Illuminate Your Space

Lighting is one of the most overlooked aspects in home construction today, primarily because there is a perception that good lighting or custom lighting is expensive. Budgets are getting squeezed and homeowners (and spec builders) often prefer spending on things they think give a bigger “impact”, more bang for the buck. And, people often go to great lengths to maximize windows and natural light, all very important considerations, but forget that a large amount of their leisure time is spent in the evenings, after dark, when relying on the artificial lighting in your home. Our goal here is help you make the most intelligent lighting choices, choices that will leverage your substantial investment in that new home, creating a special environment that is comfortable, relaxing and accentuates the beautiful architecture that you are creating.

A house plan that you purchase will have a basic layout that shows wall outlets and some ceiling lights and fans – a useful guide for budgeting and planning but this needs to be amplified by your conceptualizing your use of each space or room, and the furnishing layout you are planning. If you can fit it in your budget, an interior decorator at a local home furnishing or lighting store might be able to help you sketch out a more detailed lighting plan. Most stores offer free interior decorating services when you purchase a certain dollar amount of light fixtures or furnishings. The internet is a valuable resource also to help you in your planning. Sites like Lamps Plus offer free room planners that allow you to plug in your room dimension and then furnish your rooms with a simple point and click of your mouse. Lamps Plus gives consumers added benefits by offering online lighting consultation for only $5 in which they refund with a $25 coupon sent with your lighting consultation.

Different Types of Lighting to Consider

General Lighting
Ceiling fixtures, chandeliers and wall sconces are used to illuminate the way for movement throughout the home. Recessed can lights often are used to light hallways, stairs and circulation areas and do a good job of lighting the floor. However, a softer and more pleasant effect can be had by using indirect lighting such as wall washers that do double the duty of highlighting your artwork and, at the same time, provide attractive general lighting.

Try to anticipate where you will be hanging artwork – blank wall spaces and art niches – and place recessed can lights that are designed to wash that wall with light. Another way to soften your illumination is to bounce light off the ceiling through the use of indirect cove light and wall sconces. Wall sconces are easy to do almost anywhere but cove lighting often requires changes to the architecture and may be more applicable to high ceiling areas.

Task Lighting
Kitchen counters and other work surfaces such as home offices and workshop areas require a higher level of illumination, usually provided by recessed cans, track lighting, ceiling pendants and, in offices, table, desk, or floor lamps.
The key here is to provide light that is bright enough but free from shadows. Particularly in kitchens, it is better have more fixtures, spaced closer together, using a lower wattage such as 50 watt, par 20 halogen can lights. Remember that it is the counter you want lit, not the floor in front or the top of your head, so consider lining up your can lights on the front edge of the counter.

Mood or Accent Lighting
Lighting which is installed primarily for atmosphere such as lamps, ceiling chandeliers, specialty hi-hats and landscape lights fall into this category, as do most ceiling fans with lights. Art niches are popular and require lighting that is focused on them. Dimmers can also be used on general or task lighting to help create mood lighting.

Exterior Lighting
The tendency to focus most of your attention to the inside of your home is common but, particularly in areas where you do a lot of your living outdoors, it is a mistake to forget these areas. Even if your landscaping is staged as a future project, you must think through where you will want lights and plan for adding the appropriate outlets and switches.

Do you hang Christmas lights? If so, now is the time to plan for outlets in the right locations to avoid needing those ugly extension cords running around. Landscape, driveway and pathway lights can also make a huge impact and do not add that much to the budget. Usually these are inexpensive, low voltage, fixtures that require a transformer conveniently located for connection to the house power and access for timers to control the lighting.

Choosing your fixtures
The choice of which type of fixtures to use is a personal decision based upon what you like. Some homeowners despise floor and table lamps and opt for ceiling hi-hats to provide all the forms of lighting required. This also enables greater flexibility while configuring the placement of your furnishings. Others may find this harsh, and prefer the warmth afforded by table lamps; however this requires that you know where your furnishings will be so you can locate outlets close to the location you want to have a table lamp. If you can figure out exactly where furnishings and area rugs will be placed, you can also have floor outlets that hide conspicuous electrical cords.

A most important consideration is where you locate the wall switches that will control your lighting. Try to visualize your movement through the home to best locate these switches, and do consider three or four-way switches, which allow you to control lights from various locations and avoid backtracking to turn off lights. There are also various Smart House systems that can be installed to allow you to control lighting throughout the home from command modules you locate in strategic places, like a garage entry or master bedroom. This kind of system can also be designed to allow you to monitor and control your home from anywhere in the world, through the use of the internet, while you are away on business or vacation – a great security feature. However, as you might imagine, these systems are an expensive option but, with the right budget and in the right circumstances, can be vital to your enjoyment and security.

Try to choose your light fixtures early, so you can coordinate the styles and finishes with your décor. There are so many exciting metallic finishes available these days that make coordinating the styles in your home easy. Some fixtures that have to be ordered, can take a long time, sometimes 8 – 12 weeks, so do you’re planning early. Whatever style you are looking for, you will find a plethora of lighting solutions through home stores, lighting specialty centers and the internet.

This is not meant to be the exhaustive story about lighting but simply to alert you to some of the options and help you be better informed so you can avoid making any of the common mistakes. Budgeting a little extra time, research and resources on this lighting question will go a long way towards improving the enjoyment of your new home!

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