Style Guide: Rustic Lighting Fixtures and Ideas

Rustic Style Lighting

The general style for rustic lighting fixtures, indoor or outdoor, would be wrought iron lights with cream/tan glass work just like in pictures (1) and (2).

You could go with the general rustic wrought iron lights, or there is the more stylized Mission lighting design. Mission lighting uses rustic dark woods blended with patterned colored glass. You’ll know it from the clean lines and angles – the kitchen in picture (3) is using Mission pendant lights over the kitchen island. One name brand for Mission style lighting is Franklin Iron Works – you can see some of their lights below along with some other rustic lighting ideas.

Putting the Rustic Charm on Display

Recessed light or downlights can be pointed towards and highlight any textured walls you have (stone wall, wooden walls) – this is called accent lighting (4).

You can even get uplights that point up towards the ceiling, highlighting any woodwork going on up there. Check out the cove lighting in picture (5), that creates a soft glow on the ceiling and in the room (The Beauty of Using Cove Lighting: Design and Ideas).

Blazing Beauty

A rustic home is a cozy home. You have the warmth of the wood and stone surrounding you. Then there are the crackling fireplaces. Other ways of adding some soft glowing flames include using table lanterns to protect candles. You could also fill up a bowl with water and use floating candles. You can also find flameless battery powered candles – some of them will even flicker, and can be turned on by a remote – get them here.

Lighting For Different Ceiling Heights

Since most rustic homes have heigh ceilings, you’ll find a lot of long hanging lights that bring the light closer down to the living area. You’ll see long rustic pendant lighting and chandeliers. You can also make use of wall lights to mix up the rustic light fixtures.

Mixing it Up: To create great lighting design in a room, you will want to mix up the type of rustic light fixtures used in the space. For example you don’t want to just have pendant lights everywhere in a room. Mix pendant lights along with table and wall lights. By mixing up the type of light fixtures you have in a room, you create different effects and layers – making the space look better.

More modern rustic homes will have recessed lights mixed in with the lighting of a room – just like in the bedroom in picture (6). These recessed lights would also work well in a bathroom.

More rustic mood board posts:

Image Credits: 1/2/3/4/5/6