Show Room Style: Lighting Wall Art

So, you’ve managed to take the plunge and dive headfirst into art collecting. Congrats! It’s a pretty great hobby and investment, or at least that’s what people always say it is. Right?

Anyway, the trick with art is the all-important context it’s presented in. Showing people a Rembrandt needs to have a very different setting and style than something made by Steve McQueen (No, not that Steve McQueen, the other one.)

So, where do we even start when it comes to making a room have a specific tone and style? Well, look no further than your lighting fixtures. That’s right; lighting still stands as the king of mood and tone when it comes to room decor. 

Sure, you could add all kinds of different pieces to your collection, but ultimately, nothing will make as much of an impact on your pieces quite as a solid lighting setup that creates the best display possible. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single solution to the problem. Every room behaves with light differently; from textures to size to shape, there’s a lot to consider. 

However, there are a few universal principles to lean on that will just about always apply, regardless of the room or style you’re looking to achieve. 

The Right Temperature

The first significant thing to consider is color temperature. We’ve spoken a lot about the color temperature in previous blogs, but it’s always worth mentioning it again. 

Color temperature refers to the output temperature of a light source. The higher the color temperature, the more white the light output will be. Conversely, the lower the temperature, the more orange the light will be as well.

The color temperature should be around 6500K for whiter lights, making it very similar to the type of output you’d see from daylight. For more orange lights, 2700K or lower should be the output you should aim for. 

Color temperature can be a massive influence on how an art piece or visual is seen, with an orange light having a greater effect on warmer pigments. In contrast, a higher color temperature will more readily display the “true” color of the piece. 

In either case, an LED bulb is highly recommended as it can achieve a higher color temperature without the usual fallbacks of filament bulbs, meaning it won’t burst or overheat. Even better, choosing to go with an LED bulb means that you’ll be ready to use any Steel Lighting Co. light fixture, making it super affordable and adaptable. 

What Are My Options? 

So, you’ve figured out the color temperature and the rough size of the room; now it’s time to think about what the best options are going forward. 

Sure, it’s tempting to put in some downlights and call it a day, but is that really doing the right thing? Art is about visibility and the pleasure of the viewer, after all. So why not choose something that makes the best of what you’ve put into your home.

Let’s look through some key styles and how they behave with the pieces you might have.

Ceiling Mounted Lights

Accent lights are a tricky thing to really accomplish effectively indoors. When lighting outdoors, accent lights really thrive because they focus on the task and don’t have other details like light bleed and wall texture to deal with. 

Inside though, it becomes a different story, with so much of what makes a great ceiling light decided by how discreet they are. Indoor spaces usually feature many white walls and ceilings, making lighting the space difficult when a more focused approach is required. 

Even worse, in homes that choose to buck the trend and focus their efforts on darker tones and textures, such as those in industrial or loft-style homes, correct lighting becomes more about enhancing color and shadow in a way to make the space palatable and not cavernous. 

Naturally, downlights have become the go-to option for many households, and it’s easy to see why. They’re unobtrusive, create an effortless and even style of lighting, and have that neat softness to them that’s difficult to achieve with other kinds of lighting. Nonetheless, we believe there’s a better way. 

Dependable pendant lighting can be a massive boon to a household looking to display artwork with the right mood and tone. If you’re going for a heavy industrial or rustic theme in your home, then even spacing of solid ceiling lights, such as our Carson and Manhattan lights, are the perfect additions. Each of these lights makes it easy to light a room with high ceilings and are far more suitable for homes that don’t feature white walls or ceilings. 

Wall Mounted Lights

When it comes to lighting up your latest addition to your home art collection, there’s usually never a better option than a well-positioned wall light. 

Wall fixtures are all about focus and can create a perfect halo of light and vision to a specific piece with ease. Unlike ceiling lights that focus on lighting the surrounding area rather than one particular spot, wall lights manage to focus squarely on the subject and add a massive amount of character and life to a piece with ease. 

In saying that, it pays to be careful with the aforementioned color temperature of your light, as this can have a far more significant impact with a wall-mounted light on the visual package of the piece itself. 

A perfect example of everything a wall light would look to achieve would be our own Venice light. The Venice benefits tremendously from an angled light enclosing that makes it easy to light the wall the fixture is sitting from. We’ve traditionally recommended the Venice light for signage and business uses, but the light is equally if not more, suited to the task of lighting your favorite art piece. 

To finishing things off, we’ll leave you with a few key points to remember. The lighting in a room can make or break the quality of your wall art. If you want to show off your piece with its best qualities, it’s essential that you use colors and temperatures that are high enough not to give an unflattering hue but low enough so as not to create glare on the surface. Wall lights are perfect for this purpose because they project light from above without creating too much heat around the artwork. 

If you need help making the right choice of lighting for your home or business, then contact our friendly team at Steel Lighting Co., our friendly team of experts would be more than happy to give some advice and recommendations on what kind of steel barn light can best suit your home or business needs.