When it comes to styling the bedroom, doing a little normally does go a long way. A fresh coat of paint can alter the size of the space, a little decor can formalise or relax the space and some new sheets will work wonders when it comes to the tonal balance of the space.
However, in some cases you might just need a bit more, and that’s when lighting comes into play! It’s a tonne of fun and can totally transform the bedroom should you do it right, and if you choose to throw in a few colour-changing smart bulbs, then you’re on track to getting a whole new look for the bedroom.
In this article, we’ll take a look at all of the latest 2020 pendant lighting trends and go over a few of our favourites. If you’re looking for an affordable, easy idea for bedroom lighting, then you’re on the right track.
Take a look at the best pendant lighting ideas for the bedroom below.
Minimal and Single-toned
For those of you who are the least inclined to go all-out on their pendant lighting, this idea is for you.
Look for pendant lights that are single-toned, or essentially one single colour or material and make sure that there’s some form of geometry at play here. With this style, you’re able to easily integrate it into the bedroom and not worry too much about whether it will fit in or not.
Choose a tone and a shape of pendant light that does match the decor and bedding in the room, however, and you’ll have a nice feature pendant that adds a tonne of style and formality to the bedroom.
The New York Cafe
This idea is our top choice for those who have braved the bare-brick look in the bedroom — faux or not.
Choose your pendant lights based on their rustic style, and often the more ‘worn’ the better here. You’ll be able to give a nice cafe or loft-style look without too much effort, which means your bedroom will be warm-toned and ideal for sleep.
We would pair these rustic style pendant lights with yellow-ish bulbs, or smart bulbs that you’re able to set to a rather warm tone. If there are any browns or timber accents in the bedroom, these rustic-style pendants and warm lighting will pair perfectly together.
You might also be able to create a cosy book-friendly atmosphere here too, which is great for the wind-down before bed.
The Casually Formal Look
If your home, style or bedroom is a little more ‘professional’ in appearance, then you’ll want to take a few notes from our tips below.
Our biggest pointer here to go monotone in every location you can. You pendant lights need to be a single colour, and feature as much ‘solid’ covering as possible. In this style of bedroom, showing off the bulbs is not what we’re looking for.
The top pick pendant lights for these professional spaces are either all-glass variants or paper/fabric sheet variants that have a casual and classy look to them.
To end, be sure to choose a tone of glass, fabric or paper shade that matches your bed sheets and the colours of your decor features but not the walls. This will make sure the pendants stand out as a feature, rather than a part of the room.
Black, White and Transparent Bedrooms
For those Aussies with bedrooms that are simply black and white, this is the pendant light idea for you.
Choose these pendant lights based on their ability to reflect and shimmer. Our top choice pendants for these bedrooms are the chrome-finished models that are reflective and going to add just a dash of shimmer to the room.
If you have black walls, this will help to dull the reflection of the pendants and keep the refraction to a minimum, which can be a little distracting at nighttime.
The Timber-toned Bedrooms
If you’re the proud owner of a bedroom that’s been styled with all-timber accents and furniture, then we have a couple of tips for your pendant lighting.
For the bedrooms that are timber and white, you’ll want a warm-toned rustic looking pendant set. This will help tie the space together and carry the tones from the bed frame and decor up to the ceiling.
For the bedrooms with timber decor and dark walls, consider matching the tone of the timber to your pendants. You’ll want to do everything you can to offset these walls and pull the eye to your pendants, and matching your tones to the pendants is the best way to do that.
To end, keep your bulbs shown off in these spaces. Raw and exposed timber demands an old-school look, and there’s no easier way to do this than with exposed filament bulbs.
The Geometric-inclined Bedrooms
In the bedrooms that are clearly reliant on geometric shapes to create a sense of style, you’ll want your pendant to be the total opposite of everything in the space.
For example, if your bedroom is primarily decorated with circular wardrobes, pot plants, seating and bed frames — make your pendant a large squared-off model. The same goes for the harshly rectangular decor — offset it with a big, round pendant.
This pendant will help to balance out the room and keep everything nice and harmonious, and certainly draw the eyes upward to the pendant, making the room look larger.
The Modern Luxury Touch
When it comes to bedrooms with plush bed frames, suede carpeting and all things luxury, there’s a great pendant idea below for you.
