A family room is a medium-to-large room, less formal than a living room, where casual family and friends can gather. A family room is designed to be more comfortable and relaxed, with entertainment centers, audio and television, game consoles and more. The family room likely features comfortable couches and recliners, it may double as a media room for movie-watching, and may feature an open area for children to play.

The Lighting you'll need in a Family Room

The family room features a comfortable seating, entertainment spaces, perhaps an open area for fun, and some storage cabinets. There may be a play area in the center of the room and side-tables for drinks and snacks. Adapting your lighting choices to how people will use the room is important.

Overhead ceiling lights are important for lighting up a larger room. Remember that in a family room people will be walking around and using the central area, so any ceiling lights will need to leave enough headroom clearance.
Pendant or chandelier lights can be hung next to seating areas, or over side-tables, provided you'll be sure people don't need to walk underneath. You might also consider using a small chandelier.
Semi-flush or flush-mounted lights work well close to the ceiling and also leave plenty of headroom for walking underneath. These hug closer to the ceiling and provide strong light. For a larger room you may need two flush fixtures.
Recessed "pot" lights are recessed into the ceiling and they take up no room height. They offer a modern look and shine downwards. You'll need to position several recessed lights across the room to light the whole space.
Wall sconces are a good choice in the family room, attached to a wall behind a seating area or at the sides of the room. They help to provide softer background lighting to augment the main light fixtures or to work alone for a more comfortable mood.
Portable lamps such as tall floor lamps can be placed next to seating areas or in the corners of the room. They can be switched on or off independently when more light or subtler light is needed. Consider also table lamps either side of a couch or in the corners of the family room.
Use a desk lamp if you have a desk area in the room, consider a desk lamp which is designed to light up the desk area when needed. Also consider buffet lamps for narrow side tables.
Add a ceiling fan is a good choice in a family room because it helps to keep people cool in summer and warmer in winter. The fan can hang fairly close to the ceiling to allow ample room to walk under, and also can double as a central light fixture.
Accent lighting can be added to highlight smaller areas of the room or add decorative touches. Spot lights can shine onto specific parts of the room for a more movie-theater effect, or also consider can-lights mounted on the floor behind furniture.

Lighting fixtures for a family room

The use of Lighting in your Family Room

The main function of your lighting should be to help people to see in the dark, especially in the evening and at night. Make sure you have a way to brightly light the room when needed, even if you have other optional lighting providing softer light.

Also consider where in the room people will spend the most time and what they will be doing there. Will they be sitting in certain areas? Performing tasks? Moving around? Needing to read or write or work in detail? Will they be focusing on things close to themselves or at a distance?

Ambient Lighting is when the light is bright and spreads out in generally all directions, lighting up most of the room. Ambient light can also be background light. It is less focused and more diffused. Ceiling lights and wall lights can create ambient lighting.
Task Lighting is when the light is more focused into a smaller area, possibly aimed in its direction, and is used when performing tasks. Such as when reading a book or working on crafts, you'll need light fixtures or lamps nearby so that you can see what you're doing.
Accent Lighting comes from small accents of light generally in the background. This are the finishing touches such as small novelty lamps, can lights, spot lights, accent lamps and other decorative lighting. The amount of light output is usually less and limited to a smaller area.

Family room lighting entertainment media room

Where to put Lighting in a Family Room

Main Light Fixtures

In a family room, place or or two main light fixtures fairly centrally in the room. If the room is longer, use two and space them out to cover the room. Semi-flush mount or flush-mounted fixtures work well since they take up less ceiling height and will work with any ceilings. If your family room has much taller ceilings, consider a chandelier or pendant lighting.

If the room is longer than square, consider breaking it up into sections, with one light fixture in the center of each. Centrally positioned lights will emit light in all directions and light up most of the room. You can always add to this with secondary light fixtures and lamps.

Secondary Light Fixtures

To add additional layers of light, and more options for varied levels of brightness, add some wall sconces on the walls near to seating or walking areas. These could be switched on and off independently from the main lighting. By themselves they offer a softer ambience.

If you're going to use light fixtures that hang from the ceiling, such as chandeliers or pendants, make sure there is enough room below the fixture. They can hang above furniture and tables, or over a seating area, but bear in mind that to hang above areas where people will walk, you'll need much higher ceilings.

Also consider floor lamps or torchieres, which provide brighter light than other lamps. Position these taller lamps in corners or ends of the room, or next to seating areas to light up dark spots. They can also be used by themselves for more of a background lighting.

Task Light Fixtures

Often in a family room you'll see table lamps, which work well positioned at the sides of a couch on chairside/end-tables. When a person sits next to them they can benefit from the local light to help with tasks such as reading. An alternative is a reading lamp, which is a type of floor lamp designed to help with reading.

Table lamps also work well at the sides of a room as more of a background light for a casual mood with less brightness. They can be pleasant in the evening and help to create a more comfortable mood.

Consider eyesight and glare

When placing lighting in a family room, remember that light from the light bulbs may shine directly into your eyes if they're not fully covered. For example tall floor lamps or bright ceiling lights might shine into the eyes of people as they sit.

Think about what direction the light will shine and what the line of sight will be. You might benefit from an overhead light when needed, but you may not want it shining in your face during movie night.

Family room light fixtures

How much Lighting does your Family Room need?

The amount of light needed in a family room is usually at a lower level compared to other rooms. Also the size of the room and the natural lighting coming in through windows will affect the amount of light needed.

Light is best measured in lumens, which is a measure of how much light reaches a surface at a given distance. In general it means "brightness" in a standardized way. You'll need to calculate an idea of how much light you want in the room, and then try to aim to achieve this across your light fixtures and lamps.

A general approach is as follows:

Measure the length and width of the room in feet..
Multiply the two numbers to get the "square feet".
Multiply the square feet by the amount of lumens needed per square foot for the room - for a family room this is 10-20 lumens per square foot.

For example in an 18 x 12 foot family room:

18 x 12 = 216 square feet.
216 x 10 = 2160 total lumens on the low end.
216 x 20 = 4320 lumens on the high end.

In terms of light bulbs: A single 60-watt incandescent light bulb outputs about 800 lumens. If you were using purely 60-watt bulbs, you'd need at least e.g. 2160 / 800 = 2.7 light bulbs minimally, up to 4320 / 800 = 5.4 bulbs maximally. So roughly 3 to 6 light bulbs at 60 watts each would be needed for a family room.

Family room ceiling lighting