Staircase & Stairwell Lighting
A stairwell is a vertical room, and it wants a fixture with drop. These long pendants and clusters are made to fall through the void of a staircase or a double-height entry — sized to be seen from above and below.
A staircase is two lighting problems at once. You need to see the treads safely, and you have a tall volume that a single flush fixture will never fill. A long pendant or a cascading fixture hung down the stairwell answers the second; wall lights at intervals answer the first. Whatever goes up there, make sure you can reach it — a fixture that needs scaffolding to change a bulb is a fixture you will come to resent.
Full walkthrough: staircase and stairwell lighting ideas, plus how to size a chandelier by room. Also see chandeliers and wall lighting.
