A common problem in many homes is not having enough light, especially in the main living areas.  A very practical, and often times inexpensive solution to this problem, is making use of a torchiere lamp.

Torchiere lamps throw light up toward the ceiling allowing the light to reflect throughout the room and fill the entire space with light.  The most common way to use this type of lamp is to place one in a corner of a room which will not otherwise get adequate light, or to place one beside a couch or chair. There are a multitude of vendors  who design quality torchiere lights.  In our showroom we have designs ranging from contemporary to traditional, and prices ranging from the low hundreds to multiple thousands and everywhere in between.

If you are looking to increase your overall light level in any room of your home a torchiere may be the easiest solution to the problem.

Some people in the industry say that the polished brass finish will never go out of style. With that being said, when looking in various showrooms or online, one would be hard pressed to find any fixtures in polished brass.

What do you do when you have polished brass fixtures and hardware throughout your home and want to update?

Currently, bronze and satin nickel finishes dominate the options for finishes in light fixtures and hardware. Depending on budget and how long you plan on living in your home, you can minimize your polished brass by working with the newer finishes that are out there.

Let’s take a bathroom for example, in the past, most of the time the light fixture finish would match the sink faucet hardware. Which in turn, also matched the knobs on the door cabinets, shower and bath hardware and possibly the mirror. You can minimize the polished brass by replacing the light fixture with a finish that matches the colors in your vanity counter top, wall color, and or flooring color. If your bathroom has warm colors in the the three above mentioned areas, a bronze fixture with cream glass may look better. If you have lighter or white colors in your counter, walls, or floor; a satin nickel finish may work better. The mirror frame color could even match your light fixture for a further tie in.

Some bronze finishes have a mixed painted finish look in which multi-colors like brass and copper show through the bronze finish and can pick up those colors within your space.

A finish from Capital Lighting called Winter Gold has a silver/gold mix that could tie in with polished brass hardware.  Kichler Lighting has a Cambridge Bronze finish that’s a mix of antique brass and a bronze finish which makes it a lighter bronze.  Hinkley Lighting has a Brushed Bronze finish or a Brushed Caramel that is a lighter finished brushed brass look.

While polished brass may not be the current trend, by updating with the newer finishes that compliment and work with the brass, you can create an updated look for your home.

Watch this short 3 minute video posted by the American Lighting Association for some inexpensive ways to update your lighting and improve how your lighting works for you!

Video: How Lighting Can Update Your Home on a Small Budget

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People have many options for purchasing lighting. You can go to big box stores, go to many online sites to do your searching and ordering or visit a local lighting showroom. Choosing to work with a consultant at a lighting showroom can be the most beneficial for you.

When working with a consultant, you are working with someone who works with lighting everyday and it’s their specialty. They have a knack for design, and can provide you with options you may not have thought of. Lighting consultants can help lead you through the lighting selection process by asking the right questions, analyzing your needs and space, helping select the best type of lighting and style for your space, offering you the opportunity to see what you are buying, and by providing you with follow up and local service.

Lighting showrooms carry a wide breadth of vendors so the options are limitless. If you are stumped with a lighting issue, (for instance, a wall sconce the needs to provide a lot of light located at the bottom of the stairs that has a low ceiling height, a narrow width and not much clearance) consultants can give you some options for lighting those spaces. Consultants are also knowledgeable about different bulb options, under-cabinet lighting, custom track/monorail lighting, dimmers and wall switches, and many other lighting options that can make a difference in your home and save you money.

Have you ever thought, “I’m having trouble seeing what I am doing,” or “the lighting in this room isn’t quite right?”  If so, you aren’t alone.  The most common lighting complaints revolve around insufficient or unflattering light.  We recommend using an experienced specialist to isolate your lighting challenges and guide you through the placement and selection process. 

Following are some common challenges that you may face:

• ·         Light sources are not bright enough to provide adequate illumination.
• ·         There are too few light sources to adequately light the space.
• ·         Light fixtures may be the wrong design for the room.
• ·         Light fixtures are incorrectly placed in the room.

The amount of light you need depends on the design of the space as well as the distinct visual requirements of rooms such as a home office, kitchen, bathroom or library.  Remember that it usually takes a combination of several light sources, such as ambient, task and accent lighting to achieve your goals.  The age of the occupants and personal lighting preferences should also be considered.  Once all of these factors are considered, you will be able to select the most effective lighting solution for your home.

