These 7 wall lights have helped me make every room a happier space to live in

Almost every interior designer I speak to tells me two things. Firstly, when designing room, start with where the light sources will be, and make them as important to your decor as the wall colors or furniture choices.

Secondly, always go with wall lights. Living room wall lights, bedroom wall lights, even bathroom wall lights. Always kinder on everyone than an overhead beam.

So these seven are the ones I've been basing my own house refurb around, folding in to each idea as I think about the interior design. With these informing my aesthetic choices I think they bring rooms together and - happily - the people who sit under them.

1. This arched modernist wall light in LA

(Image credit: Roberto Garcia)

This home in California by designers LALA Reimagined has informed so much about how I want to decorate - I've written before about its perfect coffee table being my dream piece of furniture.

The houses' decor ideas hit you from the entryway onwards - this arched Contour wall light is by Allied Maker and has the sweeping romance of a Parisian street lamp, translated into a modern industrial shape. 

2. This unobtrusive gold down light in Washington, D.C.

(Image credit: Stacy Zarin Goldberg)

Designer Zoe Feldman took the family's art and made it the centerpiece of this characterful home in Washington, D.C. But while I was inspired by how she fixed art over the bookshelves to turn it into the hero of her living room storage, I also took note of the wall light she used.

Completely unobtrusive, it doesn't steal focus from the art, and complements the slender gold picture frame. To me, it was a reminder that not all sconces need be created equal, and need be statements of their own. Sometimes, the fact they wash the walls in the perfect glow, highlighting the areas you want highlighted, is more than enough. 

3. This long looping wall light in Lyon, France

(Image credit: Guillaume Grasset/Living Inside)

This colorful house  was featured in our August 2022 issue and this image was a strong contender for our cover. Mostly because of this graceful wall light, its elegant looping shape both sensual and strong.

Being so long, it's close to the new lighting trend for corner lights (which reach from floor to ceiling) and would be ideal to bathe you in a subtle glimmer as as you read in your armchair or nook. 

4. This architectural wall light in Melbourne, Australia

(Image credit: Living Inside/Armelle Habib)

Talking of reading corners, the best way to illuminate one is with a swing arm light. You can duck it down over your head, feeing hunkered in a little circle of light as the night draws in and the only sound disturbing the peace is the pages of your book as your turn. (I mean, I read everything on a Kindle, but allow me this pretence at a quiet life which doesn't include two puppies shouting for attention all the time). 

This house was in our July 2022 issue and was full of architectural details (the pool on the roof has to be seen to be believed). It featured the ever classic Swing Arm pendant by Serge Mouille, reigniting my love for the wall light that can dance around the room depending on where you're sat.

5. This tiny pearl-sized wall light in London, UK

(Image credit: Future)

I think of this wall light as like like a tiny pearl earring, worn classically by the sort of person who wants to looks nice but doesn't want to be too flashy.

Except this tiny orb of a wall light makes a big impression - to me, anyway. It's so confident in its smallness, so generous in allowing the other colors and textures of this modern kitchen, featured in our June issue, to come to the fore that it's basically a design hero in its own right. 

A little token that tells us not every statement has to be a shout.

6. This long armed wall light in New York

(Image credit: Hanna Grankvist)

How do you demarcate an open plan kitchen/dining room/living room and keep each area distinct but cohesive? With a long armed wall light, of course! That's how it was done in this NYC brownstone from our May issue, a large, glowing globe suspended over the dining table which casts sense of togetherness over all who sit under it.

I particularly like how it doesn't break with (mostly) all-white decor.

7. This modern art piece wall light in London

(Image credit: Doshi Levien)

This apartment living room is wedged somewhere into the heart of London's Barbican, an iconic Brutalist landmark near the city. It's filled to bursting with creatives who don't mind paying over the odds to live inside a piece of actual design history. It means the decor in most of these homes is out of this world.

Including in this space designed by Doshi Levien. Contrasting the sharp concrete face of the building is the soft curves he has used within, from the plump arm pillows to the angular roundness of his Earth to Sky light, hung like a piece of art.

It reminded me that wall lights can be so much more than functional, but can be sculptures in their own right. A lightbulb moment, if you will, when thinking how to choose them for my own home.