If you’re going to all-out elegance and 5-star hotel vibes, then you need more than a single pendant, but rather a collection of these. Our top choice is to select pendants that have a tonne of variable length pendant lights on them. These come off as crystal-like in appearance, akin the look of a diamond necklace, and will pair perfectly with the toned-down luxury bedroom.
For your colour tone, do your best to tie them into the same one as your bedroom, though we would suggest opting for silvers, gold and glass here. This will tie in a level of luxury that will enhance the look of the room.
The Contrasted Bedroom
When the bedroom is a little all over the place, simply continue with this theme and invest in a pendant light that doesn’t match the space at all — though, still try your best to find something that suits.
Our top tip is to go for something in a colour tone that doesn’t match the room, though has a shape that does harmonise with at least one furniture piece. In doing this, you’ll have a unique and contrasting pendant light, that still has some sort of relationship with the items in your bedroom.
The Thoughtfully-coloured Bedroom
For our readers with bedrooms that have been painted in a very careful and calculated way, you’ll not want to upset this balance with a shimmery or chrome-finished pendant.
Our top tip here is to choose a pendant that is made of timber or wicker, and has been painted to match the bedroom. You could also paint these pendants to match your space if you’d like, to get the most visual cohesion.
The primary reason we suggest timber and wicker is down to the fact that there is little to no shine, and the pendant will offer an excellent, reserved look. Timber is generally matte, so you’ll have a pendant that simply blends in.
The Art-deco Industrial Space
We know a tonne of our readers have gone all out on their chrome and copper-toned bedrooms, and there’s no space more well-suited to a pendant light.
These bedrooms give off fantastic industrial vibes, which means you’ll need to continue this through to the lighting on the ceiling. Our top choice pendant lights for these bedrooms are glass and copper-toned — hands down.
Do your best to find a metal pendant light here that matches the same tones as any drink carts or decor in the bedroom and you’ll be on the right track. An exposed bulb is great too, which will allow you to pair it with a filament-showing bulb.
The High Ceilings
If you’re lucky enough to sleep in a bedroom with a tall ceiling, then we have a few great pendant ideas for high ceilings below.
As we’re sure you’ll agree, an open and high ceiling gives the illusion of a tonne of added space, though it can feel a little cold and airy. That said, our pendants for this type of space are going to be quite large and angular depending on the shape of the ceiling.
Instead of a pendant light that ‘dangles’ downward, we’d suggest one that stretches horizontally and extends the width of the ceiling.
You’ll also want to consider your ceilings colour tone here too, as high ceilings cancel out the colour tone of the room below, so opt for a pendant that is contrasting in colour to your walls and ceiling.
The Simple, Reserved Bedroom
When it comes to simplicity, the thought of a pendant might seem a little excessive, though hear us out.
For the bedrooms that are simple (not minimal) you’ll want pendants that hang from the ceiling to as close to the bed frame as possible. Keep them in the tone of everything in the bedroom and ensure they offer some sort of reflective or chrome finish. Do not choose a transparent, timber or glass pendant here. Keep the lights as single-toned and simple as possible, and do not have bulbs, cables or any other mechanical elements exposed.
With these pendants installed, you’ll have a reserved simple space that has soft, low-level lighting directed toward your bedside tables.
The Bedroom Home Office
With a lot of the world working from home nowadays, you might’ve had to strip out your existing pendant lights, or replace them entirely to fit a desk in the space.
For those of our readers who want their pendant lights in the home office bedroom, we have a few ideas for you.
Our first, is to have the pendant lights installed above, and a little to the right or the left of your desk. They’ll offer great whole-room lighting, though they’ll also keep the desk well-lit for those dreary, cloudy days.
Our second, is to move the lights back to above the bed, or to the very front of the bed, to the bed head and have them dangling to just above the bedside tables. This will keep them out of the way, and offer great directional lighting.
To end, choose your pendant based on their minimal-ness. If you have a home office, there’s already a lot going on in the space, so go for transparent or wired-framed pendants here.
The Earth-toned and Natural Bedroom
If you have a bedroom with a tonne of plants, or natural elements, you’ll want a pendant light that helps to accentuate these without overpowering them.
What we would suggest is light-toned timber pendants with white sheeting or shades over the top. This light-coloured shade will balance out the natural greens and timber tones in your bedroom, and the timber will work to keep the harmony of all these colours in check.
Although, this shading will depend on the tones of the fabrics in your bedroom. For the dark-toned bedrooms, opt for a dark grey pendant with timber accents, and for the light rooms, choose light shades and light timber accents.
