17 conservatory lighting ideas that perfectly balance light and shade

While the abundance of glass in a conservatory can trick you into thinking conservatory lighting ideas are less important, it's far from the case. It's the amount of glass and the design of your conservatory that can make it an even trickier element to get right.

Whether your choice of conservatory idea means you have a traditional conservatory, an orangery or a sunroom, with this excess of glazing comes limitations to where you can add lighting. Considering lighting early on in the build is essential to ensure your space is illuminated both during the day, and at night.

We've rounded up 17 conservatory lighting ideas along with some expert tips and tricks to ensure you aren't sat in the dark.

1. Choose your conservatory lighting ideas based on use

The conservatory lighting ideas you choose will be largely dictated by how you plan to use the space.

"If you’re planning a kitchen extension, functionality may sway decision-making more than design alone," says Karen Bell, sales & marketing director at David Salisbury. "On the other hand, if your extension is more about having a space to relax and unwind with company, then statement feature lights can create a warm glow as well as add a focal point to your room."

Essentially, there are a number of possibilities, and combinations when it comes to making your final choices. However, "the key is to consider your lighting design ideas early on in your plans, and talk it through with your designer," says Karen. "If not you’ll be left with cumbersome wires and plug sockets that will hamper the aesthetics of your new extension."

Karen Bell

In her role as sales and marketing director at David Salisbury, Karen has amassed a wealth of conservator knowledge to help her guide customers towards the right conservatory choices for their home, from exterior finishes through to finishing touches.

2. Let simple lighting ideas lead the way

When choosing lighting for your kitchen orangery extension, it's important to make sure you follow the same advice as when choosing kitchen lighting ideas – layer your lighting to avoid making kitchen lighting mistakes.

However, your lights don't always have to be elaborate, especially if the rest of your kitchen design is classically elegant and not flamboyant.

Simple LED spotlights around your orangery roof lantern will provide essential lighting at night, and can even add ambience when installed using dimmer switches. Pendants suspended from the roof lantern will then help to bring the inside alive at night, with the metal shades making the light work even harder by reflecting it back into the room.

3. Don't forget to control the natural light too

Although the natural light that most conservatory types are designed around maximising, is a huge benefit of extending with glass, left unmanaged, it can quickly lead to issues with overheating. Or, in older conservatories, cold, chilly spaces when the sun fails to shine.

Installing conservatory blinds to your windows, roof lights and doors is therefore one of the most effective ways of dealing with both ends of the temperature scale, providing protection when the sun's at its strongest and trapping cold air between the glass and blind when the clouds come out.

Looking for blinds? You can find a wide range of conservatory blind options at Swift Direct Blinds.

4. Choose glass fittings to mirror your conservatory style

Adding a glass extension idea or conservatory to your home is often a decision that's made to make the most of the outside view. And whether this is your own garden, or sweeping views of the countryside around you, it usually means your conservatory lighting is important, but not the focal point.

In situations like this, although you feel adding even more glass into your conservatory lighting ideas is too much, as this scheme from David Salisbury demonstrates, it's far from a bad idea.

Instead, the lighting compliments the room and isn't distracting, allowing your eye to head to the key focal point – the view.

5. Don't forget wall lights when choosing conservatory lighting ideas

Whether you're building a new conservatory or retrofitting better lighting into an existing one, wall lights are a key part of the lighting mix for these sorts of spaces. With a real conservatory, you should benefit from having two areas of your home's external wall exposed inside the conservatory, giving you solid wall to install them on on either side of the door – while if you're looking for orangery or sunroom ideas, you may have even more wall to play with.

Consider wall lights that either diffuse light throughout the space, or are directional up and down such as these Indoor Plaster Wall Lights from Amazon. They will help to spread light upwards too, creating effective accent lighting if you have a fully glazed roof.

6. Pick unusual window shapes to play with natural light

Vast expanses of glazing can be striking in the right setting, but if your conservatory extension is being added to an older, period property that's oozing with character, make sure your conservatory lighting ideas match too.

And this doesn't always mean choosing the most elaborate chandeliers or pendant lights. Instead, look to the natural light again as a means of adding another dimension to your conservatory lighting ideas.

Arched windows and shaped windows in gable ends can all add an interesting element to your conservatory, while also controlling some of the light that enters, and bringing in extra light where there could be the risk of a dark corner.

7. Use plenty of supplementary lighting in conservatory living rooms

Choosing conservatory lighting needs to follow the same principles as living room lighting ideas, even when there are windows and rooflights surrounding your seating areas.

Low level lighting such as floor and table lamps are an important part of your lighting mix – especially when your overhead lighting is limited. Whether you're working with an interior designer or planning the interiors yourself, take stock of your lighting plans early on in the design process for a conservatory.

This way, you can ensure the electrical sockets are in the right place and avoid wires trailing along the side of the conservatory floor. If they're your only form of lighting in a space, you may want to consider novel ways of turning them beyond manually doing so. It's possible to install switched sockets for lighting that's plugged in (but bear in mind these are often round-pinned, so you may need to change the plug on your lighting), or you could go down the smart lighting route, using one of the best smart plugs to automate your lighting instead.

8. Make sure you select the right conservatory frame for pendant lighting

The glazing in conservatories presents obvious issues for mounting any lighting, however, it's perfectly possible to include pendant lighting even if you have a large roof lantern, but it's largely something you'll have to specify from the outset of your build.

