How to Light Your Artwork Beautifully in Your Home

This article explains how to light artwork to bring out the best in your art in your home.

How to light up your artwork on the wall will greatly affect the beautiful impression of the art, when you hang a painting in your home.

The human eye is sensitive to the color of light.

Art lighting techniques can brings out the best in your wall art.

Are you concerned about the following questions?

“What is proper lighting for artwork?”
“How should I illuminate my paintings on the wall to make them look beautiful?”

You can find good solution in this article.

☑ Table of Contents

What is proper lighting for artwork? The difference between fluorescent light, incandescent bulb, and LED light
How to light your artwork on a wall beautifully
Viewing a painting in a room with sunlight

What is proper lighting for artwork?

art-with-light — A light bulb lamp on the side table illuminates paintings in the living room

Light to illuminate a painting

Fluorescent, incandescent, and LED are the most common types of lighting for artworks.

Depending on the type of lighting, there are various colors of light, from white light similar to sunlight, to warm orange light, to bluish light.

If you want to view your paintings in a relaxing mood, choose a color close to sunlight or a warm orange light .

Fluorescent light, incandescent light, and LED have different color types, and each has its own unique characteristic.

The following explanation is how to use fluorescent lamps, incandescent bulbs, and LEDs when displaying arts on the wall.

fluorescent light

When you illuminate an artwork with fluorescent light, the color will be clear like daytime sunlight.

The colors of the picture tend to look cooler, so cool or clear color paintings are more likely to look beautiful.

Fluorescent lamps has 3 types:

Daylight (D): This has a bluish light.
Daylight white (N): This is similar to the color of sunlight.
Light bulb (EL): This has an slightly orange light like an incandescent bulb.

To make an artwork look beautiful in your home, daylight white and warm light bulb color, which allow viewing in colors close to the original color of the painting is best.

Daylight color of fluorescent bulb is the good lighting when you want to work at a desk.
This color of light makes you easier to concentrate, as in an office.

incandescent light bulb

Incandescent light bulbs look a bit retro nowadays.

The light brings out the warm, calm, and fuzzy artworks, because it has a warm orange color.

Incandescent bulbs are easy on the eyes, because they are not too bright and have less blue light than fluorescent light or LED bulbs.

To get a good night’s sleep, it is best to view wall arts under incandescent light bulbs during the relaxing hours before bed.

LED Light

LED lights tend to feel strong to the eyes, because they have strong blue light.

If you choose a product that cuts out the blue light portion, you will be able to view the wall painting more easily with colors closer to natural light.

How to light your artwork on a wall beautifully

A museum exhibit with spotlights shining on the wall arts from the ceiling.

Best way to light artworks on a wall

Here are a good rule of thumb of painting picture lights.

Once you understand how to light up a painting, you will be able to display it in a way that brings out the best characteristic.

Spotlighting from the ceiling

The most common method used in museums and galleries is to shine a spotlight from the ceiling.

The bright light shines on the wall art, allowing the viewer to see the artwork clearly regardless of the brightness of the room.

You can use this method especially for living rooms, hallways, and dining rooms with subdued brightness.

To ensure that light falls on the painting, a spotlight is installed on the ceiling.

To install a spotlight in the ceiling, the ceiling must have a wiring fixture for the lighting fixture that can supply electricity.

If not, you will need electrical work, so check carefully before purchasing spotlights.

Downlighting for wall art from the ceiling

Downlights embedded in the ceiling can illuminate paintings on the walls from the ceiling.

Downlights are commonly used lighting fixtures to illuminate artworks on the wall.

Since they are embedded in the ceiling, you can create a clean space.

You must install downlights in new construction.

If the house is already completed, electrical work is required to install them.

Indirect lighting for an artwork from the side

Indirect lighting does not shine directly into your eyes, but gently illuminate artwork from the light fixture on the wall.

Since the light is not too strong, you can relax to look at it at night.

Indirect lighting can be harmonized with the surrounding lights even in calmly lit areas.

It is best to light paintings with Indirect lighting especially for bedrooms where you want to relax, and living rooms that are not too bright.

When installing lighting fixtures directly on the wall, electrical work is required if there is no outlet on the wall.

However, if you need the work after the house is completed, the electrical wiring will be visible in the room.

If you place a floor stand in your room that you can use without wall mounting, you can view a painting with indirect lighting without electrical work.