Today’s post is not like my usual ones. If you’re a regular reader who recognizes my byline, you know I lean hard on the educational and the “make it work” content. But the other week, I had some friends over and one of them asked if they could dim the overhead lights in my living room while we watched a movie. I didn’t mind at all and actually had meant to do just that before we started, but it did get me thinking: Why does everyone suddenly have a vendetta against overhead lighting?
I’m not really on TikTok (and by “not really,” I mean, I just downloaded the app this last year and only open it when friends text me links). But even as someone off the platform, I know how much hatred #ceilinglights and #thebiglight are getting. A 10-second search of the hashtags I’ve seen circling Instagram leads me to the following captions:
DEATH TO THE OVER HEAD LIGHT!!
Why the Big Light Should Be Banned in Interior Design
Petition to Ban All Overhead Lighting
And while no one has ever accused TikTok of being hyperbolic (hahaha, yeah right), I just want to say, let’s all calm down. There are definitely merits to #thebiglight and I’m going to get into it today because I’m #teambiglight…mostly.
Growing up, my best friend Claudia did NOT like bright lights on in her bedroom, and I remember thinking how strange and emo that was. She’d huff and cringe when I’d come in and turn on the overheads, and she’d jump out of bed to turn them off and instead turn on her “mood lighting.” This consisted of rope lights along her metal tube bunk beds, a lamp on her desk and maybe, possibly, a lava lamp (though my memory could be making that up since I had a lava lamp and it’s hard to distinguish what’s what 20 years later). To this day, I still don’t think she turns on her overhead lights. That is her prerogative, of course. As it is yours if you’re a #smalllight, lamps-only type of dweller.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a decorative lamp, and task lighting works wonders for, well, completing tasks. My thorough evaluation of the famed Nancy Meyers aesthetic (read that here, it was a banger) uncovered a wildly generous use of the table lamp, giving those rooms an undeniable cozy quality. But it’s simply not enough for me.
Allow me to make my case for overhead lighting.
Point #1: How On Earth Do You See Anything Without It?
As someone about to turn 40 in the coming months, I fully recognize that my vision is showing its age. I recall rolling my teenage eyes at my middle-aged parents who had to use a flashlight to read a menu and hold it out an arm’s length from their face to make out the words, and as life would have it, karma has come to take its fee. I am now my parents in this scenario, and even with a current contacts prescription, I struggle with low lighting.
I need a room to be fully awash in light. An even coating of lumens is my preferred style. That’s not to say it needs to be blinding white or blue-toned light. That would be ludicrous, but all the overhead lighting haters of the world swear that just because a light source is coming from higher than table height, it’s going to melt your flesh off of something. The home we live in currently is on a street with 100-year-old camphor trees and a few giant pines, which are unspeakably beautiful to experience when you’re outside but when you’re inside…it leaves much to be desired. It’s dim in here, and if I had to live all day with soft, cozy night-time appropriate lamps on and nothing else, I’d lose my mind (and yes, constant dim lighting truly affects my mental health).
I’ve seen some TikTok videos and Instagram Reels on the subject of people showing kitchens, living rooms, and beyond with their “big” lights on, then with them off and all their lamps on and I’m sorry but…it’s just too dark unless you know how to properly light a room (which involves layers and lighting types like ambient vs. task).
Point #2: I Have Too Much to Plug In to Add 10 Lamps Per Room Into the Mix (Don’t You??)
I know this one is fairly specific to me and my lifestyle, but I have to know: where you are getting all these outlets to plug in all of these lamps? In my last place, which was built in the 1930s, there were SO few outlets in every room. My bedroom had two outlets in total; our dining room had one, and our living room had a whopping three! We didn’t have much overhead lighting in that place and we spent our lives plugging and unplugging everything all day every day to accommodate lamps and everything else you need to run a modern life.
Where I live now has a surface area problem. I don’t have much space in my living room for side tables to hold lamps. Plus, none of my light switches downstairs actually operate an outlet, so I’d have to turn everything on (and off) manually. No. Sorry. Not doing it. Not when my canned lighting and pendants are *right there.* We thankfully have many more outlets in each room here, but even still, I have so many things to plug in: vacuum charger, wet vac, router, modem, TV, Firestick, Tonies music box, computer, computer monitor, phone chargers…etc.
Point #3: Recessed Lights Are Not Evil (Sorry Interior Designers)
I’m going to say it: I’m bothered by interior designers who feel the need to make *everything* decorative. Some things can just be functional and integrated ceiling lights and overhead lights in general (like flush mounts, can lights, recessed lights and chandeliers) are extremely functional. I agree that they don’t fit every style of home. The same can lights I have in my townhome would have been ridiculous in my 1930s Mediterranean. FINE! But I would have still loved to have found a way to install more overhead lighting had I stayed in my previous home longer. There is a way to make this work in the home’s aesthetic, but again, saying a hard “no” to ceiling lights just because you don’t think they’re “pretty” is not something I can get on board with. Overhead lighting is not evil, it shouldn’t “be banned” (stop that, TikTok), and can be a crucial part of a home’s lighting plan.
