Friday, October 16, 2009

Spruce up Your Home for the Holidays!


You have your family coming in for the holidays and you would LOVE to redo your entire home before-hand... but who can afford it these days? Well, there are a few things that you can do to give your home a whole new look without having to take a second mortgage!

Placing a few new lamps around the house can provide a fresh look for your home, while providing much needed lighting for reading, homework, or projects. This additional splash of light will also brighten your home and make it feel more inviting. OR use these new lamps and turn off the overhead lights for an intimate ambiance.

Strategically placed under-cabinet lighting in your kitchen will not only provide better lighting for your workspace, but also provide your kitchen with an updated look, accent your beautiful counters, and add another layer of invitation to your already welcoming kitchen.

While we are in the kitchen, let's take a look at the lighting over your island. Placing a few art-glass mini-pendants over your island will give your entire kitchen a lift and a modern look. Or install an island light for a dual purpose fixture, that will also allow you to showcase your cookware and keep it in a handy place.

Replacing your dining room chandelier can instantly dress up your dining room. Find one that complements your style, whether traditional, modern, casual, elegant, or even eclectic. Add a few sconces on the wall to complement the chandelier, add another layer of lighting, and provide further decoration for the room.

Let's not forget the bathrooms! Sconces to either side of your vanity mirror will not only provide a high-end look for your bathroom, but your make up will thank you as you will see a more natural look with no harsh shadows. Adding a crystal mini-chandelier in your bathroom is a trendy new way to create an elegant up-lift or to enhance your shabby chic feeling.

While you are redecorating, add a few lamps in your bedrooms - reading lamps for homework spaces, torchieres for seating areas, swing arm lamps above the bed for reading, or table lamps for the side tables.

Think ceiling fans are only for the summer? Not so! Ceiling fans can be used all year around. Simply reverse the airflow and your ceiling fan will circulate the heat throughout the room and keep your room from feeling too stuffy. Not only will it help your energy savings (by better distributing the air) but also, if you buy one this time of year, chances are pretty good you can find them on sale!

So, don't spend a fortune redecorating your home. Pick a few of these tips (or even all of them) and you will find yourself with a drastic change in your home for much less than remodeling!

For more design tips, contact your local lighting design specialist. To find a showroom near you, visit www.lighting-one.com.

The product shown in the picture is 0411-RD and is available at participating Lighting One showrooms.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Color of Lighting

We tend to think of midday sunlight as the standard for pure white light. However when daylight is passed through a prism, the visible light is actually rendered as equal parts of a continuous spectrum. This spectrum is taught to schoolchildren by the name ROY G. BIV. Each letter standing for the visible colors produced by white light in the order it appears across the spectrum, Red, Orange Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. In contrast, artificial light sources give off varying amounts of these colors. Incandescent light includes most of the spectrum but has a large proportion of red and yellow. When dimmed, incandescent light will become more orange in color.

Many people think of fluorescent light as being high in green and blue, but today fluorescent bulbs come in over 200 colors.

Halogen lights produce a brighter, “whiter” light, than both standard incandescent and fluorescent light sources. Because of this brighter, white light, halogens have become very popular for both commercial and residential lighting.

Color temperatures as measured in degrees Kelvin (K) are used to formally rate light bulbs. Temperatures below 3,500 degrees K are warm-toned, more yellow in color; while higher temperatures are increasingly cool, or blue in color.

Color Temperatures

Approximate


Light

6300°


Daylight Fluorescent

5500°


Natural Summer Sunlight

4100°


Deluxe Cool Fluorescent

3000°


Deluxe Warm White Fluorescent

2900°


Quartz Halogen

2800°


100 Watt Incandescent

2600°


“Incandescent” Fluorescent

2500°


40 Watt Incandescent

1800°


Candlelight


For more information on color, or anything about Lighting, visit a lighting expert at your local Lighting One showroom.

The product shown is 1469-ET and is available at Lighting One showrooms.

To find your closest showroom, or to view some of the products available for sale on our website, visit www.lighting-one.com.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Ambient Lighting for Your Home Decor

Ambient lighting is a term used to describe the total amount of light that is present in a space. We can say that a room has high or low levels of ambient lighting.

How much lighting is needed or desired is often a very personal preference. In places such as kitchens and bathrooms, it is often good practice to provide multiple types of lighting that can provide high levels of ambient lighting for some tasks, and low levels of ambient lighting for other activities.

