Skip to content
SHARE
Author Bio: Lisa Wetherell runs the blog Lighting House – where she writes about her knowledge gained from 10 years of industry experience in the lighting and interior design field. To learn more about how lighting can improve your space, you can follow her blog.
Those who love lighting will probably be interested in the latest lighting trends. After all, lighting is a great way to make the most of your home, illuminating important features, setting an appropriate mood, and of course making the environment as functional as possible.
Light fixtures themselves can take center stage, what with the myriad artistic designs out there. It isn’t only about the kind of light being cast; your lampshades and light fixtures can add plenty of appeal to the overall look of a room. Obviously the styles you choose will need to vary according to the type of room; where one room will require plenty of task lights, another may benefit most from accent lighting.
If you want to change the look and feel of a room at any point, lighting is one of the best ways to do so. If that idea appeals to you, the following lighting trends are certainly worth knowing about:
1. Metallic Finishes
Light fittings with metallic finishes are growing in popularity lately, and there are some truly beautiful options. Right now you’ll see plenty of soft gold colors, as well as brass and copper. Pendant lights in these metals can add some real wow factor to a room. Imagine these suspended over a beautiful marble kitchen bench and you start to get the picture.
Soft colors in general are making a comeback throughout interiors, with many people opting for soft greys and ‘greige’ (which is simply grey and beige combined). A soft gold fixture would appear to be somewhere between brushed silver and brushed gold, and it complements soft home colors perfectly. Soft gold fixtures also work well in lounge corners and in desk lamps.
Brass and copper also tend to go well with vintage furniture, and chrome works wonders in kitchens and anywhere that could use a little visual freshening. Metallic fixtures are pretty versatile and will lend appeal to most rooms. Play around with them!
2. Retro/Industrial
These looks haven’t lost popularity over the last decade, but now there are even more styles coming out to help your home look the part. Consider trendy retro/industrial to be a little more refined than it was previously.
The industrial look has long focused on metal and rustic appearances, and the modern retro look is really the industrial look refined. The look you’re aiming for is now more sleek than ever before, with richer tones in the metals and quirkier designs. These fixtures are artworks in their own right, and they look great above kitchen work surfaces and in dining rooms. They also work well on the walls, and if your fixture is sophisticated enough, it might even be the centerpiece of the room.
In terms of the bulbs themselves, why not go for some vintage Edison bulbs? These are retro lighting in the truest sense of the word, and they have been making a real comeback lately. They add a nostalgic flavor wherever they are placed, so why not use them to cast a warm glow in your kitchen via rows of connected bulbs, or perhaps via a chandelier in your lounge area?
Now it is even possible to get these bulbs in LED lighting, which should appeal to eco-friendly types. For true authenticity, get yourself some incandescent Edison bulbs, which as an added bonus happen to be cheap as chips!
3. Marble Lamp Bases
White marble has been all the rage again for the last few years, which is why you can often see it in classy homes and venues in the form of arc floor lamps with marble bases, for example. This year, it won’t be hard to find large collections of floor and table lamps with various colors or marble in the bases. Look out for grey combined with dark greens, as well as the white, as those can have a very positive impact on the aesthetics of your room.
4. Big is Beautiful
It’s official in the lighting world: bigger is best. The bigger your fixture, the more attention it garners – it’s a simple equation. A large fixture with beautiful designs on it will be a big part of the aesthetics in any room. Large pendant lights work well in this manner and can be placed practically anywhere.
Getting this right can be a little more tricky, as the other items in the room will need to be in balance with it. Large centrally placed fittings are ideal, and then you can add smaller ones, dotted about in a complementary fashion.
5. Lamps Made from Natural Fibers
There is something homely and welcoming about earthly materials in the home in general. Now that these are in abundance in the form of lampshades, their popularity speaks for itself and you can’t go wrong with them in your home. Such natural materials lend a light and airy feel to your home, and they can cast some beautiful patterns when the bulbs are switched on.
This year, designs are branching out with more unusual shapes and colors than ever. It’s all about the texture, so look for uniquely shaped shades made out of wicker, woven grass, rattan, and rope.
6. The clean look
Just as minimalist looks focus on crisp, clear lines, the same can be said of trendy light fixtures. Nowadays it is not necessary to go overboard with excessively ornate fixtures, when beauty can be achieved through a combination of material finishes and dimensions. Modern is the name of the game; aim for a clean space with minimal clutter, and light fixtures to complement that theme.
Simplicity is sometimes more beautiful than extravagance, so to embrace this particular trend, you’ll be looking for simplistic geometry in combination with soft, neutral hues. The trend works well in practically all spaces within the home, especially if it already has minimalism as an overarching theme. You can still opt for bold, statement fixtures, which look wonderful as overhead centerpieces. In terms of lamps, opt for standalone fixtures such as reading lamps or accent lights.