I only have ceiling fans with lights on my ceilings. I like overhead light when I need bright light and lamps when I want to read or have softer light.

We have lamps for reading, but I don't know what I'd do when not in bed if we only had them. Here's our ceiling fixture. It's a beautiful (to us) wood palm leaf fan with lights....

{{!gwi}}

We've changed the globes to a more flower like look, which fits the fixture better.

I would never have overhead lighting in a bedroom. Too cold and harsh, and no need for it, imo. With lamps on the two nightstands and one each on the dresser and chifferobe, plus lighting in the closets, we have more than adequate illumination.

And then there are the candles.... ;-)

I think it is a very personal choice. I have lived with houses that had lights in bedroom and houses that did not. Maybe my age, but I like that overhead light when I am dressing and shutters are closed and the room is very dark. I have 4 lamps in bedroom, but when I want to figure out if that shoe is black, brown or blue that I am about to put on, I need light. Chandelier in my BR.

The one thing that makes having a ceiling light fixture annoying is once it's up there "centering" becomes an issue. IMO if you can do without one, don't put one up.

I just ordered this one. I originally wanted a chandy but we got a four poster with upper side rails so now a chandy wouldn't fit. I think this one is warm without being too ornate.

We also have a ceiling fan with a light kit.

We don't use the overhead light a lot though. During the day, the room is very bright, and other times we are more likely to use the sconces above the bed, anyway (in a brown finish like the fan).

Carrie

Les, it sounds like there are times you could use a fan of some sort. All that heat created when the candles are lit. ;^P

We live out in the country where there is absolute darkness unless the moon is large enough to add a soft glow to our room. So there are times we need the ceiling light. Not too often, but enough......

We have a ceiling fan. I'm not the biggest fan of how they look but DH loves the air flow.

We had a ceiling fan with light kit in the bedroom of our previous house. Loved it, especially for nights when it was not quite hot enough for the AC (or we hadn't put it in the window yet) but too stuffy for still air, or to supplement the AC so we could set the temp higher. We only had 7'6" ceilings but we made the fan work - the electrician was supposed to mount it as a ceiling-hugger, without the 3" downrod he used, but the only person who had any problem was our friend who was 6'6" and he wasn't exactly going to be hanging out in our bedroom. :-)

{{!gwi}}

This house has no overheads in the bedrooms or the living room and I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT, but we can't afford to have them put in yet. Can't tell you how many times we've smashed toes and shins crossing the room to get to a rassinfrackin lamp when the curtains or blinds are closed, and when I'm cleaning I can't always tell if I've gotten everything clean or not. I would SO rather have an overhead on a dimmer to supplement the lamps when needed. We use the chandelier-on-a-dimmer in the former dining room we turned into a sitting room quite regularly.

Ikea has some sleek ceiling fixtures the PO might like, and they're inexpensive to boot. I like their funky track systems, using most of the lights as wall-washers - we had planned on using the Magnesium squiggly flexible track in DH's office in the previous house, since he wanted a contemporary office. He's outta luck in this house, no room for an office and I'm not doing that to a Victorian house anyway. :-)

Mine is a chandelier I got on clearance from Spiegel. We don't use it very often, but it looks pretty! Below is a link to a photo. Since this picture was taken, I have finally changed out the blinds to white faux wood and added IKEA creamy linen panels on white rods. It's very dreamy looking.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Bedroom Fixture

Beautiful Sun, beautiful room.

Definitely a personal choice. I would go bonkers without an overhead light in my bedroom! DH has to have the fan, so here it is :-)

We also have a ceiling fan in our master bedroom with a 4-bulb light kit. All our bedrooms have ceiling fans. It gets HOT here. We just used simple, white fans in each room to match the trim.

We lived in an apartment once with no overhead lights in the bedrooms (any bedroom!) I cannot stress how much I HATED it. I cannot believe anyone would intentionally build a house with no overhead lights in the bedrooms. Not all of us have the luxury of being home during daylight hours. It's not fun to put away socks in a dark room. And ... have you never had a child barf in the middle of the night??? (And in our family, the master bedroom is not excluded. Where do you think they end up while their beds are drying?) Yeah, let's clean that up with a lamp and a flashlight.

Nin

Everyone thinks about lighting differently, but I learned that a well planned lighting program in any room, including a bedroom, includes overhead lighting as well as task lighting. I have three overhead fixtures (it's a large room) all on dimmers of course, so it's never too glaring.

Two are these (being hung today):
{{!gwi}}

And then the lower hanging one over our headboard cabinet (it's still being built...this was taken right after the onyx went in and it's dark, but should help with a lighting idea anyhoo):

I love overhead lighting. We have recessed cans in our bedroom. We have a fan with no light kit, but if I didn't have cans, I would definitely have a light on the fan. My other bedrooms have the light kit on fan.

In our master bedroom, we did a ceiling fan. The light is so dim on this that I never turned it on. In addition to this, we also have 4 cans. Again, I never turn them on. We have a lamp on each nightstand that we use to read at night. However, I LOVE the ceiling fan. It really moves the air in the room and makes sleeping all the more pleasant. (This from the biggest anti ceiling fan person in the world, go figure.)

The pic was taken so during construction so it isn't boo-tiful, but you see the light failry well.

I'm a fan of overhead lighting in the bedroom -- as long as there is a switch next to the entrance to turn the light on and one next to the bed to turn the light off. It's no fun getting out of a cozy bed to go to the door to turn the light off, then stumble back in the dark to the bed.

Thank you for responses! I love looking at the pictures and I'd love to see more.

Quite different opinions about ceiling fixtures in the bedroom but I think overhead lights are essential in any room since they create the basic layer of light that can be then supplemented with task lighting.

I see that a lot of people like the fans but, unfortunately, I get bad colds if I sleep with the ceiling fan on plus DH is tall and afraid of fans.

{{!gwi}}

Some beautiful lighting here. Hi, Igloochic! Those are some gorgeous fixtures: would you mind posting info about the four-light Deco-looking chandelier?

A related question, and I hope I'm not hijacking: We have two really ugly but perfectly functional ceiling fans in our house. I'd love to change out the light fixture for some of the nicer-looking ones in this thread. How does one do that? Apologies for the basic question...

I have a cathedral ceiling and along the beam there are tiny strips of halogen lights. They are very small and you can hardly see them. They can be dimmed and turned on/off with a remote control.

I purchased that particular fixture (the five light exposed bulb) at Rejuvination (they sell antique lighting) and five matching pieces through ebay (various sellers). I then restored them all to match the Rejuvination piece.

Most are dated around 1930 to 1935 when exposed lightbulbs were the rage. They're all cast iron and weigh a ton :)

My kitchen fixtures are 1918 Riddels, and were just installed :) I love them!

I have one of these that might go in the bedroom over the onyx counters.

Igloochic......your views are absolutely to 'die' for, have you remotely gotten bored yet looking out at that calm and tranquil lake? You do have some wonderful light fixtures, thanks for showing them.
When you're done, etc. I wish you'd post pictures for all of us, I think that would be a real experience because of where you live too.