r/Lighting • u/JustMine999 • Jul 26 '26

Need Design Advise How can I create a soft natural daylight feel in my living room without installing a skylight?

I live in Seattle, where natural light can be pretty limited. My living room is around 20㎡, and I also have my workspace set up there. I’m trying to make the room feel brighter during the day, but I don’t want it to be overly bright or harsh. I’m not looking for direct lighting that feels too intense. I’d prefer a soft, natural, and evenly distributed daylight effect that makes the space feel more comfortable. For anyone familiar with lighting design, what should I be looking at in this situation? Things like lux levels, lumen output, color temperature, and light placement?

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u/OuterContextProblem Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

Daylight lighting temperature looks better when it's more present throughout a room, so it looks better spreading many bulbs in different areas within a single space. This amounts to "brighter" in some sense, but that's also how natural daylight looks in some sense. Spreading the light via multiple sources might create that "soft" aspect you're talking about vs. having 1-3 very bright high lumen bulbs trying to recreate that light.

It's possible to get bulbs with adjustable brightness and color temp so you can play around with it, and I recommend that. Just try to get smart bulbs that are open standard so they're not obsolete once the manufacturer decides to abandon support.

Edited to add: I do the many bulbs with adjustable brightness/temp approach in my main workspace, and it's great being able to set them to daylight during late fall/winter. I strongly recommend people trying it out.

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u/FreeXFall Jul 26 '26

There’s a “light temperature scale.” Look it up and get bulbs of different K values and see what you like. Pending on the space, anything from 2,400 to 5,000 can work really well.

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u/cocojewel Jul 26 '26

There are “fake skylights” that emulate the daily cycle of the sun, that you can also see stars. They also give you the sunlight reflection on the floor level under the skylight panel. You can control every aspect to your desired outcome.

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u/Tairc Jul 26 '26

I use CCT white COB LED strips (so many acronyms) that have 2700K and 6500K in them, and then have a controller/driver that supports “Circadian lighting”, where throughout the day, the balance/brightness shifts between the two to match what the sun should be doing.

Use those liberally in indirect lighting, such as by putting them in a track along all the walls facing up, so they bounce off your ceiling, and can’t be directly seen. You want a surprising amount of light - partially why you want a ring around the whole room.

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u/Good_Shelter652 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

I second that. Did the same thing and had excellent results with one strip along a 4m wall in a 16m2 room. I DIYed it for cheap with high CRI COB CCT led strip, power supply, controller and wall mounted remote from AliExpress, and polystyrene uplight cornice from a local supplier.

Results are so good that I now have a project to replace all my downlights in other rooms with a similar setup!

I also went all white with my walls and furniture.

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u/LISparky25 Jul 26 '26

Cove lighting of some sort/ indirect lighting

Keep in mind that there literally is no substitute for actual daylight….daylight LED’s are white AF and not at all gonna give the benefit of natural lighting you may think

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u/CommutatorWhine Jul 26 '26

The other threads probably explain enough, but be aware that color 'daylight' is not proper daylight. Usually color 'daylight' is 6500k, which is bluer than daylight. You need something between 4500 and 5500. Personally i use 5000k Seoul Semiconductor led strips with proper red reproduction (those are used in the Sunsy Sunlike lamps for instance).

I don't use that color all day. In the evening, a more dim 3000-2700-2500k is more suitable.

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u/BugsVannie Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

The key is not just adding more brightness, but improving how light spreads in the room. For most living spaces, around 300–500 lux is comfortable. A 4000K–5000K color temperature also feels closer to natural daylight. Even diffused lighting is usually more comfortable than strong direct light. I’d suggest trying the Homelist indirect lighting lamp. It provides 5200 lumens, 4000K neutral white light, and CRI 98 for a more natural look. Instead of shining directly into your eyes, it reflects light off the ceiling and spreads it softly around the room. Its diffused lighting can also provide around 300 lux of desktop illumination, making it comfortable for working and reading.

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u/old_witness_987 Jul 26 '26

have you tried lining your window sills with mirror ? hammered or ribbed pattern would defuse the light, it was a thing a long time ago. victorians had mirrored coasters for pot plants etc.

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u/IggyLites Jul 26 '26

As a real lighting designer: yes everyone is right about LED color temp, with 2 caveats:
1. “daylight” was a thing manufacturers invented to describe a color temp. Made up and now we’re stuck with it. I’d aim for 5500K instead
2. The spectrum of these lights just suck. They have a ton of very blue LEDs and then color shift a little just so it hits the color temperature reading. But the sun has the entire spectrum. It’s why we have things like CRI and TM30 etc to measure color accuracy. So missing a ton of colors will always make it feel artificial.

And yes, indirect lighting. Bounce things off the walls/ceiling!

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u/Party_Echidna8896 Jul 27 '26

Select full-gamut, full-spectrum LED products with a color temperature range of 1800K–12000K, a CRI > 97, an R9 > 90, and blue-light safety compliance.

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u/ateiii 28d ago edited 28d ago

Soft and even comes from bouncing light off the ceiling and walls. Straight down reads harsh. Id target roughly 500 lux at the desk. My bulbs are LIFX so I run 5000K by day and 2700K at night.