Home offices have become a necessity in the past few years as many have switched to working from remote locations. Without the proper working environment, it can be difficult to feel motivated or enthused about the work, which is why it is vital to develop a home office that encourages productivity, creative thinking, and personal expression. One way to create that ideal home office environment is through intentional lighting. We have compiled some of our favorite examples of home office lighting arrangements to show the possibilities of various lighting fixtures and how you can use them in your own home.
This elegant home office has three lights in the forefront of the room's design: the elegant crystal chandelier, the desk light, and the side table light. Each light has a very different silhouette, but they all fit into traditional styles in one way or another. When using multiple lights in a room, it is important that they all have similar elements, whether it be similar material, shapes, tone, or style.
In shared offices, you can use different lights and different lighting types for each desk space. This office space shows one desk with a Herman Miller Ball Criscross Bubble light above it, but the other desk has a simple functional task light. Whether the lights are different because of each desks's necessary tasks or the personalities of those that sit there, using distinct fixtures help define the two areas as their own spaces.
Table lamps do not have to be grand expressions of elegant styles, nor do they have to be cheap and lacking appeal. Incorporating a small desk lamp near your primary work area is an ideal way to provide essential lighting and subtly infuse your style into your office.
In minimalist home offices that use white and beige neutral tones, it is important to add various textures to diversify the space. In this office, a light with faux wood encasement creates artificial texture against the matte white cabinets and untextured cream walls. Incorporating some sort of different texture, even if it is not a physical texture, can help create a point of visual interest in minimalist spaces.
One pendant light would be sufficient to light most desks, but incorporating two lights is an ideal way to cast light to specific areas and create a bold style. This contemporary home office uses pendants with similar shapes, materials, and chains to add dimension to this room and serve as functional works of art. You may do the same in outfitting your home office.
Unlike the last home office, this transitional space incorporates several authentic textures through furniture, accents, and lighting. These textures range from soft and cozy fabrics to textured wood on the desk all the way to iron metal on the pendant above. While you do not need to incorporate this many textures or include this many variations of texture, you can see how it can create a dynamic office space.
From this door, the room appears symmetrical in many ways. One central bench, a central desk, back cabinets, and two parallel paintings all create a very symmetrical space. The lamps even assist this layout, but they also break the format in two ways: one is a table lamp while the other is a floor lamp. Even so, balancing the two lamps on either side of the room helps create visual balance while still highlighting subtle differences. Working with asymmetry is an ideal way to create an orderly home office that does not feel artificial or too formal.
Each metallic finish has its own tone and temperature. For example, gold is considered to be very warm, while silver is a colder finish. This room masterfully combines those two metals along with others to create a recurring motif throughout the room's accents and decor. Using various metals subtly throughout an office can help establish an elegant, elevated style.
There are four main types of modern lighting for any space: ambient, accent, decorative, or task lighting. While offices need clear task lighting, adding in lights for any of these other purposes can help define the room's style and transform it into an uplifting and productive space. Defining the purpose of your fixtures early on will help you choose lights that directly work towards your goals for the room.
When adding a chandelier or dangling pendant light to an office, it is important that the light not hang too low. If it is hung too close to the floor, not only may people accidentally touch it, but it can also impact the room's visual balance. In general, we recommend that chandeliers take up the top third of the room or less.
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Depending on the colors, textures, and patterns of walls, lighting fixtures can either stand out against them, blend into them, or somehow do a bit of both. This small office's chandelier uses warm lights that blend into the background, but the crystal ball ornaments and translucent lines create a reflective surface different from its backdrop. With this, you can see how lights can blend into the design, contrast against it, or do both through the intentional use of color, material, and finishes.
The clear glass and plastic desk is a showstopper by itself, but it is reinforced by the presence of clear and opaque accents on top of it. The desk light could have taken on a translucent base, but because it didn't, it stands out more as an accent. With furniture like this, consider how you can complement its translucent nature with the accessories, accents, and lighting fixtures nearby through similar and different finishes/materials.