"The underside of our timber framed roof lanterns can be specified with a base plate designed to accept the fixing of a pendant light fitting," confirms Annabel Fenwick, a director at Just Roof Lanterns. "They're built with hidden conduit channels to hide electrical cabling, and can accept pendant lights up to 25kg."

Aluminium and uPVC conservatories will likely not be able to handle pendant lights as heavy as this, but there will be options for hiding cables in hollow components.

“The most efficient way to provide power for a pendant light is through discreetly concealed conduits or wiring channels, integrated into the conservatory’s structure," says Karen Bell.

"This ensures a clean, uninterrupted design, routing through the roof ridge or support posts. The key to this solution is considering it early enough in the design phase, so that it can incorporated into the finalised design before the conservatory is built.”

9. Task lighting can be a beneficial addition to conservatory lighting ideas

In an ideal world, your conservatory will make use of all three of the types of lighting available to it. Ambient lighting will generally be supplied by an overhead pendant light or wall lights and this creates the main illumination for the space. Conservatories are likely to have high levels of natural light during the daylight hours, so you can focus on softer ambient light that creates an evening atmosphere rather than looking for intense, bright lighting.

Task lighting isn't necessarily the most important type of lighting for a conservatory, but it does depend what you plan to use it for.

If you like to read or do something that requires your eyes to focus, such as crafting for example, brighter directional lighting from table or floor lamps can be added to make sure your needs are met.

10. Don't let your roof lantern become an empty void

Large roof lanterns, as seen in kitchen conservatory extensions and orangeries, can cause one major issue in your lighting scheme. If you don't include lighting underneath the lantern itself in the form of a pendant light or spotlights, it becomes a large gap in your lighting, in a space which can often be a space that benefits from artificial light in the evening, such as over a dining table or kitchen.

To combat this, double up with the placement of downlights around the roof lantern opening as well as pendant lights . Choosing spotlights that offer a wide spread of light will, when packed in densely enough, prevent this space becoming a dark spot in your scheme.

11. Anchor conservatory lighting over a table or island 

If you are considering pendant lighting in a conservatory, but don't have lofty headroom to install lots of pendants, then locate one over a piece of furniture that will ensure it's not in the way of anyone moving around the space.

This could be a dining table, a kitchen island lighting idea, or even something like a coffee table, allowing you to bring down the height of the pendant into the space.

"If you're hanging a pendant light above a table or island, the general rule of thumb is that the fixture should be hung 30-34 inches above it," says Annabel Fenwick.

12. Or, in a pitched roof conservatory include a show-stopping chandelier

If you do have a large pitched roof to a conservatory, then opting for a large, grand chandelier, such as this Seven Tiered Galactica Chandelier from Pooky, can really highlight the ceiling and draw the eye up.

But how high should you hang a pendant light in a large conservatory? "For ceilings higher than eight foot, add three inches to the height per foot," advises Annabel Fenwick.

Many different styles of chandeliers will suit a conservatory, from classic crystal drop chandeliers to modern, sculptural designs – depending on your interior scheme, the lighting ideas for vaulted ceilings are pretty much endless.

13. Light up your conservatory roof with accent lighting

"For central glazed skylights, we would always recommend using uplighting inside the space so that it doesn’t appear to be a black hole in the evenings," says Piero De Marchis, managing director of Detail Lighting.

There are a few ways you could do this, including using spotlights angled up to the roof, placing wall lights on the recess under a roof lantern in an orangery, or by using LED lighting recessed into the conservatory design. This can look incredibly effective, highlighting the pitched roof design both from inside and outside of the conservatory.

14. Use lighting strips for a more contemporary conservatory lighting idea

When it comes to dramatic accent lighting for a conservatory, you can't beat a modern lighting strip.

Many modern conservatory ideas can incorporate a small cornice that allows for hidden rope lighting, or LED strips, both of which will create impact and an even light all around a space.

Directed upwards to the ceiling, this also creates a brilliant effect to showcase the structure of your roof as a design feature at night.

15. Choose garden style lighting to connect indoors and outdoors

Not sure what type of conservatory lighting ideas to go for? We love the idea of bringing the outside in by using lighting with an outdoorsy design vernacular in your conservatory space.

Take these weathered copper lanterns, for example, which give this otherwise quite formal dining space the idea of being outside, keeping that connection to the garden, even when using the dining room at night time. Marry these with some clever garden lighting ideas, and using the space at night becomes a brilliant experience.

16. Don't forget the importance of externally lighting your conservatory

While the conservatory lighting ideas you choose for inside will be the ones you see most often, don't overlook the lighting on the exterior of your conservatory too.

Not only will this improve the look from inside, thanks to its highly glazed nature, but a conservatory often acts as the main access to the garden meaning it's a real feature of the rear of the house.

Illuminating it with good external lighting will ensure it looks its best when using your garden in the summer months, and help to create light for an outdoor seating or dining area.

17. Symmetry will create a stunning conservatory lighting effect

Symmetry can works wonders in a conservatory. Classically, British homes don't tend to be all that symmetrical, unless they're large detached homes or new builds designed that way, but many conservatory styles are perfectly symmetrical additions to a house.

Playing up this feature can be an effective way to create a luxurious dynamic, as demonstrated in this conservatory design. A central pendant, with matching wall lamps and table lamps, creates the perfect vignette through the conservatory doors from the garden.

Still in the early stages of your conservatory research and not sure which type to choose? Take a look at our guides to oak frame conservatories and orangery vs conservatory to help bring your closer to your final decision.