Decorative Lighting Design
Indoor decorative lighting enhances the interior features of your home without overpowering the general, functional lighting you require for daily life and home security. Within your home’s interior, decorative lights should accentuate key elements of interior design and distinguish works of art and specialty displays with an aura of significance. Interior decorative lighting can also be used to create positive emotions and states of mind by complimenting special activities, celebrations, relaxation, and home entertainment. Lighting controls and dimmers are important elements of interior decorative lighting because they allow for multiple themes and effects to be created with a single group of fixtures.
What do I look for in a home interior lighting designer?
Find a company that knows interior design, first of all. Because the interior of a home contributes so much to the essence of a person’s unique, individual lifestyle, lighting designers should start by assessing the home’s existing interior. The dimensions of any given room and its respective furnishings should be studied to locate patterns of symmetry, pattern, and color. The design and height of the ceiling is also crucial to home decorative lighting because it functions as a dual source of both direct light and indirect light.
Are fine art and display lighting considered decorative lighting?
Yes, but they should be treated as separate elements from the rest of the home interior and be lit with specialty art lights and display lights. Display cases for collectibles and fine art require special fixtures, lenses, and lamping configurations to effectively light the subtleties of fine oil paintings, rare antiques, and special edition collector’s hardbacks. Recessed art lighting fixtures must also have special UV and infrared filters to protect oils and canvases from the harmful effects of invisible light. As a general rule, retail picture lights do a very poor job of dissipating heat and should be avoided. We recommend using either recessed halogen lights with UV filters or a specialty art projector for filtered, adjustable light. Display lights also need to be adjustable in order to balance with general lighting in the room. The best display lights are typically linear light strips with lighting control system that allow light levels to be controlled at will by the homeowner.
What else can decorative lighting be used for?
Home decorative lighting plays a major role in establishing a positive frame of mind. Every home has certain rooms that are used for special tasks, and other areas used specifically for relaxation and entertainment. The den or bedroom is a preferred reading place. The kitchen and adjoining dining area is usually favored for social gatherings and festivities. The bathroom is the mainstay for personal grooming. The home theater is the place for high-tech escape from the mundane drudgery’s of society. These are but a few examples of what we mean here by activity-specific locations that create a unique mindset in a person. Every one of these locations is also prime real estate for interior decorative lights. LEDs are excellent home theater lighting and supplemental reading lights, and they use only 20% the electricity as incandescent fixtures. Cabinet and under cabinet lights in kitchens can cast a special glow over the counter top for a cooking demonstration, birthday party, or wedding celebration. Cove lights in living rooms, foyers, and kitchens can shine light up the walls wrap around the edges of the ceiling, replacing dark shadows with ambient fields of radiance.
How many decorative lights do I need?
You don’t need that many actual decorative lighting fixtures if you install a Lutron Grafik Eye system. Lighting control systems allow for the same basic group of decorative home lights to produce multiple lighting levels and special lighting effects. With user friendly wall box dimmers and hand held remotes, you can highlight part of the room, all of the room, or create any mood you wish with selective control of specific fixtures. Pre-programmed themes can also be loaded for one-touch lighting control.
The Takeaway
As homes grow larger, lighting and electrical needs become more complex. Automation of almost everything has started to become common. We’re entering a period where a generation of children will never remember a time when you didn’t simply “speak to the house” to accomplish a task.
Home automation makes life more convenient; it saves money by only powering something when it is needed; it offers security by having lights operate is a pseudo-random pattern that imitates inhabitants, even when you are in the Caribbean for holidays.
Having a single resource for all electrical contracting needs, who also happen to be artistic designers and engineers, provides homeowners with reliability and peace of mind. If you want a consistent, smoother, faster process, reduced costs, and a better end product, Illuminations Lighting Design should be your first choice.
While we are based in Houston, Texas, our art-lighting consultants travel nationwide to design lighting for some of the most prestigious art collections in the world. ILD is the only “one-stop” destination for lighting design services, engineering, landscape lighting services, and installation in the whole state of Texas. We are unrivaled by any lighting firm in the United States for lighting that is art.
We would love to hear from you, so pick up the phone and give us a call at 713-863-1133 or toll-free at 800-863-1184, so you can learn more about our fine art lighting company before we begin your journey towards perfect art lighting.
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