When you add a theater to your home, you might consider cozy seats, cutting-edge audio technology, or a high-resolution big screen the most essential add-ons. However, without the proper lighting, a home theater system will lack a complete design.
Besides avoiding outrageous ticket prices, a perk of having a home theater is making it your own. That means you can choose both functional, customizable, and fun home theater lighting. There’s an LED light that you can use in every way imaginable for your theater. Keep reading to learn about more home movie theater lighting ideas.
Important Things to Consider
Adding LEDs
Installing LEDs in your home theater offers many benefits, such as adjustable outputs to help customize your lighting setup. Our products come in various wattage and CCT options. They also have long life spans and are energy-efficient, leading to fewer replacement costs over time. Simple LED fixtures like strip lights and bulb replacements can be completed as a DIY project. However, more complex light installations may require help from a professional.
Correlated Color Temperature
Decide what correlated color temperature (CCT) you want in your home theater before purchasing any supplies. A warm white CCT is preferred for theaters because it creates a more relaxed, comfortable vibe while reducing eye strain. A cooler CCT is usually only used if using the space for other purposes or if you want flexibility in your lighting. Depending on the fixture's purpose, you can also select different CCTs for different light fixtures in the room. We offer fixtures with selectable and tunable CCTs that can be adjusted based on your mood.
Smart Controls
Installing smart controls lets you adjust the lights anytime from your phone, remote, or voice assistant such as Google Home or Alexa. We offer a range of standard remotes, Wi-Fi hubs, and smart controllers that function with smartphone apps, which makes it easier to turn off the LEDs when you’re ready to watch a movie or back on when it’s over. If you are operating lights with different colors or CCT options, having a robust controller also allows you to do that instantly.
Best Lighting Fixtures to Add to Your Home Movie Theater
Dimmable LED Bulbs and Fixtures
- Dimmable lighting is preferred when you want to adjust lighting based on the situation. For example, when you want a darker environment to watch a movie but want it to be brighter to navigate the room if someone needs to use the restroom, get more snacks, etc. It also limits the amount of glare.
- Dimmable LED bulbs are available in various shapes and sizes and at several color temperatures, such as warm and ultra-warm white, perfect for a theater atmosphere.
Recessed Downlights
- Recessed downlights are suitable for overhead lighting for any home theater with easy installation in both retrofit and new construction applications.
- We recommend recessed downlights with TRIAC dimming. TRIAC dimming allows you to dim the lights from full brightness to off during movie time, just like at movie theaters. Our downlights have a frosted lens that distributes soft and uniform lighting.
Product Recommendation
We recommend the 4” Selectable CCT Recessed LED Downlight with Nightlight Trim for home theaters. These downlights have an innovative nightlight on the outer edge of the fixture that produces ultra-warm white ambient lighting that delivers the perfect amount of lighting to see your surroundings while avoiding glaring on the screen.
Wall Sconces
- Adding wall sconces to your home theater gives it a traditional movie theater look. They are usually placed on the two walls adjacent to the TV, making your television the focal point.
- Wall sconces deliver uplight that provides sufficient glare-free task lighting. By illuminating the top half of your wall and your ceiling, your ceiling will look taller, and the room will look complete or refined. They can also have both up and down lights– providing an upscale modern lighting design.
Product Recommendation
We recommend the up/down wall sconce for your movie theater room. This light fixture has a 3000K color temperature, perfect for adding unobtrusive, ambient light to a home theater.
LED Strip Lights
- Using LED tape lights in a warm white color temperature, ranging from 2700K to 3000K will make the room comfortable and inviting. Warm white lighting has a yellow hue, making it easier on the eyes.
- For ambient lighting installations, it is best to use tape lights in a single color or a warm white color temperature. For a unique in-home theater, you can use single-color strip lights in any color.
- Strip lights can be installed as cove lighting. Cove lighting provides upscale lighting to your home theater without creating a glare on your screen. You can add this on the top or bottom of walls or at transitions in wall surfaces. Click here to learn how to install LED cove lighting in your theater.
- For a more unique in-home theater, use single-color strip lights in any color you choose– red, green, blue, amber, pink, yellow, or UV blacklight. Although it isn’t conventional, these strips will make your home theater one-of-a-kind. Plus, with the versatility of strip lights, you can pair the strip to a controller or dimmer, customizing the intensity and brightness of your choosing.
- For even more customization, select tunable white, RGB, RGB + White, or RGB + CCT strip lights.
Dimmers can be attached to strip lights to adjust their brightness. For more information, visit our article How to Choose the Best Controller and Dimmer for LED Strip Lights!
Step Lights
- Step lights are functional safety lighting in your home theater. They can be added to the bottom of walls as pathway lights, on step fronts, or alongside them.
- They’re available in various intensities, color temperatures, and shapes. Choose decorative trim options to match your decor and direct light exactly where needed.
Product Recommendation
We recommend eyelid deck lights because they direct the light downwards, providing the perfect amount of light for increased visibility without affecting the screen.
You could also install LED strip lights on the bottom of your steps and attach them to the STEKO Aluminum Channel by KLUS. The design of this aluminum channel is specific for the edge of a stair tread. Pair the strip light with a dimmer for subtle step lighting.
Types of Lighting in A Home Theater and Its Uses
Bias Lighting
Bias lighting is adding backlighting, usually LED strip lights, behind the TV screen. It reduces eye strain by acting as a baseline so your eyes aren’t constantly adjusting between light and dark scenes. Bias lights need a color temperature as close to 6500K or a cool white color as possible, essentially daylight, to relieve eye strain. To learn more, read our bias lighting blog post.
Ambient Lighting
Ambient lighting is the overhead lighting in your theater. This usually includes light fixtures such as recessed downlights, wall sconces, or strip lights.
Task Lighting
Task lighting makes it easy to see when performing specific activities, such as walking to get snacks or going up or down steps. We recommend installing the strip lights and step lights for this purpose.
Get Started
Buy all the lighting you need to create the desired look for your home movie theater. If you have any specific questions, contact one of our in-house customer service team members at 866-590-3533 or by email.
by Emily Willis
LED Lighting Specialist
Emily has undergone training to provide technically accurate lighting knowledge on the uses and benefits of LEDs in residential, landscape, commercial, and vehicle applications. These blogs help understand and select lighting for various projects.
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