Home Lighting Design Information:

Home lighting makes a big difference:

• Helps you perform tasks more easily.

• Makes you feel safer and more comfortable.

• Adds beauty and drama to a room.

• It can create a stimulating atmosphere for a night of entertaining.

• It can create a quiet, relaxing atmosphere after a long day.

Determining your Home Lighting needs:

Creative home lighting design should be planned to complement your lifestyle. So, first you need to develop a home lighting plan that suits your individual needs and those of your family. 

When planning your home lighting:

1. Look at the activities that occur in each room.

2. The atmosphere you want to create.

3. The decorative elements you wish to emphasize.

Other things to note:

• Light can be absorbed and even wasted in dark-colored rooms.

• Light can be reflected and used as additional illumination in light-colored rooms.

• Be aware of areas serving a variety of purposes - might require more than one type of lighting.

The Basic Types of Lighting:

There are three basic types of home lighting that work together to light your home:

1. General Lighting

2. Task Lighting

3. Accent Lighting

Good home lighting design combines all three types to light an area, according to function and style.

Provides an area with overall illumination.

• Also known as ambient lighting.

• General lighting emits a comfortable level of brightness.

• Enables one to see and walk about safely.

• A basic form of lighting that replaces sunlight.

Can be accomplished with: chandeliers, ceiling or wall-mounted fixtures, recessed lights or track lights, and with lanterns outside your home (exterior home lighting / outdoor home lighting).

Task lighting:

• Helps you perform specific tasks such as reading, cooking, or homework.

• Task lighting should be free of distracting glare and shadows.

• Should be bright enough to prevent eyestrain.

Can be accomplished with: recessed lighting, track lighting, pendant lighting, and portable lamps.

Accent Lighting:

• Adds drama to a room by creating visual interest.

• Part of a decorating scheme to spotlight paintings, houseplants and other prized possessions.

• To highlight the texture of a wall, drapery or outdoor landscaping.

• Accent lighting requires at least three times as much light on the focal point as the general lighting around it.

Is usually provided by track, recessed, or wall-mounted fixtures.

Types of Home Lighting Fixtures:

Once you've selected what you want to light, you'll have to decide how you're going to light it. 

Hall/Foyer Fixtures:

Provides general lighting to greet guests and assure safe passage into other areas of your home. Use ceiling, chain hung entry fixtures, or close-to-ceiling fixtures in hallways, stairways, and entranceways.

Chandeliers:

Add style to your dining room while giving you the general home lighting you need for dining and entertaining. They are also used in bedrooms, foyers, or over a living room grouping or a grand piano. Some are designed with downlights to provide task lighting for homework or table games, or to accent table settings.

Pendants:

Provide both task and general home lighting. Equipped with shades, globes, or bowls to avoid glare, they are suspended from the ceiling over dinette tables, game tables, kitchen counters, or other work areas. When used over end or night tables, they free up the space occupied by table lamps.

Ceiling Fixtures:

Usually provide general home lighting. They are practical in busy areas such as foyers, hallways, bedrooms, kitchens, baths, laundry rooms, playrooms, and dens.

Wall Mounted Fixtures:

Used for general, task, and accent lighting. Many are designed to match and supplement dining room chandeliers, or to provide hallway, bedroom, or living room lighting. Wall brackets or wall sconces are often used for task lighting at the bathroom mirror.

Bathroom Lighting Fixtures / Vanity Lighting Strips:

Supply task lighting, while supplementing the general home lighting provided by ceiling fixtures. Similar to the lighting in theater dressing rooms, these softly glowing strips of globe-shaped incandescent bulbs provide excellent lighting for applying makeup, shaving, and grooming.

Portable Lamps:

Deliver general, task, and accent lighting, while giving you the flexibility to move the light whenever you want. Table lamps, desk lamps, piano lamps, floor lamps, and torchieres are available in a variety of styles to complement your decor.

Track Lighting:

Provide general, task, or accent lighting all at once in one flexible lighting system. You can move, swivel, rotate, and aim the individual fixtures in any direction along the track, giving you the versatility to change your lighting scheme when the need arises. You can also hang chandeliers and pendants from the track. Track fixtures are available in standard line voltage or low-voltage current.

Recessed Lighting:

Provide general, task, or accent lighting inconspicuously. Installed in the ceiling with only the trim showing, recessed fixtures can be used anywhere in the home, including outdoors under eaves. They are ideal for low-ceiling areas. They are available as downlights, adjustable accent lights, and wall washers in both standard and low-voltage current and a choice of incandescent, tungsten-halogen, and energy-efficient compact fluorescents.

Under cabinet Lighting / Kitchen cabinet Lighting / Under Shelf Fixtures:

Offer both task and accent lighting. Under kitchen cabinets they light a countertop. In a display cabinet they show off prized possessions. They're used in a workshop or anywhere you need lighting right at hand.

Exterior Home Lighting / Outdoor Home Lighting:

Supply accent lighting, task lighting, and double as security lighting. Wall lanterns illuminate an entry to a house. Path, spread lights light up the walkway to the front door. Spot lights can be used to uplight trees.

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Lighting Controls / Light Dimmers / Dimmer Switches:

Lighting controls & Lighting dimmers:

Give you the flexibility to design a home lighting plan with multiple uses and decorative effects. With the touch of a button, today's sophisticated dimming systems enable you to:

• Lower light level to conserve energy and increase bulb life.

• Adjust the ambiance of a room.

• Change the intensity of the light to suit the activity.

• Create and save a number of different lighting scenes in each room.

Lighting controls and light dimmer switches should be an essential part of your home lighting design.

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