How to Light Structural Columns in Homes

Redecorating a room allows you to create your ideal space for entertaining, working or relaxing. However, you cannot change all the features of a space. Structural columns are expensive and difficult to move or remove, so the interior designer on a budget must work around them instead. Structural columns can darken corners, break up a room and make it look smaller than it is. Lighting the column itself usually just emphasizes it and the problems it causes. Instead, use lighting techniques to counteract its shrinking effect on the room or to transform it into a subtle accent for your design.

Floor lamps
Mirrors

Instructions

- 1
  Decide how the column will function in your design. You can choose to integrate it into your design and make it a gentle focal point of the room, or you can minimize its interference with the free flow of your space.
- 2
  Install mirrors on the column to light it as a design feature. Attaching scones to it or lighting it from above would illuminate the column but may cast unwanted shadows. Mirroring the column instead allows it to reflect the light from the rest of the room, creating an indirect, ambient light source that softly illuminates the area. Choose small- to mid-sized mirrors for columns in living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, and use full-length mirrors on columns in bathrooms.
- 3
  Tuck floor lamps beside columns to minimize their interruption of a space. Columns near corners or entryways can break up a room and make it feel smaller than it is. Counteract this by putting floor lamps into the parts of the room that are partially blocked by the column. Illuminating these areas brings them back into view and enlarges the room, pulling attention away from the column.

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