daily activities you need light for, think of where in the home this is and consider the best possible light to help you carry out this task. It's understandable if you are unable to think of a light that does everything you need – there are loads that perform more than one function or can be adjusted to be perfect for the task in hand. Adjustable wall lights, mother and child lamps and adaptable desk lamps are all great to offer flexible lighting solutions.

The Lighting Book UTAH satin nickel LED mother and child floor lamp

This mother and child floor lamp is a sleek and contemporary design in a satin nickel finish. Being LED lit makes this lamp very low energy using only 18 watts in the top section and 6 watts in the lower, however the top section manages to provide 1440 lumens and the lower reading light around 480 lumens. Both sections are individually switched by their own toggle switch on the middle section.

Lighting Catalogue WALL light in satin silver with white shade and LED reading arm

This is ideal to be used as a bedside light as the main light could be used as a subtle main light in the room and the reading light can be added just when it's needed. Each light is individually switched, allowing for use independently.

Jenny Worrall Hand Painted Glass Table Lamps

Your lighting plan should allow for you to live flexibly, after all, we may use our living room for jumping around to a workout DVD and need a bright light, or for snuggling down with the popcorn in a dimly lit room to watch a film. Using dimmers is great, but the more lights you have around, the more options you have to choose from when deciding which light to use. Table lamps have got to be one of the best ways to add additional light into a home and they can be so stunning that they are a work of art when not even switched on! Used on their own without a ceiling light really creates a special type of ambience that can't be recreated any other way.

Eclectic KORS concrete and copper detail table lamp with shade

Rooms with sloping ceilings have a character and charm, but can sometimes make a room look smaller than it really is. Drawing the eye upwards helps to trick the eye that there is more space, helping the room to feel taller so subtle vertical stripes can be useful. If you have a full height wall, or if the pitched roof allows you additional height, you can make a feature of it, so that the eye is automatically drawn to that area of the room when you enter.

You could use a bright paint to add vibrancy, a dark paint to add drama or perhaps wallpaper but our favourite use for a feature wall is to add pictures. Regardless if your taste is to have lots of pictures dotted around, or one huge piece of artwork, make sure that you light it up with a picture light. These are a great way to add additional light in to a room in a very subtle way and ensuring they are placed on a feature wall will keep the focus when the sun goes down.

David Hunt Hyde Range
Picture Lights

Still unsure how to light your sloping ceiling? Contact us and we'll be happy to help!