If you have antique style furniture in your office and you want to highlight its shapes, finishes, and structures, you may want to use a simple desk lamp instead of a more prominent table lamp or pendant light. A simple light can provide essential task lighting and not distract from the furniture's style. Ultimately, you can choose how your furniture can coordinate and pair with lights so that both can shine or you can allow element to be the primary focal piece.
With a light like Artemide's Discovery Space Rectangular Pendant, you can cast lighting over a wide space and have it dispersed equally over the entire desk. This type of lighting is highly practical, stylish, and customizable through different finishes, dimming levels, and adjustable heights.
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In rooms with plenty of windows, it is vital to consider how much you will depend on natural sunlight and how many other lighting fixtures you will need to fill out the room. Consider dark areas like corners to add in a table light or floor lamp if the natural sunlight does not reach those areas.
Home offices can feel quite drab and unpleasant, but incorporating a warm natural light can help improve your mood and the tone of the entire room. The Tala Alumina Table Lamp's bulb acts as both a light and a diffuser to create a soothing ambiance perfect for creating a comfortable workspace.
Motifs are images, shapes, and recurring elements throughout a room's design. Incorporating them into a home office is an ideal way to craft an intentionally styled, personal workspace. This office shows that perfectly with the use of shapes throughout the room's cabinets, geometric wall art, pendant light, and other areas. Working with various shapes is common in modern and contemporary home offices, but you can center your design around any motif you wish.
If you have a busy accent wall like this home office, it is best to simplify the furniture and lighting in front of it. The desk lamp can fall into a similar style as the wall art, as can be seen with this modern art and contemporary desk lamp. You are free to use more intricate lighting elsewhere in the home office, but it is important to not detract from any obvious existing focal points.
If you have a grand desk, you may be wondering how to brighten the whole desk at once. Using multiple pendant lights can help you achieve that goal if they are spaced strategically and intentionally cast most of their light downward.
Arched floor lamps naturally take up a larger footprint than other floor lamps, but their style is impeccable. One way to incorporate a lamp and make it take up less floor space is to have it overlap with a chair or have much of the light in a corner/up against the wall. These ideas will help you plan an office's layout where an arched floor lamp is a welcome addition and not overbearing.
Aside from table lamps, desk lamps, and mounted ceiling and wall fixtures, offices can benefit from floor lamps. The arched floor lamp shown in this contemporary office provides very direct lighting to the desk's surface, but there are other office floor lamps that can take up a smaller footprint, direct light differently, and fit into a different style if your room has different needs.
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Each lighting brand has their own set of iconic designers, but one of the most prominent designers of mid century lighting was a man named Herman Miller. Artists from this time tended to have very defined, unique styles, so choosing a light from a specific mid century designer can help you channel your favorite look into your office.
Ornamentation and flourish are highly prevalent in traditional and traditionally elegant styles. This home office brings in those details through the golden picture frame, floral curtains, and book ends, but it is also brought in through the light. Since the light is so close to the intricately detailed curtains, the ornamentation on the light is subdued so that it does not detract from the nearby decor or accents. If you want ornate details throughout your office, consider how you distribute those elements and how the light's design can reinforce your aesthetic.
In offices with high, vaulted ceilings, you can incorporate larger chandeliers to highlight the room's natural height and architecture. This office chose to add drama through the dark draped chandelier, but you can choose any style light to express your aesthetic without worrying about people hitting their heads on the light or fearing the light is too large for the room.
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Industrial style lights were originally designed for functionality and not style, but today's contemporary industrial lights are both highly practical and highly attractive. The use of metal and the shape of these lights defines the industrial style, but the sleek glass cylinder draws it into the modern day. People rarely fall into just one design aesthetic, so shop knowing that you can find fixtures perfectly suited to your personal style.
If your office has a natural focal point like the windowed wall at the end of this room, be sure your accents do not detract from that visual. This room chooses to present a minimalist furniture plan with the desk setup and built in bookshelves, but even the light is subtle and out of the immediate line of sight so that it does not compete with the window's view.
This minimal modern office wall light is as noteworthy for the light as it is its reflection. With the golden disc, the single light reflects off the gold and creates a unique shadow to add to the room's general aesthetic and brightness. If you are seeking to add unique style to your office or add brightness without more lighting fixtures, look at mirrored lights such as these.