Places such as laundry rooms and closets are best illuminated with high levels of ambient lighting, although they also should be provided with dimming controls that allow the high ambient level to be reduced when desired. In spaces such as family rooms and bedrooms it is best to provide ambient lighting primarily from portable lamps and wall mounted lighting such as wall sconces.

Ambient lighting can also be provided by placing surface mounted fixtures at the ceiling. A recent trend is the use of decorative chandeliers in almost any space in the home. A chandelier is highly useful for providing high ambient lighting when necessary, or it can be dimmed to provide a very soft and low level of ambient lighting.

The pendants shown in the photo are from the Effervescent collection. For more information, please visit www.lighting-one.com to locate a Lighting One showroom near you. Showrooms are independently owned and operated, so product may vary from location to location.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Fixing up your home during a recession


In today’s economy and housing market, many people are choosing not to sell their home, but to fix up their existing home instead. This way they can enjoy the property they currently own and when the market rebounds, the time and effort they put in will make their homes more saleable.

One of the largest mistakes a homeowner can make is to not hire a professional to aid in their renovation project, whether it is landscaping, interior design, or remodeling. One can usually see the difference in the finished project when a professional is designing the job.

Starting with outdoor space, a landscape professional can enhance the first impression of your home. In many instances it could be moving old overgrown plantings from the front to the rear yard, or adding to your existing plantings to give a welcome look to your property. In the rear yard, cleaning up and adding new plantings can make the home look younger and more saleable. Adding landscape lighting will both enhance the value to the property, as well as increase the “living space” of the home, as homeowners will enjoy their backyards more often.

Fixing up the interior should be guided by a certified interior designer. Working with color, texture, and light, a designer can give a home a more “comfortable” feeling, and can make spaces appear to be larger. They will work with you to create a home that reflects your personal taste. Their expertise knowledge, expertise, and guidance can help prevent costly mistakes, and can also eliminate features that would be a negative to future prospective buyers.
One aspect of interior design that is rarely discussed is that of interior lighting. If lighting is important to you, be sure to work with a Certified Lighting Designer with lots of lighting experience. It takes years of experience to understand how to use both direct and indirect lighting. Ask about color temperature. Light temperature refers to the color quality that different bulbs produce. Light fixtures and the quality of light they produce have a direct and dramatic impact on the rest of the room. The lighting of items in a room is important, and lighting can make or break a design. Not all light bulbs create light tones and colors equally. This can affect how your furniture and other things look when they are lit at night. A Certified Lighting Designer should be involved with all of your lighting within your project.

Many homeowners, when renovating a bathroom or kitchen, leave it up to their contractor help design their living space and lighting. One should let them make suggestions based on the available space, bur the final plans and layout should be done by a certified specialist.
As a certified lighting designer, I have seen hundreds of floor plans laid out by Architects, interior designers, and kitchen and bath showrooms that have fixture placement that would have shadows, and using builder’s fixtures that waste energy.

One of the additional benefits of upgrading and remodeling now is that you get to enjoy the beauty of your “new home” and will not be rushed to sell until the housing market recovers.

Written by Philip Finkelstein.
Philip is a Lighting One certified lighting designer,
and owner of Illuminations in Rockville Centre, NY
for the past 30 years.


Lighting One showrooms are locally owned and operated and in-store merchandise may vary by location. Product shown is 3653-OPF. For online purchases or to find your nearest Lighting One showroom, go to http://www.lighting-one.com/.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

E-Commerce Site Launched

We just launched our E-Commerce site for purchasing lighting online at http://www.lighting-one.com/. Please take a look and let us know of any feedback you may have.

We have completely revamped our site... including now the option of buying ONLINE! Of course, you can still search for your local Lighting One showroom and visit the showroom to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales professionals who can assist in selecting that perfect fixture to complement your home decor. As we are in more than 40 states and Canada, we're sure to have a location near you!

The advantages of shopping a Lighting One showroom are GREAT PRICES with our 140+ showroom buying power; LARGER SELECTIONS featuring exclusive brands and products you won't find anywhere else; and LIGHTING DESIGN EXPERTS by Lighting One.

Lighting One showrooms are locally owned and operated and in-store merchandise may vary by location.