Dimmers are also important in any lighting design and will make your lighting selections more versatile.  Depending on a room’s usage, like a dining room table being used for homework or a romantic dinner, you can easily change the light level to accommodate each activity.  Rooms with more than one function also benefit from layering light from different lighting sources such as wall sconces, recess lighting and hanging fixtures.

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Most people only pick out lighting every 15-30 years. Lighting changes a lot in that time span, so there are some common mistakes people make that can be avoided.

• Under-sized lighting on the exterior of their home, especially next to large garage doors. When you pick out lights, you’re in a store or showroom that is smaller scale than the exterior of your garage is usually. To avoid this, bring in a picture of your home into a lighting showroom so someone can help you with appropriate scale. Just remember that they will always look larger in the store, than they will look on your house.
• Heights are important.  For fixtures you will be walking under, you’ll want to leave 7’ of clearance from the floor to the fixture.  Over tables, many people hang fixtures to high.  Fixtures should be hung a little above eye level. The general recommendation is 30” between the table and the bottom of the fixture.
• Wall Sconces and Lamps are underused. When building a home, don’t understimate the nice accent lighting that sconces can create. If you’re doing a remodel, see if you can wire in a couple sconces to flank a large window, or fireplace. Also, if you need extra lighting in a room, but don’t have the ability to hardwire anything, add some floor lamps or table lamps. They make many styles that can add quite a bit of lighting for a room, or just create a nice accent as well.
• Installing Only Recessed Lighting in a Bedroom. If its a bedroom in your house that will be used primarily for sleeping, only using recessed for general lighting will not be the best way to do that. When you are laying in bed, you will have spotlights to stare up at. These can be very uncomfortable for a place of rest. Its better to use a fan with a center light, or a semi-flush mount in the middle to provide more soft & diffused light along with the recess.  This gives you the option of having soft light or directional light in the room

Since we look at lighting all day, we are not easily impressed with new LED offerings from our manufacturers.  Puck lights, undercabinet fixtures and LED tape lighting ( like rope lighting, but flatter!) need to give off bright, flattering illumination in order for the staff to take notice.  Everybody makes LED, but very few companies’ offerings produce high-quality light at a price that isn’t offensive.

Because of the aforementioned reasons, I was reluctant to take a look Diode LED, yet another company promising the moon.

Turns out, I was very impressed.

Orinda, California’s Diode LED (Pixar’s next door neighbor) started making LED lights for high end vehicles such as Lexus and Infiniti.  Their engineers are no strangers to crisp, white light that can be easily dimmed.  Due to customer demand, the folks at Diode have produced puck lights, tape light (dry and damp location) and low-profile undercabinet bars that are brighter than halogen but use a fraction of the energy.

While most companies emphasize the quality of the LED chip in the production of fixtures, Diode uses high-quality drivers as well.  Drivers are what regulate the voltage to the LED chips and are usually the weakest link in the installation.  Diode’s drivers are affordable but promise to be more reliable than many brands’.

We invite you to stop into our St Paul showroom where one of our lighting consultants can show you the Diode LED display.  We believe you’ll be as impressed as we are!

Refract Undercabinet LightBar

Attention all metal finishes….Gold is BACK, and better than ever. It’s good news for anyone that is currently struggling with trying to update their brass hardware based home with new lighting. Gold is on the trend…Again! Not that shiny show-every-finger-print kind of gold…a NEW gold. The lighting world is filled with lovely brushed brass and soft painted gold options this year. Some manufacturers have even succeeded in incorporating sleek and more sophisticated modern designs with the new hue, and the result is nothing short of fantastic. If you desperately want to rid your space of the old brass and glass fixture blues, but need something that will still work with all of that gold hardware, this is your time! And to any of you who are tired of the stainless and silver days, I encourage you to give gold a chance…again.

Hallway lighting can sometimes be overlooked during remodel or building projects.  The light in a hall needs to be functional, but can also be dramatic and unexpected depending on the fixtures you select.  

Ceiling fixtures should be placed about every 8 feet.  Either flush mount or semi flush mount fixtures work well.  If you have a high ceiling chandeliers  or chandelettes could also be used.  The bottom of the fixture should be at least 7 feet from the floor.  

 Another great way to light a hallway is with wall sconces.  Wall sconces should be placed 6 to 8 feet apart and approximately 60 inches from the floor.  Placing every other sconce on the opposite side of the hall helps balance the look and the light spread.