A beautifully lit piece of art is the best finishing touch you can add to a room. It will add character and charisma to the room while also enhancing everything else around it. Good accent lighting is not as simple as it sounds and there are several mistakes you can make that will undermine the value of the art. Below are a few tips on how to light art properly.

Ceiling-mounted Accent Lights

Ceiling light fixtures are one of the best ways of shining light directly into artworks because of how they allow the direction of the light to be adjusted. You can use eithersurface-mounted lights orrecessed lights depending on what works best with the rest of the room. You can even utilize specified light-beam spreads to make sure that most of the artwork is illuminated. To prevent the lighting from both casting too long a shadow and causing reflective glare, arrange it so that the light hits the center of the artwork at a 30 degree angle.

Wall Washers

Shining light directly on the artwork is not the your only viable option, especially when you have multiple pieces of art in one room and illuminating them all directly is not feasible. One great alternative is using wall washing. Use a combination of different light sources such as ceiling lights, wall lights, and floor lights to create one bright wall while also indirectly illuminating the rest of the room. This more casual way of lighting art is actually the most preferred method by most art collectors because of its built-in flexibility. Since the entire wall is lit, you can add, remove, or rearrange the pieces of art and not need to adjust your lighting fixtures.

Picture Lights

Picture lights are low-wattage lamps mounted on the frames of individual pieces of art. Their primary advantage is their capacity to captivate people into taking a closer look. Pictures lights can also add to the overall look of a room since they are innately decorative. Their main disadvantage, however, is that you’ll need outlets for their cords.

Nothing makes it easier for people to appreciate good art than proper accent lighting.