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Up and Down Wall Lights

Interior up and down wall light fixtures are capable of giving a room depth through shadow and indirect lighting. They can be used in a number of applications, from ambient to accent lighting and anything in between.

At Ultra Beam Lighting, we offer a variety of different indoor up and down wall light options. Shop our selection to find the perfect one for your unique home.

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What Are Interior Up and Down Wall Lights?

Up and down interior wall lights are a type of architectural lighting that shines lights in two directions, up and down a wall, giving off a layered ambient glow. Different from traditional lights with a single direction, interior up and down lamp fixtures provide a wash of illumination over the walls and highlight their textures.

Oftentimes, you will find up and down wall lights indoor fixtures in hallways and corridors, living rooms, staircases and bedrooms. They come in a number of different finish options for you to choose from, just like any other type of fixture. This makes them easy to incorporate into your space.

Great Areas of the Home to Use Up and Down Interior Wall Lights

With the right up and down lights, indoor spaces can become memorable, beautiful locations. With their dual beam outputs, they can bring depth and drama to any room in which they are placed.

Living Room

LED up and down lights in a living room can create a warmer, more inviting atmosphere in your home. They can subtly highlight architectural features like textured walls, alcoves or even artwork. When you place them at eye-level, they bring vertical illumination to join up with ceiling lights and floor lamps.

Bedroom

Bedrooms are meant to be places of relaxation and rest. For this reason, they benefit from indirect lighting that is gentle and soft. Up and down lights provide this, especially when installed near headboards. They reduce glare and shadows, softening the light in the room.

Corridors and Hallways

Transitional spaces tend to lack any sort of natural light, and up down wall light indoor fixtures can remedy that darkness. They provide rhythm to lead a person down the hall and break up longer stretches of it with alternating light patterns. This can improve style while also enhancing safety.

Stairways

Staircases have specific requirements when it comes to lighting, and the lights need to stay out of the way. You can install them along the walls on either side of staircases to enhance visibility while emphasizing the verticality of a stairwell.

How to Pair Up and Down Indoor Wall Lights with Other Lighting in the Room

Including wall lights up and down indoor fixtures in a part of your lighting scheme can take it to the next level. This requires what is known as layered lighting. A layered light scheme relies on three layers of illumination: ambient, accent and task.

Ambient lighting is the main source of illumination. It is often achieved through ceiling lights or brighter floor lamps. Task lighting provides more direct illumination for completing certain activities. Finally, accent lighting is there to highlight certain features and create a mood.

You can use up and down sconce lights in any of these layers, though they tend to be best for accent lighting. Pair them with flush or semi-flush ceiling lights or pendant lights for best results.

Pay attention to the colour temperature of the other lights in the room, and be sure that your new wall lights have a similar temperature. Colour temperature refers to how bright or cool a light appears to be, and fixtures in a room should match one another.

In residential spaces, this is usually a warm white colour temperature between 2700K and 3300K. If you mix cool and warm colour temperatures, it can create disharmony and make the space harsh on the eyes.

Speaking of harmony, one of the best ways to incorporate your wall lights into an existing lighting scheme is by choosing similar finishes. Visual harmony can be achieved by coordinated finishes, shapes and scale across the scope of the room.

How to Use Indoor Up and Down Wall Lights to Highlight a Textured Wall

Textured walls, such as exposed brick or stone, can add a lot of character to a room. Unfortunately, oftentimes lighting in a space is so flat that it drowns out those small details. With up down interior wall lights, you can draw attention to those textures strategically.

These lights will cast directional beams to create dramatic light and shadow. One of the benefits of this is revealing the contour of the surfaces. Lights shining upwards are especially good at highlighting the textures by casting deep shadows against the small details.

For best results, place the fixtures around 1.5 to 1.8 metres from the floor. This will give an even graze of lighting in both directions. Space them out around 1.2 to two metres from one another to create beam patterns that overlap beautifully.

If you want sharper, more dramatic shadows, use narrow beams between 10 and 30 degrees. For softer washes, wider beams between 40 and 60 degrees are best.

How the Right Beam Angle of Interior Up and Down Wall Lights Can Create Drama

The beam angle you choose for your up down LED wall light matters, depending on how much drama you want in the space.

Beam angles refer to the crispness or softness of a beam of light. Narrower lighting beam angles produce a more intense and focused light with sharp edges. Wider beam angles have more softness and a bigger spread.

