Hallway lighting features

Light is the number one issue in interior design. If the light in the apartment is not only functional, but also decorative, then the hallway lighting should be built according to the same principle. In the hallway, as a full-fledged part of the interior, there should be several groups of lamps: on the ceiling, in the floor, on the walls, above the mirror. To turn on one lamp, or five, or twenty depending on your mood.

Tatiana Voronina, architect

The entrance hall performs two clearly demarcated functions: on the one hand, it is a purely utilitarian room where you can put yourself in order, on the other hand, being the beginning of the house, a psychological boundary between the bustle of the street and home comfort, it creates a certain emotional mood. In addition to the fact that the interior of the hallway should be as comfortable as possible, it is necessary that its interior provides a favorable atmosphere for a quick and easy transition from a state of business activity to calmness and relaxation..

One of the features of hallway lighting is that daylight is often absent in it. And therefore, regardless of the time of day, you have to use lamps. Moreover, if during the day the neighboring rooms are sufficiently well illuminated by the sun, it is desirable that the light in the hallway be as intense as possible.

The first and foremost rule is that the hallway should be brightly lit. In addition, the amount of light should correspond to the illumination of neighboring rooms both in the daytime and in the evening. Indeed, despite the fact that the stay in the hallway usually does not last long, a sharp change in illumination when moving to other rooms “knocks down” vision and makes it difficult to freely navigate in space.

Poor light makes it difficult to see the interior, and although it can be used to hide some of the flaws in the finish, it is still better to light the hallway properly. The fact is that even a short stay in a gloomy hallway can adversely affect the overall impression of the apartment. Competent, soft and friendly lighting, on the contrary, already at the doorstep relaxes and sets you up for open communication with your home. As an experiment, try to equip all the lamps with lamps of the highest possible power in your hallway – later you are unlikely to want to save electricity here..

If the hallway is not isolated and movement through it is associated not only with the arrival and departure from the house, but also with the transition from room to room, it is necessary to provide an additional lamp for constant orientation lighting. It can be any decorative lamp, even a table lamp, if there is a place for it..

In a frequently visited hallway, the “second light” principle can be used as additional lighting, penetrating from adjacent rooms through glass doors or glazed wall surfaces. In such a situation, partitions with glass blocks have proven themselves well. The winner will always be the one who knows that this material is not only decorative, but, above all, functional.!

Sometimes it is advisable to equip the hallway with lamps that are controlled not by traditional switches, but by special switches based on sensors that are sensitive to movement or heat. Their convenience lies in the fact that the light is turned on automatically when a person appears in the field of action of the sensor. The sensing element of a correctly installed switch acts at a certain height, so it does not react to the movement of pets.

Lighting and configuration

I believe that there should be a lot of light in the hallway, because, as a rule, the sun does not look in there, and control of your appearance requires good lighting. But the light in the hallway should not irritate and hit the eyes. For example, I have two halogen lamps of 300 watts on – this is quite enough, and the light does not tire, since you are not in the hallway for long. The luminaires are located on the wall, the light from them is directed towards the smooth white ceiling and is distributed throughout the room already reflected. There is plenty of lighting to look at yourself in the mirror and find the necessary things in the numerous built-in wardrobes. For convenience, you can put automation in the hallway so as not to approach the switch every time: entered – the light turned on, left – after 40 seconds the light went out.

Eduard Grabovsky,
interior specialist

For the hallway, the project does not always provide for a spacious room. In addition, its shape is often unsuccessful: either it is too elongated, narrow and prohibitively high, or too tight. And even if there is enough space in the hallway, the walls are often dissected by the same type of doorways or are monotonous and empty.

Sometimes they try to decorate the monotonous surfaces of the walls of the hallway with paintings, arrange decorative niches or protrusions, and correct unsuccessful proportions with a variety of structural elements, for example, arches or openwork partitions. This, of course, is beautiful, but sometimes you can get by with simpler and at the same time original means – resorting to lighting. Light can work wonders: a small room looks more spacious, a narrow one expands, and backlit corners look more attractive.

When correcting a narrow, elongated hallway, they usually use the technique of intense wall lighting.. For the device of such lighting, powerful sources are used distributed throughout the room, the light beams of which are directed to the walls. A large amount of light reflected from the top of the walls and partly from the ceiling, illusoryly dissolves the surfaces. Lamps can be located both on the ceiling and on the walls, the main thing is that their rays are directed to the necessary points of the interior.

If the room height is too high, you can use wall or ceiling lights with an adjustable angle of rotation for correction. The light must be directed strictly to the walls, while the ceiling remains in the shadow and visually decreases.