The Colourful Kid’s Bedroom (Or Adults Bedroom)
When there’s a whole lot of colour and vibrance happening in a room, your pendants can majorly help tone this down and balance it out.
If the room is well-lit, all we would suggest is a single, elongated pendant that is geometric but exceedingly minimal. Think of a white cylindrical-shaped pendant hanging from the ceiling; it will demand attention whilst being reserved enough to blend into all the colours.
Whether the room is pink, bright green, light blue or any other colour, a single-toned pendant will work wonders here.
The Cabin-style Bedroom
For the homeowners going for a secluded, calming and timber-toned cabin-inspired look, we have a great pendant idea for you.
If you have plenty of candles in the space, timber and steel framing or any other rather raw-looking materials, then you absolutely must choose a pendant light that matches these to a tee.
Curved wrought iron is the first thing that comes to mind, however, any dark and rustic metal will do.
Have this pendant hung off-centre and above a feature space in the room and you’ll do wonders for the vertical space. Sitting above a rug or wardrobe space will be our top choice for these pendant lights.
The Glamours, Shabby Chic Bedroom
When it comes to the girly-girl look, there’s nothing more essential than a pendant light, especially as a decor feature.
For these bedrooms, an all-out chandelier works best for the lighting, however, when it comes to our pendant idea, you’ll want to choose something rather small and have it installed right above a bedside table or a makeup desk.
In having the pendant in one of these areas, you’re treating it as an extension to the decor, rather than a lighting element. You’ll want the pendant in a shabby chic bedroom to look like just another decor item.
The Strictly Two-toned Bedroom
We know that a few of our readers are deadset on their black and white or blue and white bedrooms, or any dual-toned space for that matter, and we have a great idea for pendant lighting for you.
In these rooms, colour coordination is essential. You can choose to keep your pendant as one of the tones in the bedroom, though it might be worth while to choose a third, reserved colour. Imagine a black and white bedroom with a low-saturated red pendant light — amazing, right?
To end, be sure to have this pendant hung in a space in the bedroom that has a segregation of the colours you’ve been using. What we mean by this is, don’t put your pendant in an area where you can see different shades, but rather, where it will stand out on its own.
The Uniquely-styled and Colour Bedroom
We know that some bedrooms do have a little bit much going on, and adding a pendant light might seem counterintuitive. However, there are still a few things you can do.
If you have a bedroom with a feature wall, or a timber plank room separator, for example, you’ll likely have a lot of ‘stuff’ visually happening. Use this to your advantage. Pull a colour tone you like the most from all of the ‘commotion’ that’s happening and choose a pendant to match this.
You’ll want the pendant light to be designed rather minimally, but in a solid colour. This way, your pendant will demand attention from the room, but also enhance the colour tone you liked. By adding a light based on the colour tone, you’ll work to better harmonise the whole room, and it may even look less busy.
The Relaxed, Casual Bedroom
When it comes to the bedrooms that are decorated to be calming, relaxed and not too visually stimulating — you need a pendant that reservedly sits without demanding attention.
For these bedrooms, keeping the pendant as high as possible is a must. These must be fixed to your ceiling and hang no further than between 40cm and 80cm and should be designed in a rather simple way.
We aren’t looking for flare, a splash of colour or anything else here. Keep these pendants in harmony with the colour of your ceiling, ensure they’re not an open design and be sure to pair them with a low-brightness bulb, or smart bulbs.
To end, think of these pendants as an accent light, rather than a full-fledged pendant light. They should be reserved, minimal and simply sit on their own without taking up too much visual space.
The Black and White-only Bedroom
Much-like the two-toned bedrooms we mentioned above, a pendant light for a black and white bedroom will need to be minimal and paired back.
For these rooms, we would suggest going with a frame-only design and ensure there are no shades or coverings. You’ll want to show off your ceiling and the walls behind the pendant and not have a barrier in the room.
Our colour tones, however, are not black and white for this bedroom style. Have a go at installing a chrome or copper-toned pendant here. It will fit well in the room, and the reflectivity will make sure you’re getting that black and white flashback.
The Reflective or Glazed Bedrooms
Akin to grandma’s, these bedrooms are rather reflective in that all of the decor is either mirrored, glass or a shimmering plastic.