If you want to create drama in your living space, narrow light beams between 10 and 30 degrees are best. These create sharp columns of light that draw attention both upward and downward while creating more defined shadows. This is especially good for textured walls, like brick or stone.

Softening the mood of the room can be accomplished through wider beams. Beam angles with a larger spread of illumination provides gentle wall washing to reduce contrast and soften textures. They can also create subtle gradients that blend into the decor around it.

The placement and height of your indoor up down wall light fixture matters. In fact, it is thought to be one of the most crucial factors in your lighting design scheme.

Regardless of if you want dramatic beam patterns, emphasis on architecture or ambient glow, the placement will play a key role. The height and placement of a light is oftentimes dependent on the room you are lighting.

  • LIVING ROOMS AND BEDROOMS. Mount your up and down lights around 1600 millimetres to 1700 millimetres to cast a soft, ambient glow that is free of glare. Be sure that beams donโ€™t interfere with areas like headboards or seating zones. You could also align them with furniture lines and artwork to create a more cohesive look.
  • CORRIDORS AND HALLWAYS. Place your lights around 1500 millimetres to 1600 millimetres from the floor in transitional spaces. You can also place them lower to help improve upon guidance and safety. Be sure you don’t mount them too high, as it can cause ceiling glare and beam overlap.
  • The height here is adjustable depending on the tread height and the slope of the wall. It is recommended that you place the lights in a staggered way to follow the upward rise of the stairs. If the lights are used near open risers or exposed edges, use IP rated fixtures.
  • Install your wall lights around 1600 millimetres to 1800 millimetres from the floor of a bathroom. Try not to place them right above mirrors, as this can cast unflattering light.

Beam angle is another important consideration. Narrow beams between 10 and 30 degrees will require precise placement in order to avoid any abrupt, harsh cutoffs. Wider beam angles between 45 and 60 degrees are a little looser in terms of placement. Still, they can spill light onto nearby surfaces if they aren’t placed with care.

Generally speaking, you should also align the fixtures with any architectural features you want to draw attention to, such as wall panels, trims and alcoves. Avoid mounting them at inconsistent heights across the room unless you are going for a specific look.

LED lights have taken over as the preferred lighting style in homes and commercial buildings alike. There is a good reason why they have become the most popular bulb type for up down sconce indoor fixtures as well.

The most well-known benefit of LED bulbs is their energy efficiency. LED lights use 80 percent less energy than halogen or incandescent bulbs, which puts less of a strain on your electricity usage.

By using less energy, they are also better for the environment. These bulbs may lessen your carbon footprint, and they are also safe to recycle, since they have no harmful chemicals, like mercury.

The energy efficient nature of LED lights means they have a much longer lifespan as well. LED up down wall sconce fixtures can last for tens of thousands of hours before they need to be changed out. Compare that to the 1,000 hours on average that a halogen bulb provides.

A longer life means fewer, less frequent upfront costs since you won’t have to replace them as often. This means that it can save you money in the short and long term, both by using less electricity and having to purchase them less often.

LEDs also boast remarkable versatility. Different from halogen bulbs, they are available in a variety of colour temperatures for you to choose from. A wide selection of lumen counts can also help you fine-tune the atmosphere of your space.

For homes with children or pets, LEDs are preferred for their cool operation. They do not generate heat the way halogen bulbs do and therefore remain cool to the touch. There is no risk of overheating, and you don’t have to worry about damaging wallpaper, timber or soft furnishings.

With up down lights, indoor lighting design becomes even more impressive and dynamic. In order to create a beautiful visual rhythm with nice harmony throughout, take a moment to make a plan before beginning.

Identify the visual anchors you want to set first: feature walls, functional zones and architectural lines give you a good starting base. Using indoor wall lights up and down fixtures can reinforce these areas and guide the eye throughout the room.

You’ll want to consider the layout of the room as well, including wall height and width, ceiling height, and furniture placement. Avoid placing any fixtures where they might be blocked off by tall furniture or ceiling corners. Sketch out the geometry and the beam angles to get a good look at what the finished result might be before beginning.

Take symmetry and asymmetry into account when designing the layout. Symmetrical placement provides nice balance, but asymmetrical layouts add extra energy and movement to open plan spaces.

Integrate the lights into architectural features, like niches and recesses. You should also use them to highlight the textures of any feature walls you may have in the area.

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