In geometrically complex rooms with a polygon shape in plan, they resort to light zoning. The turns and “nooks”, illuminated from different angles by various light sources, become interesting decorative islands on the way into the depths of the living space. You don’t have to come up with anything special here: light illumination of a wall panel, a miniature sconce near a small mirror, a compact chair next to a narrow floor lamp – and the hallway has already acquired its unique look..

All these tools are used to create a variety of interiors, but basically they are designed to balance imbalances, to bring disproportions to the usual norm. For those who strive for unusual, effective solutions, we can recommend using light not for masking, but, on the contrary, to emphasize and enhance reality. For example, you can deepen the perspective of a long and narrow hallway by means of an even row of similar lamps..

It is advisable to equip the hallway with two independent from each other, but mutually complementary types of lighting: general and purely functional – for specific purposes.

Lanterns

Hallways in a large house can be spacious and high, on two levels. A staircase is usually placed in the same volume. If the top of the hallway rests against the roof, a so-called lantern can be arranged in the ceiling – a roof window, which can be either the simplest or rather complex configuration. From dawn to dusk, natural light will gently flow from the lantern, penetrating into the farthest corners of the room. True, in the evening additional lighting is still required..

The entrance halls in apartments, as a rule, do not have a window. Here you can try to visually “open” a closed space by simulating light emanating from surfaces. For example, put a cornice along the perimeter of the hallway with lamps hidden behind it. It is also possible to construct a translucent suspended ceiling that transmits light with built-in lamps behind it. There are also ready-made designs of lamps with a lantern effect..

Ceiling lamps

Lamps with downward beams of direct light, and even with a low ceiling, are functionally contraindicated in cramped hallways! When using spotlights, use only adjustable angle models and group them along the walls. It is recommended to place diffuse lamps in the center of the large hallway ceiling..

Conductive structures

Luminaires on conductive structures are presented today in a wide variety of options. For the hallway, it is recommended to choose closed, evenly diffusing light models. In extreme cases, the light should be scattered as much as possible downward; direct light can bounce off the ceiling and top of walls.

Wall lights

This category of lamps is most suitable for the hallway. Sconces are equally suitable for both low and very high spaces. The main requirement when using wall lamps for general lighting is that the rays should never fall into the eyes. Everything else is quite acceptable: the light can literally spread along the walls even down and to the sides, although its main direction is the upper part of the walls and the ceiling. The closer the lamp is to the wall, the more thoroughly the finishing should be done – the side light “lifts” the texture and reveals the slightest flaws.

In most cases, wall lamps built into the walls may be appropriate in the interior of the hallway. Such structures resemble portholes and create in the room, in addition to favorable lighting, the effect of mystery, mystery.

If the shape of wall lamps can be very diverse, then the requirements for their installation are quite strict and unambiguous. The recommended mounting height fluctuates around two meters so that the light is concentrated in an area just above human height. Although in special cases where strong effects are required, the luminaires can be lowered slightly to the floor or raised to the ceiling.

Local light

Luminaires with a mirror can be mounted not only on the wall, the mirror surface is a great place for mounting fittings. In this case, the number of lamps doubles, but the illumination does not increase, but is only distributed differently in space..

Whatever we may say about the aesthetic side of the hallway, for the house it is, first of all, a utilitarian zone – a dressing room, suggesting the presence of a volume for storing outerwear and a mirror. These areas require special work lighting.

In order to put yourself in order before leaving home or upon returning, you need sufficient bright lighting. In a small hallway, well placed in the mirror area, light can simultaneously serve as general lighting. In a spacious hallway, mirror lighting plays a separate functional role and only complements the main orientation light.

The mirror in the hallway should be large to reflect the person in full growth, and conveniently located so that you can look into it from afar. But all this makes sense only when the area near the mirror is properly lit. The light in the mirror area is formed by local sources. A person should see his reflection well and at the same time not feel discomfort, so the light should be directed from the mirror evenly, without creating shadows. Maximum illumination is recommended in the mirror area, but the luminous flux should in no case interfere with a person to see his reflection.

The location of the fixtures is determined by the size of the mirror. The top of the mirror frame is the best place if it is no higher than two meters from the floor. A very tall mirror is usually illuminated by a pair of symmetrically arranged lamps, also about two meters from the floor..

Since the lighting near the mirror belongs to the category of a worker, when choosing lamps, their technical parameters are of decisive importance, while decorative qualities fade into the background. It is best to dwell on lamps of a simple shape, emitting not too harsh diffused light. It can be direct, but in this case it is important that the luminous flux does not intersect with the gaze of the person looking in the mirror..

The mirror can be located on the wall separately, although often it is also the door of the built-in wardrobe. In this case, lighting can be organized using a cornice equipped with built-in lamps with an adjustable angle of rotation or light sources on flexible movable arms. The same applies to a mirrored door, above which a lamp is placed on an elongated base with two or three movable light sources.

Olga Prudnikova