Grow lights for living space that's easy on the eyes
 

I have a handful of orchids that were growing under a pair of LED strips in my basement. I recently brought my plants upstairs to my living space with plans to expand.

The natural light I get isn't consistent enough to be the only source.
I tried the LED strips but they're too bright and there's no way to position the strip so that the led chips don't end up catching your sight line.

I'm hoping to keep my plants on wall shelves or hanging so they'd be anywhere from 4-6' off the floor.

Does anyone have suggestions on lights that would work in a small living space without being harsh?

Unfortunately the lights need to be bright. Can you hang the strips out from the wall and angled toward the plants so they aren't shining directly into your eyes?

Buy some 3" PVC pipe and cut it in half, lengthwise. Place the LED strips inside a half and you now have a shade to eliminate the direct, lateral rays.

I tried that out. Even angled you can catch the end of the strip depending where you're at in the room.

I had not thought of making a shade. The bright white is still obnoxious but it would work to cut out any blinding views. This gives me some ideas :)

in one of my IKEA Milsbo orchid cabinets I have some 2ft Barrina T5 light strips and had the same problem. They came with optional reflectors but I just attached them so they were hanging straight down from the lights. Works great so maybe find something to act as a shade, it just needs to be thin enough to block the bulb from your view.

As mentioned some LED strip lights come with aluminum reflectors that can optionally be installed on each side. I use Monios-L lights, and with the reflectors it works quite well on shelves in general living spaces. I wish I had more, I find it makes great ambiance lighting.