Modern built-in lighting, also known as ambient lighting, is a beautiful design solution for sleek contemporary rooms that require less light. It can also add a softer glow to the areas where you need additional light but without a blinding glare to it. Kitchen cooking countertop is a perfect example. Of course, this kind of lighting can be used anywhere in the house for more decorative purposes. Follow our trail of ideas to see how you can use them in your decor.
Perfect Hallway Lights
Built-in lighting profiles make for perfect hallway lighting because you can stretch them far and wide, and visually enhance a narrow corridor. Integrated into walls and ceiling through recessions, these lamps can provide you with a pretty bright glow.
Even if you don’t choose to integrate them in a decorative pattern, these lights will look quite beautiful. Besides the positioning, you can choose the color of your lights, that can range from fluorescent white to sunny yellow.
Recessed lights are great, if you don’t want to carve up your walls and ceiling. These make the walls appear like they are levitating.
Light Patterns
Light patterns will require additional work done on your walls and ceiling, but they do look impressive and ultra contemporary. Abstract patterns are especially popular in modern interior architecture.
Marco Costanzi shows how a simple asymmetrical light arrangement can turn a regular hallway into a stylish transitional area filled with mystery and magic of light.
Brian Meyerson Architects added thin lines of light to the ceiling in his penthouse project, and they look plenty decorative.
Kitchen Lights
Built-in lighting is a very kitchen-friendly choice. It makes for a clean contemporary look. It also helps to illuminate the areas of immediate usage like countertops, sinks, and stoves.
Ambient lighting is great for kitchens with low ceilings, because every additional hanging element takes away from their height, and accentuates the fact that they are low.
Interior built-in lighting can be a real perk in a sizable storage-friendly kitchen island. Easy to see what you’re looking for and mighty decorative.
Shower Lighting Ideas
If your shower isn’t getting enough light from general lighting or a window, built-in lighting might solve the problem. Simple illuminated wall niche will not only keep hygiene products conveniently at hand but will also bring some light into the stall.
Looking at this last photo from Oscar Properties, it’s clear that you can fake built-in lighting with a thin recessed skylight. It doesn’t have to be in the bathroom. Hallways can never have enough light, natural or otherwise.
Simple ceiling lights can work as well, but they don’t look as impressive as a line of pure glow that emanates from somewhere above the ceiling or from inside the walls.
Bathroom Built-in Lighting Ideas
To continue the topic of ambient bathroom lighting, think decor over function. There is a lot you can do with light alone. Everyone’s favorite seems to be a backlit mirror or two. You can’t deny that the bathroom vanity instantly looks better with a glowing halo.
Aside from that simple trick, there are such techniques as down- and uplighting as you can see in the last interior pictured above.
Highlighting a bathtub is also possible. It and can be done with a special design like in the example by Tanju Özelgin, or you can simply integrate ceiling lights into the floor.
Shelving Lights
Shelving lights are mighty functional because they make finding things so much easier. They also bring storage to life, rendering it more decorative.
Built-in lighting works wonders in such storage units as closets, so why not take it further with bookcase backlighting? Make your library more noticeable, and have some additional lighting for reading.
Built-in lights in a home bar will create an atmosphere of a real one with a touch of sophistication, if you opt for natural or yellow lights, that is.
Dining Room Options
Sure, dining room arrangement looks best complete – with a chandelier or a pendant as its crowning accent. But what a minimalist to do? Well, built-in ceiling lights can look beautiful too. And if you feel that yet something is missing, you can always choose a simple lamp to finish off the look.
Minimal interiors are made for built-in lighting. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, you can see from these interiors that white walls and ceilings are perfect for reflecting light.
Recessed lights do not disagree with additional lighting like pendant and simple shades either, so you can mix them away, if the need arises.
Staircase Illumination
Staircases often look bland and empty. And while there are a lot of decorative solutions you could employ, built-in lighting is among the most impressive. It’s very functional too, so why not use this great mix to your advantage?
Built-in lighting in staircase design has reached its own niche in the industry. You can find firms that integrate LED lights into steps, railings, and walls to make the staircase look cool and, of course, safe.
Even if you equip each step with a ceiling light, it will look amazing, throwing a beautiful light shape onto the walls.
Bedroom Ambient Lighting
What is a better place for recessed ambient lighting than bedroom? Whether you’re preparing for sleep or just woke up, you don’t want glaring lights anywhere near your glimmers.
Headboard is a perfect area for some ambient lighting, because it allows for some nightime reading, and will help you wake up gradually in the morning.
Underbed lighting that responds to your movement is a cool feature as well. It’s best for safe mid-night bathroom journeys.
Living Area Luminaires
Living room can never have too much light. Windows might illuminate it during daytime, while general lighting will take care of evenings. Where is the middle variant? Well, it could be in built-in lighting.
If your general lights are too bright, a gentle glow of recessed lights will help you spend your evenings comfortably. Besides, they are perfect for accenting artworks as well as various zones in an open layout.
That last example is a perfect solution for street lighting that doesn’t disturb or travel all around the neighborhood, irritating you and your neigbors.
