Actually Good-Looking Grow Lights to Get Your Plants Through the Winter

With cold chills rolling in, it’s that time of year again: time to whip out that janky-looking grow light for your houseplants. Sure, janky’s a harsh word—after all, your grow light does work. And unless you’re blessed with giant south-facing windows, chances are your plants love and do need extra attention, even if the thing bringing it isn’t very pretty.

The sad truth is that yours resembles the bulk of grow lights. The category was designed for utility, not for living spaces, which is why many grow lights often appear clinical, industrial, or overly technical. It may even have that preternatural purple glow to its bulb—a blend of red and blue LEDs—that creates the ideal color wavelength most effective for plant growth, germination, and flowering.

"From a technical standpoint, plants respond most strongly to blue and deep-red light," says Mike Planer, cofounder, CTO, and head engineer at Soltech, which was founded in 2014 with the intention of creating "an aesthetically pleasing grow light," according to their website. "Most grow lights only focus on these wavelengths, which is why you see that harsh purple or pink glow everywhere." Though a godsend for low-light homes, grow lights typically prioritize light output over looks, resulting in hardware that clashes with real home decor and lighting that distorts a room’s color palette. So this year, you might be in the market for something a bit more stylish for your houseplants—and your home.

Well, you’re in luck. There’s now a surprising amount of beautiful grow lights available for purchase. In fact, they look so good, they double as home decor.

What are grow lights?

A grow light is an auxiliary bulb or lamp with full-spectrum lighting that blends different colors—like the aforementioned blue and red hues—to promote seed germination, fruiting, flowering, and more in your plants. Most modern grow lights use LEDs.

Other light options include fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. "These can be great options, too," says Lotte Berendsen, a certified gardening expert for PlantIn, an app that helps gardeners identify plants and diagnose problems. "But they come with the risk of overheating and can be very expensive." LEDs, on the other hand, will ensure that your plants are given all the pigments they need to photosynthesize, and it’s why Berendsen recommends them over other grow lights.

With a grow light, you aren’t limited to your home’s one remaining sunny window. Nor will you need to constantly reposition your houseplants to chase the sun as it moves across your home in winter. "I like to think of grow lights as a way to ‘finish’ the light your home can’t quite provide on its own," says Wendy Overbeck Dunham, director of horticulture at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

These days, many grow lights come in compact sizes and can live right alongside your furniture like a lamp or sconce. "In practice, it’s as simple as placing the grow light about six to eighteen inches from the foliage and putting it on a timer for roughly twelve to sixteen hours a day," Dunham says. It doesn’t require much work, but the payoff is great: healthier plants with better color and more reliable flowering.

Grow lights can even make your wildest gardening dreams come true. With them, you can grow vegetables indoors. Think tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers, and a thriving herb garden. A good grow light can help create more reliable indoor harvests, Dunham says.

Or, as Marryn Mathis, owner of the Farmhouse Flower Farm and author of Sweet Pea School: Growing & Arranging the Garden’s Most Romantic Blooms, has discovered, grow lights can help flowers like sweet peas and dahlias that might not normally grow well in certain regions thrive. "If they don’t have enough light, they will start reaching for it and this results in lanky and stressed out seedlings," she says. "Grow lights are key to the success of our business, ensuring our plants have the best start."

How to use a grow light

Grow lights will only be effective if they are used correctly. For optimal results, the lights should be on for at least six to eight hours daily, says Berendsen. "Ideally, they should be on for as long as the sun is out," she says.

The distance of the grow light to your plant is also important. For bulbs with a lower wattage, plants can be placed closer. On average, keep about 12 to 24 inches of space between your light source and the plant’s foliage. Otherwise, even with LEDs, your grow light can overheat your plant, says Mathis. If you want to measure how much light the grow light can convert, you’ll have to look at the wattage of the light, adds Berendsen. Aim for around 30 to 50 watts per square foot of growing space, and keep in mind that the larger your plant, the more watts it will need.

Winter is the ideal time to use grow lights. But Berendsen swears she’s used them year-round in her home. She keeps her grow lights in her bathroom, where there are no windows.

The most beautiful grow lights

Those looking for attractive grow lights might be spoiled for choice. One of Berendsen’s favorites is the Mother PlantSpectrum grow light. "It offers full-spectrum light and has a stylish, versatile design," she says. Another great pick is the Soltech Stello pendant light. It features a dimmer and adjustable stand. "If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it’s just a floor lamp."

But perhaps the zenith of grow light aesthetics belongs to the new Aura from Soltech. It merges full-spectrum lighting with warm ambient illumination—so it’s ideal for plant growth and the human eye—no ugly purple glare here. The light is designed to mimic natural sunlight; think of it as a gentle warm glow, kind of like a hazy autumn sunset.

"We kept the essential photosynthetic peaks plants need," says Planer. But to this, they added greens, ambers, and broader light wavelengths so the light output settles into a warm, natural light. "That balance softens the harsh red/blue combination you see in industrial fixtures, and it does it without introducing any UV." UV has its place in commercial farming, but it’s not something you want shining in your home. "You still get strong photosynthetic efficiency, but visually it feels like premium architectural lighting—warm, clean, and easy to live with."

For indoor vegetable growers, there’s the Auk Mini, a Scandinavian-designed indoor garden with LEDs. It’s crafted from premium materials like recycled Norwegian aluminum and the choice of either American timber or sustainable cork sourced from Portugal. It’s stylish and photogenic on top of being functional: Beneath the hood, there’s a watering system that’s easy to use.

In terms of aesthetics, the makers were responding to customer feedback when designing the Auk Mini, says Jostein Kvitvang, chief product officer at Auk. "When we first launched Auk 1, we focused on growth performance, and the grow light was quite successful in this regard," he says. Then they heard customer reactions saying that the light itself felt too strong.

For the Auk Mini, they introduced a full spectrum light with adjustable intensity, letting users choose between full growth intensity or a softer, warmer setting that creates a cozy, hygge-like atmosphere—something many grow lights can’t offer, but all most of us are looking for during the dark winter months, regardless of what we’re hoping blooms inside.

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Related Reading:

Give Your Indoor Plants the Gift of a Good and Productive Winter

Yes, Your Low-Light Plants Need (Some) Light to Thrive