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Having taller, disc-shaped shades and lights can help you cover a larger area of your desk without adding any additional lighting. If you are determined to rely on a single portable lamp, be sure to intentionally choose the proper wattage, voltage, and bulb type to create functional task lighting.
Flush mounted ceiling lights are well suited for offices with low/standard ceilings or for casting light in different ways than a chandelier could. This light is deemed more practical for this artistic office space, and depending on what you need to accomplish in your office, you may want to use a light that is flush or semi flush with the ceiling to best suit your day to day needs.
The previous home office used geometric shapes to create a cohesive design, but this room leans more traditional with the incorporation of plant life, floral wallpaper, floral rug designs, and the flower-inspired ceiling light. Flowers as a whole can fit into traditional aesthetics well, but they can be incorporated into modern designs as well through transitional lighting fixtures like Mitzi's Alyssa Semi Flush Ceiling Light.
Many interior design branches work with black and white color schemes, which means its highly appropriate to incorporate both a black and a white light into an office. Choosing two lights of the same style or picking two lights from the same collection can help define the room's style and add that classic color contrast.
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Large desks may require more than one light to completely cover it, which is why so many homes use two or three pendant lights to illuminate the entire table top. However, this room shows how two lights of the same style and different finishes can work with one another to create a sleek style and draw attention to both lights as artistic details. Pendant lights and chandeliers frequently offer different finishes and sizes, so you can pair variations of the same light with one another to create a unique lighting setup.
This industrial office has clear style through its concrete floors, grand windows, and exposed ceiling beams. The lights used here serve as a great bridge between the design elements as they highlight the room's industrial style and serve as a dark contrast against the windows. This placement and the continuation of the lights' cords to the ceiling naturally draw the eye throughout the rest of the space so that you can appreciate the grand design. When you place lights, furniture, and accents in an office, plan how the eye might be guided through the space to see every aspect of the room's beautiful design.
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Table lamps, desk lamps, and other non-fixed lights can be ideal for office desks, since they can be moved around to brighten different workspaces at different times. Lights such as the Kartell Aledin Dec LED Desk lamp can brighten specific areas of the desk without moving thanks to its two articulating arms. Flexible lighting with adjustable arms are well suited to sit on office desks and provide direct, practical lighting to whatever space you need at that moment.
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Sculptural lights like the one shown in this office show how effective polished metal is at reflecting and distributing light throughout the space. This fixture works well in fitting with the elegant modern aesthetic through its abstract design and light distribution, but if you need a brighter space, look for other chandeliers and pendants that use glass and metal to reflect light. Lights that use metal and glass come in many shapes, styles, and aesthetics, so you will find lights that add a small amount of light or ones that create a much brighter space through reflection.
This office is devoid of any windows exposed to let in natural sunlight, when means the lights in the room must work harder to create a pleasant workspace. The use of two stylish flush mount lights along with the angled ceiling lights enables this room to direct light intentionally and convey a unique style. If you are struggling with a windowless office, consider how many lights you use, what their lighting temperatures are, and how they are cast in order to create a productive and appealing workspace.
Traditional rustic lamps will blend the two styles through the use of natural wood, light colors, and woodsy references. The Beaujon Table Lamp from Currey and Company uses realistic reproduction of a slender tree branch to harken back to the great outdoors, but in its light colors and traditional lamp shade, it perfectly suits traditional rustic styles. These two styles may have seemed opposed in theory, but traditional rustic style has emerged along with many other hybrids to blend different branches of interior design. Do not be afraid to mix different interior design styles to create your ideal aesthetic, even if the pairing seems unlikely.
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If you have a large home office where you hosts guests, clients, or business partners, consider adding a lighting fixture above your meeting space. A well placed chandelier or pendant light will set the tone for that space and define whatever mood you want to create.
The possibilities with home offices are vast, as are the opportunities to incorporate stylish and practical lighting. Through studying the samples above and taking our advice, we hope that you will be able to create your ideal office space and enjoy the place you work.
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