The Secret Ingredient All Cozy Rooms Have in Common
Lighting in a room is something you usually don’t notice until or unless it’s really bad. We’ve all been there—in cafeterias with flickering fluorescent bulbs, in dark apartments with zero natural light, in clothing store dressing rooms with horrible overhead spotlights (you’d think it would be a good business model to invest in lighting that makes people feel they look good in the clothes you’re trying to sell them).
On the other hand, there’s a reason why living rooms with fires crackling in the fireplace, homes bejeweled with colorful string lights for the holidays, and even restaurants with small candles flickering tiny flames on each table inspire cozy, comfortable vibes.
The secret is their lighting. And more specifically, a design technique called “layered lighting.”
Layered lighting is the practice of creating a well-illuminated room by incorporating multiple light sources and types of lighting into the space.
For example, say in your living room you have one overhead ceiling light. That’s great for brightening up the space in a more utilitarian way, but come sunset you might feel like you are under a harsh spotlight. Say you want to watch TV and don’t want that bright overhead light on, but you also don’t want to sit in the pitch black darkness. Layered lighting to the rescue!
Try adding in a floor lamp by your sofa, sprinkle a few table lamps around the room (maybe one on the other side of the sofa, one on top of a bookcase, and one next to the TV on the credenza), add a task lamp by your favorite reading chair, and then light a few candles. You’ve just layered your lighting like a pro. Bonus points if any of the lamps have multiple brightness settings or smart bulbs that let you adjust the hue of the light.
This technique works because it fills a room with light from multiple angles and elevations, creating a soft, cozy “glow.” It also gives you much more control over the lighting in a space which, according to environmental psychologists, is actually a key factor in determining how happy or content we feel in our homes.
Learn more about how you can use lighting to increase your satisfaction with your home on this episode of The Render, a podcast I co-hosted in 2020. In episode 5, we interviewed environmental psychologist, Elif Celikors and discussed how everything from plants to color can influence how happy we are at home.
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Here are a few of my current favorite table and floor lamps.
