There are a great variety of ways to illuminate your staircase with special reference to the treads. While these placements are intended for safety in the first place, they also turn your stairway into a light-feature that adds warmth and ambience to your stairwell.
Stair lighting can be achieved by several design and technical methods, and these should be taken into consideration when planning your own preferences for functional and decorative effect.
LED stair tread profiles are the neatest way to incorporate lighting at the point where your staircase needs it most. While lighting can be placed in various ways, including along the wall area or the banister, tread lighting is the most effective method.
1. Nosings and profiles
The basic idea to bear in mind when choosing LED illumination for your treads is that these lights are LED strips set in a variety of casings called profiles and nosing.
Profiles are aluminum housings designed to fit your stairway treads in different ways, depending on your preferred choice of lighting. These then carry the LED light strips which cast illumination on your treads.
The nosing method adds a profile to the edge of your tread, allowing an uninterrupted strip of LED lighting to spread across the whole face of the edging.
This is an effective method for lighting tread edges in a sharply defined way. It also has the advantage of creating a stylish geometric effect that highlights the structure and shape of your stairwell.
2. Profile downlights
Aluminum LED stair tread profiles can also be designed to house lighting strips that cast a downlight along the face of the riser rather than running along the edge.
This kind of arrangement, while it also crosses the entire face of the tread wall or riser, casts a softer light along the staircase as a whole. It has the effect of softening the look, and is also a useful and attractive way for highlighting textures on carpeted stairs.
3. Profile up-lights
You can also use LED stair tread profiles that are specially designed to fit across the bottom length of the riser of the tread. Again, the profile may house the LED strip in ways that illuminate the surface of the tread itself, or it can shine upwards across the face of the riser.
Ideally, your choice of exact positioning of profiles and lighting should depend on the right blend of adequate safety lighting and the esthetic aspects of your preferred placement.
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4. Upward profile channels
If your choice is to avoid lighting that is cast across the edge or riser of your treads, LED stair tread profiles can also be run along the sides of your staircase.
This way of illumination casts strips of light that run up the corners of both sides of the staircase rather than providing a face-on lighting strip. The advantage here is that the illumination emphasizes the upward movement of the structure.
5. Stairwell wall lighting
Profile channels can also be carried along the side walls, casting either a downward or an upward light. This kind of arrangement is suited to stairwells that have decorative art on the walls, while also providing sufficient lighting for safe ascent and descent of the stairs.