Point #4: But You Need a Dimmer Switch
Even I, president of #teamceilinglight, agree with the fact that a dimmer switch is absolutely integral to a successful “big light.” I was rocking my daughter the other night in her glider, which is directly under one of the can lights in her bedroom. I had turned them on to full power and when I sat down, it did feel like a spotlight was on me and my two-year-old was interrogating me. It was a lot. For a moment, I thought “Oh no…maybe I get what all the fuss is about?” But then I just remembered I could turn down the dimmer a bit, and move on with my life with no need to post on the Internet about how much I hate ceiling lights (yet here I am on the Internet doing the exact opposite…irony).
And frankly, I believe that as many lamps and lights as possible should be on a dimmer because this is 2024 and we deserve to be able to customize and control our lighting any way we want. Cooking a meal and need to actually see the food you’re chopping? Crank those babies up. Having a dinner party and don’t want your guests to feel like they’re performing surgery at the table? Turn it down and set the mood. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, for goodness sakes.
Just as a quick aside, I started writing this article sitting next to my architecture-school-trained husband. I turned to him and asked: “What are your thoughts on overhead lights?” just to get a sense of his feelings, and after telling him that I was writing a piece on how some people out there abhor them, I got a guttural “What?!? No!” from him. Then, my sister who is visiting walked into the room I was working from, and I asked her the same question. She scrunched up her face and said “That’s literally all I use at home…but I have my dimmers.” I felt a bit vindicated.
Point #5: It’s Not “Surgical” If You Have the Right Lightbulbs
As I was taking a break from writing, I picked up my phone to do a little scrolling and immediately was met by a post from an Internet friend on this exact subject, but she fell on the opposite side of the conversation as me. The audio of her Reel made me laugh, but after reading the comments, I saw how many people also only use softly diffused task lighting rather than flip the switch to the overhead lights. Someone commented “Why do people need to see so bad? We’re not doing surgery here.” HA.
Look, I hear you…sort of. There are instances when overhead lighting is horrific. Like all those fluorescent tube lights that used to be in so many kitchens. I can still hear the flickering, clicking, and zapping. Or if the lightbulbs have the lumen power to light an airstrip. God, please, no. But warm white light is fine in my book with a lumen rating appropriate to the space and its function. Here’s what I found at The Home Depot (which was echoed in some other places, as well):
- Workspace or garage: 8,000 to 10,000 lumens
- Kitchen work areas: 7,000 to 8,000 lumens
- Bathroom: 7,000 to 8,000 lumens
- Home office: 6,000 to 8,000 lumens
- Dining room: 3,000 to 4,000 lumens
- Kitchen: 3,000 to 4,000 lumens
- Dining room: 3,000 to 4,000 lumens
- Living room: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens
- Bedroom: 1,000 to 2,000 lumens
- Hallway: 500 to 1,000 lumens
As for how to get the correct “warmth,” you’ll want to go with either a 2,700 Kelvin rating if you like really warm light (what was often in incandescent bulbs) and 3,000 Kelvin if you prefer a soft warm white (my preference). Some lightbulbs even let you fully customize the temperature with an app so it’s *just* right.
Also, see point #4.
Point #6: Some Spaces *Need* Overhead Lighting
My last and final sticking point here is the following: What are all these overhead light haters doing in hallways? Stairwells? Kitchens? Bathrooms?!?!? Let me say it for the people at the back: SOME SPACES NEED CEILING LIGHTS! Are you placing little side tables on your stairs to hold a tiny lamp that you can’t even plug in because there’s no outlet? Are you lighting candles in your bathroom to put on your makeup? Using lantern light in your kitchen to check if your chicken is fully cooked?
—
If there’s a light switch, know that I’m using it. I thrive in well-lit spaces at all times of the day, and maybe I’m in the minority here, but I had to say my piece. If you’re team small light, please don’t take offense. You do you. Your house is your haven, but my house is my bright, overhead-lit haven, too.
Speaking of overhead lights, here are some beautiful ones I dug around for. Some I know have been used in previous EHD projects, others that have great reviews, and others that are a great deal. Most if not all of these should be dimmable, and come in a handful of other colors, and even Kelvin temperature ratings.
Bottom line: Don’t let the Internet bully you into thinking you’re uncouth if you’re opting for #TheBigLight. Take care friends!
1. Eastmoreland 4″ Fitter Semi-Flush Mount | 2. Siena Flush Mount in Hand-Rubbed Antique Brass – Small | 3. Paige 3-1/4″ Articulating Flat Cylinder Semi-Flush Mount in Polished Nickel | 4. White Drum Linen Shade 18″ Kids Flush Mount Ceiling Light | 5. Reel LED Flushmount | 6. Nello Light Sage and Olive Green Metal Saucer 18″ Kids Flush Mount Ceiling Light | 7. Hinkley Lighting Cedric 1 Light 5″ Wide Flush Mount Ceiling Fixture in Lacquered Brass | 8. Nordic Minimalist Cobblestone PE Lampshade LED Flush Mount Ceiling Light | 9. Modern Minimalist Round Spotlight Adjustable LED Flush Mount Ceiling Light | 10. Vaughan Dimmable LED Wall & Ceiling Flush Mount | 11. Recessed LED Ceiling Spot FLEXX Tiltable Square in Inox | 12. Cambridge 16″ Flush Mount in Polished Nickel
Opening Image Credits: Design by Emily Henderson Design | Photo by Sara Ligorria-Tramp | From: It’s Finally Here: The Reveal of the Mountain House Kitchen
THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.
