If you walked into my home, you’d be forgiven for thinking you stepped into a Twitch streamer’s setup. I’m obsessed with colorful lighting, and Nanoleaf’s modular lighting rigs are a particular favorite. They enable unique designs and bright, vibrant aesthetics with minimal modification to the home. There are just a few things I wish I’d known before I started setting them up.
For the unfamiliar, Nanoleaf’s main claim to fame is its modular, geometric lighting panels. The kits come in a variety of shapes including triangles, hexagons, lines, and squares. Once you have a compatible starter kit (or, as Nanoleaf calls them, “Smarter Kits”), you can get additional packs to add more lights to your rig.
The kits let you arrange the lights however you wish, creating intricate designs and patterns. The lights stick to the wall with adhesive mounting tape, making them a solid choice for renters. For how unique and complex these lights are, they’re surprisingly accessible. I’ve encountered a few avoidable hiccups during setup, but you can learn from my mistakes.
1. Plan Your Design
The selling point of Nanoleaf’s lights is the customization, but it can also be the most intimidating part. There are countless pattern and design options so it can be hard to know where to start. Fortunately, Nanoleaf has a robust set of tools for newbies, including a design inspirations section of its website with pre-designed ideas for layouts.
(Credit: Nanoleaf)
In the Nanoleaf app, you can also select the More tab and choose Layout Assistant to experiment with your own design. Choose the product you have, how many of each light you own, and then slide them around in different configurations to see what looks best.
If you’re planning on making a bigger display with a lot of additional lighting expansions, you’ll also want to do some careful power management planning. Nanoleaf has a PSU calculator on its site to help calculate your power needs for larger designs. In general, this is only necessary for rigs with more than 22 hexagon panels (and even more for some of the smaller lights), so you’ll probably know if you need it.
Before you pull off a single piece of adhesive tape, it’s a good idea to have a firm plan for exactly how you want your final design to look. That means not only laying out where each light will go, but how they’ll connect to each other. It’s that latter part that can trip up new users, so it’s important to understand how Nanoleaf’s system works.
(Credit: Eric Ravenscraft)
Under the hood, Nanoleaf uses little accessories called linkers to connect lights to each other. These doodads not only physically connect each light to the broader rig, but connect the lighting circuits, and tell the controller module where the lights are in relation to each other. Nanoleaf also tends to include only as many linkers as you really need. So, if you’re not paying attention to how you’re setting up your rig, it’s easy to overuse them.
For example, for my setup (pictured above) I have a set of Blocks lights that have multiple points of contact between different panels. I’ve highlighted where I actually have linkers underneath, and you can see there aren’t quite as many as you might expect. Figuring out the minimum number of linkers you need to connect every light can be a little counterintuitive, but you won’t want to reach the end of your setup and realize you’ve run out.
It’s also important to keep in mind where your control module will be. While you can control the lights from your phone or smart home gadgets, the module has physical buttons that can be a handy fallback. This is also the piece that connects to a power outlet, so find a spot that’s accessible for you to reach the controls, without putting a power cable in your way.
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(Credit: Eric Ravenscraft)
2. Prep and Mount Properly
If you’re familiar with 3M’s Command strips, Nanoleaf’s adhesives will feel familiar (for better and worse). Under ideal circumstances, they can allow you to mount your lights to the wall in a way that’s easy to remove later. Under less-than-ideal circumstances, you can strip paint off the wall, or even damage the drywall underneath. Before attaching the adhesive pads, there are a few things you should do to prep the wall properly.
You want the adhesive to stick to the wall, not all the dirt and grime on it, so dust and wipe down the surface before attaching anything. You can use denatured alcohol to clean the space and wipe up any debris with a microfiber cloth. Let the wall dry before attaching anything. Many of Nanoleaf’s lights have mounting plates to attach the lights. Sometimes it can be easier to put the adhesives on the plate and press it to the wall before attaching the lights directly.
Nanoleaf Elements Smarter Kit (Credit: Nanoleaf)
Keep in mind you also need to line up the linkers properly. Since they typically go underneath the mounting plates, it’s helpful to make sure that they’re in place before pressing a light onto the wall. Once you have everything lined up, press the mounting plate/light firmly against the wall and hold it in place for at least 30 seconds. Try to apply pressure evenly over the entire surface of the light to ensure each pad adheres properly.
Unlike the linkers, it’s hard to overdo it on the sticky pads. Nanoleaf is typically pretty generous with how many pads are included in the Smarter Kits (and the company sells more if you need to change your setup). Speaking from experience, you really don’t want these lights falling off the wall in the middle of the night, so don’t get stingy with the adhesives.
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When done, give it time before adding additional weight. Some products include shelves, hooks, and other extras that can add weight to your lights, but it can help to wait until the sticky pads adhere strongly to the wall.
Take note that the sticky pads are meant for smooth surfaces, but if you have a rough wall texture, then you’ll want to look into Nanoleaf’s screw mount kits instead. The Smarter Kit packages sometimes come with screw mounts for certain heavier pieces, but there’s not usually enough to mount the entire thing. So if you have an uneven or porous wall type, you’ll probably want to spring for the more secure option.
Nanoleaf’s screw mount kit (Credit: Nanoleaf)
3. Set Up Automations and Schedules in the App
Most smart light bulbs, including Philips Hue and Nanoleaf’s own BR30, don’t really need any scheduled automations. You can simply turn them on and off just like a traditional light bulb, and you won’t miss much. However, Nanoleaf’s more complex rigs include colorful scenes and reactive features, so a little setup in the app can go a long way.
By default, Nanoleaf lighting rigs have a set of colorful animated scenes you can choose from to set the mood. Tap the heart icon next to the ones you really like to set them aside as favorites. Some devices also support the Rhythm feature, which allows them to react to sound around them. You can also use the Discover tab to find scenes created by the community. There are some seriously fun options in here, so poke around a bit.
(Credit: Nanoleaf)
It’s also worth setting up some scheduled routines for your lights. In my experience, it can be easy to forget you have a giant, neon light in your bedroom during the day until the sun starts setting and you realize it’s blindingly bright. You can manually set schedules from the Routines tab, decide which scenes you want activated at specific times, and even ramp them up or down over a longer duration. The Circadian Lighting feature also lets you tailor the color temperature to your local sunrise and sunset.
If you use a smart home system like Google Nest or Amazon Echo, it’s also a great idea to connect your Nanoleaf lights for voice control. You’ll want to make sure your lights and the rooms they’re in have distinct names. Sometimes, smart assistants can get confused if, for example, you have a Nanoleaf rig and also an overhead Philips Hue bulb that are both, somewhat lazily, named “bedroom.” Save yourself some hassle and give your lighting rigs distinct names you can easily say out loud.
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Eric Ravenscraft is a freelance writer and tech nerd working out of the geek capital of the world, Atlanta, Georgia. He watches way too many movies and definitely has one to recommend that you haven’t seen. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram.
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