As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. A hotel’s lobby is the space that welcomes guests into your hotel’s overall aesthetic, giving them a glance at what’s in store during their stay. A lot goes into designing a hotel lobby. From the furnishings to the artwork, each selection can speak to your overall design and give a guest their first impression. Lighting, while often overlooked, is an essential part of your lobby design.
A lobby’s lighting design reflects the hotel’s style and influences how the hotel’s services are perceived. Lighting that’s too dark can feel ominous and uninviting. Overly bright or industrial lights can feel sterile and inhospitable. The perfect hotel lobby lighting will ensure that your guests feel welcome, giving visitors a taste of the luxury amenities they’ll experience in the days to come.
No matter what style décor you choose, whether traditional elegance or contemporary sleekness, here are 10 hotel lobby lighting design tips that can help create a breathtaking interior space.
1. Set the Tone of Your Lobby
Lobby lighting has the amazing ability to set the tone for your hotel’s experience. Stage productions use lighting to their advantage to create a sense of romance or dangerous foreboding with each light change. In the same way, you can use lighting to create the perfect hotel lobby atmosphere.
Indirect lighting, or downlighting, casts a warm, soft glow that can result in a more calming atmosphere. To produce an intimate, inviting setting, try utilizing the bright illumination of floor and table lamps, which will welcome your guests to explore each space.
2. Match Your Lighting to Your Overall Hotel Décor
When you’re coming up with hotel lobby lighting ideas, be sure to consider your hotel décor as a whole. Whether you have a more modern aesthetic or prefer a traditional, luxe setting, your lighting should seamlessly blend with your other decorative elements. From your furniture to your flooring, find light fixtures that add to your décor and speak to your hotel’s unique style.
3. Select an Eye-Catching Focal Point
When it comes to giving your hotel lobby a sense of luxury, chandeliers are the first choice of many professional designers. These eye-catching focal pieces offer controlled lighting, but they also bring a feeling of extravagance and sophistication to hotel décor. There’s nothing quite like a chandelier to welcome your guests and serve as a talking piece.
While crystal chandeliers may be a more traditional choice, today, you can choose from a variety of styles and materials to match your existing design scheme. Chandeliers can take many forms, including industrial, rustic, minimalist and more.
4. Highlight Your Hotel Reception Desk
When you’re implementing your hotel lobby lighting design, be sure to focus on the functional aspects of your lobby lighting — not just its decorative uses. One of the most critical elements of a hotel lobby is the reception area. The right lighting in this space will allow guests to automatically understand where they should go to check in. It will also help guests practically, as they need sufficient lighting to read and sign paperwork.
Highlight your hotel reception desk with some beautiful desk lamps, or opt for a gorgeous hotel reception back wall design.
5. Illuminate Key Areas
Hotel lobby lighting can guide your guests through each space organically. Without giving explicit directions, highlight the most important areas and invite your guests to step into them, including seating, walkways, elevators, and the reception area.
6. Create the Illusion of Space
Hotel lobbies are traditionally meant to give a sense of grandeur. Limited space, however, can make them feel more cramped than you desire. Multiple light sources around your lobby can give your space a more open, airy feel. Be sure to include a mix of wall lighting and decorative accent lights, including table lamps and floor lamps, to make your hotel lobby appear more spacious.
7. Accentuate Your Artwork With Wall Lighting
Wall and picture lights can fill multiple roles. They can illuminate your lobby, add an incredible decorative element to your space, and highlight any artwork or decorations you wish to accentuate. If you have textured walls, paintings or photographs that you want to bring to your guests’ attention, wall lighting will perfectly highlight these accent pieces.
8. Choose Warm, Soft Lighting
Most hospitality reception areas use soft, warm lighting to welcome their guests into the hotel. Overly bright light can be harsh and unforgiving to often tired guests who have traveled long distances to arrive at your location. What’s more, yellow lighting is what most people use in their homes. If you include yellowish light in your space, your guests will automatically feel more at home. The goal of your hotel lighting design should be good visibility without a harsh glare.
9. Pay Attention to the Nooks and Crannies
Dark, overlooked corners can spoil the entire mood of your elegant lobby aesthetics. To ensure these nooks and crannies are properly lit, try including sleek floor lamps in your lighting design. Designer wall sconces can also be used in any awkward recesses and corners. Lighting these dark corners will create a lively, friendly mood in your hotel lobby, helping to give your guests cheer.
10. Work With a Professional Consultant to Find Your Dream Lobby Lighting Solutions
There are nearly infinite options when it comes to creating a unique and impactful lobby lighting design. If you’re finding this process overwhelming or you can’t locate lighting options that match your distinct style, Remington Lighting is here for you. We manufacture custom light fixtures for hotels, resorts, and other hospitality facilities. If you want your hotel lobby to have a distinctive and luxurious feel, you’ll be happy to know that our professional lighting consultants are skilled at working with designers to customize incredible lighting solutions for any layout and aesthetic.
From the drawing board to the finished product, we’ll walk with you every step of the way to ensure your lighting dreams become a reality. Whether you see something on our site that you love or you have a one-of-a-kind idea, contact Remington today to learn about luxurious lighting that fits your budget.
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