For the pendant in this space, you’ll need to unite all of these decor items into one, which means choosing a non-transparent but reflective pendant. To help you find these pendants, we’d suggest looking at polished metal in either a light or dark shade depending on the tones of your walls.
It’s important not to choose a pendant that matches your walls in this room either, or you’ll have a flush of the same colour.
The Bright, Happy and Optimistic Bedroom
For those who aren’t afraid of their happy yellows, blues and greens, we have a brilliant pendant idea for you!
We know you’re a risk taker, since you’re throwing up bright filmic colours in the bedroom, and so we want to suggest dual pendant lights that also feature one of these colours. If you have walls and a single accent colour for your decor — choose your pendants based on this accent colour.
For example, blue walls and yellow accents — select yellow, shaded pendant lights.
The Professional, Business Bedroom
For the professional bedroom, this tip is for you.
As we know, bedrooms in the professional space are often the darker and more reserved colour tones, and so, our pendant lighting ideas carry this through. Though, we would highly suggest smoked glass here.
Unlike all of our ideas so far, smoked glass best suits these professional bedrooms. Be sure to select some deep, warm lamps for these pendants and you’ll have a relaxed glow rather than a bright main light source.
To end, we’d suggest dark grey smoked glass, or mildly red or orange pendant shades.
The Authentic 90s Inspired Bedroom
When it comes to wallpaper, florals and soft tones, we have a pendant lighting idea for your 90s bedroom.
For these bedrooms, going mismatched is going to work wonders. As you likely already have a few styles blended together already, adding some pendant lights that don’t suit the bedroom are going to blend well here.
We’d suggest choosing either a steel, cone-topped pendant light here, or a cylindrical style that is in the tone of either your bedsheets or the wallpaper.
The Villa-style Bedroom
One of our favourite bedrooms styles is the dark timber and white inspired villa bedroom.
For pendants in this room, you’re going to want to keep things off centre and installed above a preparation space or bedside table.
Our top tip is to go for dual pendant lights, and to work these into sitting above your workspace, makeup zone or bedside table as these areas will need their own lighting zone, helping to add to functional but also zoned lighting.
The Modern, Simple Bedroom
When it comes to modern and simple, all you’ll need to do is pair linear and simplistic pendant with your walls or a bed frame colour.
Keep in mind that modern bedrooms need to be as simple and coordinated as possible, which means no strange or accentuated pendants here. Casual and simple is the way to go, and paired to a colour tone that already exists in the room.
You almost don’t want to notice there’s a pendant light dangling above the bedside table or the walk-in wardrobe at all.
The Authentic Rustic Bedroom
Unlike the faux rustic and shabby chic look we suggested earlier, this bedroom is going all out on the genuine look.
For these pendant lights, you’ll want to select a light that wasn’t designed to be a pendant light, or at least doesn’t look like one. Old-school steel-shaded lamps work well here, as does the simple hanging globe with no shade or frame around it.
Always install these pendants off-centre and you’ll be doing your rustic bedroom a world of good.
The Tropical-inspired Bedroom
As you’ll agree, timber reigns supreme here and the pendants need to come in this material too.
For the tropical bedroom, wicker is an absolute must and the pendants need to land right beside each side of the bed. Be sure to have them match the tones in the bedside tables and the bed frame and you’re on to a winner.
The Pattern-obsessed Bedroom
Our readers who love their patterns and textures, there’s a little bit of calculation that needs to go into these pendant lights.
For most of us, our bedroom’s patterns come from the sheets, which means you’ll have to choose your pendant light with a shade that has similar patterns as the sheets on the bed.
Be sure to paint the colour tone of the pattern with the bedroom itself, and the pattern with your favourite bed sheets and you’ll have a harmonious and elegant pendant set up.
The Luxurious and Modern Bedroom
Like we mentioned above, these two styles have some rather unique requirements and blending them together is a little tricky.
For the modern touch on your pendants, you must choose clean lines, simple shapes and minimal elements. For the luxury touch, you have to choose a material that screams opulence, which means crystal and glass.
To tie the light to the bedroom, choose a bulb that has a hue that works best for the room itself and you have a winner!
The Takeaway
With all of those awesome pendant lighting ideas out of the way, we’re sure that you can whip up something for your bedroom that looks incredible and works with your own personal style.
Be sure to consider your room’s colours, the style of your decor and the hue of the lighting you’re using and you’ll have a much easier time creating a bedroom that looks and feels amazing.
