lighting
Layered lighting: ambient, task, accent and decorative light
How to plan layered lighting at home: the four layers, colour temperature in kelvin, typical lux levels by room, and where to place fittings.
What is layered lighting?
Layered lighting combines several types of light in one room: ambient light for general brightness, task light for work such as cooking or reading, accent light to pick out features, and decorative fittings that are seen as much as they light. Each layer is switched or dimmed separately, so the room adapts to different uses.
A single ceiling light in the middle of a room does one job, and usually not well. It lights the floor evenly, casts shadows wherever you stand to work, and flattens the room in the evening. Layered lighting replaces that one source with several, each doing a specific job and each on its own switch or dimmer. The result is a room that can be bright and practical in the morning and soft in the evening without changing a bulb.
The four layers
Ambient
Ambient or general light lets you move around safely and see the whole room. It can come from a central pendant, recessed downlights, a ceiling-mounted fitting, wall lights that wash the ceiling, or concealed strips above cupboards. Good ambient light is even and avoids glare. It does not need to be bright: most living spaces need surprisingly little general light once other layers are in place.
Task
Task light is focused on a surface where you do something that needs detail: chopping, reading, applying make-up, working at a desk. It should come from a position that does not put your own shadow on the task. Under-cabinet strips over a worktop, a reading lamp beside a chair and lights either side of a mirror are typical examples.
Accent
Accent light draws attention to something: a picture, a textured wall, shelving, a plant, an architectural detail. It works by contrast. As a guide, an accent needs to be roughly three to five times brighter than its surroundings to stand out. Directional spotlights, picture lights and lit shelves all serve this layer.
Decorative
Decorative fittings are seen as objects in their own right: a sculptural pendant, a candle-like wall light, a table lamp with a strong shape. They may add little useful light, but they set the character of the room and give the eye something to rest on in the evening.
Brightness: lumens and lux
Lamps are rated in lumens, the amount of light they give out. What matters on a surface is illuminance, measured in lux: one lux is one lumen spread over one square metre. The same lamp gives fewer lux on a table if it hangs higher, and walls and ceilings in dark colours absorb light that pale surfaces would reflect.
The figures below are typical domestic guides. Professional standards for workplaces are often higher, and personal preference and eyesight vary, so treat them as a starting range.
| Room or task | General (ambient) | Task |
|---|---|---|
| Living room | 50–150 lux | 300–500 lux for reading |
| Kitchen | 150–300 lux | 300–500 lux on worktops |
| Dining area | 50–150 lux | 200–300 lux on the table |
| Bedroom | 50–150 lux | 300 lux for bedside reading |
| Bathroom | 150–300 lux | 300–500 lux at the mirror |
| Home office | 200–300 lux | 300–500 lux on the desk |
| Hall, landing and stairs | 50–150 lux | stair treads clearly visible |
Older eyes need more light for the same task, so allow for brighter task light, and for dimming, rather than designing to the bottom of a range.
Colour temperature
Colour temperature, measured in kelvin (K), describes how warm or cool white light looks.
| Colour temperature | Appearance | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 2200–2500 K | Very warm, candle-like | Decorative fittings, evening mood |
| 2700–3000 K | Warm white | Living rooms, bedrooms, dining |
| 3000–3500 K | Soft or neutral warm | Kitchens, bathrooms |
| 3500–4000 K | Neutral to cool white | Workrooms, utility, garages |
| 5000–6500 K | Daylight, bluish | Rarely used at home; task inspection |
Most homes look best with 2700–3000 K throughout, so that light from different fittings matches as you move between rooms. Mixing temperatures in one room usually looks accidental. Some fittings offer adjustable white, which lets you run cooler in the day and warmer at night.
Also check the colour rendering index (CRI). A CRI of 90 or more shows skin tones, food and fabrics more naturally, which is worth having in kitchens, bathrooms and anywhere you choose colours.
Placement guides
- Downlights. As a starting point, space recessed downlights roughly as far apart as the ceiling is high, often 1.0–1.5 m in a room with a 2.4 m ceiling, and about half that distance from the walls. A grid of downlights across the whole ceiling tends to look like an office; place them where light is needed instead.
- Pendants over a table. Hang the bottom of the shade about 700–850 mm (28–33 in) above the table top. Over an island, a little higher, about 750–900 mm (30–35 in), so it does not block views.
- Under-cabinet lights. Fit them towards the front of the wall cabinet so light falls on the worktop rather than the splashback, and use a diffuser to avoid seeing individual LEDs reflected in glossy surfaces.
- Mirrors. Light from both sides of the face, or from a fitting above and slightly forward, gives fewer shadows than a single downlight overhead.
- Reading lamps. Place the light source slightly behind and to the side of the reader, with the shade bottom near shoulder height when seated.
- Wall lights. In living rooms, about 1.5–1.8 m above the floor is common, but follow the proportions of the room and the fitting.
- Stairs. Light the treads so each edge is visible, avoiding glare into the eyes of anyone coming down.
In bathrooms, lights near water must have a suitable ingress protection (IP) rating for the zone they are in, and electrical work in bathrooms and kitchens is often controlled by local wiring regulations. Check with a qualified electrician; their rules take precedence over any design guide.
Controls
Layers only work if they can be used separately. Put each layer on its own circuit or switch, add dimmers to ambient and decorative lights, and place switches at each entrance to the room. Lamps on switched sockets let you turn on a living room's table lamps from the door. Two-way switching on stairs and long halls is standard practice.
Planning a room in order
- List what happens in the room and where.
- Place task lights at each working position.
- Add ambient light to fill the room evenly at a low level.
- Choose one or two features to accent.
- Add decorative fittings for character.
- Group the lights into switched circuits and decide which are dimmed.
Seeing it in Arcvelle Studio
In Arcvelle Studio you can place lighting fittings from the lighting category and keep them on their own ceiling fittings layer. The real-time 3D view includes a lighting preset for the evening with lamps on, which gives an impression of how fittings and colours read after dark, though it is a visual preview rather than a lux calculation. The drawings set includes a lighting plan per floor that you can hand to an electrician. The lighting and effects help article explains the presets.