Designing the Lighting Plan for Your New Home

Let There Be Light! Planning for Good Lighting in Your New Home

Before the shovel breaks ground on your new home, make sure you’ve mapped out your lighting design schemes inside and out. When it comes to planning the lighting design of your dream home, why settle for anything less then optimum functionality and state of the art design.  Each room in your home will serve a unique function with lighting requirements specific to your lifestyle. Good lighting design will take into consideration proper illumination for tasks and reading, day and night atmospheres, outdoor landscape lighting, and lights that simply make you and your décor look amazing.

Because there’s so much to consider when designing the lighting for a new home, you may want to hire a professional lighting designer to work side by side with your building contractor from the beginning. A qualified lighting expert will save you time and money  sourcing out the best lighting options for your lifestyle needs and budget.

With the right planning, you have can have smart and functional lighting that makes a design statement as well. Here are a few suggestions on lighting to nudge you in viewing home lighting design in a more expansive way.

A Good Lighting Plan Is A Must - If you are purchasing or building a new house, be sure to include a good lighting plan into the mix of the construction ground plans of your new home. A well developed lighting strategy will incorporate the various types of effects you want to achieve, help you see what challenges you will face and how it will all come together as a seamless whole.

Whether it’s lighting the master bedroom, bathroom, home office, closet, front yard or an art collection in your new home, good lighting design will have both aesthetic appeal and smart functionality.

Task Lighting - is specific to home areas such as desks, kitchen countertops, craft surfaces, work benches, reading nooks, and areas that require directed light. Lighting that focuses on a work surface or reading space should not be intended for the job of illuminating an entire room.

Whether your favorite place to read is in your comfy bed propped up with pillows or lazily lounging on your favorite chaise, reading can cause unnecessary eye strain if you don’t have the proper task light to work by. Bright and direct focused lighting is crucial for intense visual activities such as writing, reading, crafting, etc. that can put a strain on your eyes.

For whatever style of floor, table top, ceiling or track light fixture you decide on, lighting experts agree that halogen bulbs are better for illuminating focused tasks and reading material over standard incandescent bulbs. Halogen bulbs produce a whiter light that is superior for reading and visually detailed tasks with sharp white light that ensures good illumination.

Kitchen Lighting - In the design of your kitchen, lighting should be a primary consideration where safety is concerned. Can you see what you are doing? Working in the dark, or with shadows thrown by inadequate lighting can contribute to avoidable kitchen accidents in your new home.

Here are a few suggestions that will provide proper lighting, adding style and functionality to your new kitchen:

• Pendant lighting or halogen fixtures for an island or over the sink area.
• Track, cable or monorail lighting that can be adjusted with spot bulbs, creating focused light over your range, oven and counter tops.
• Under cabinet lighting or recessed high hat lighting above countertops.

Ambient Lighting - You wouldn’t choose the same task lighting that would be used for your home office to create ambient illumination in your living room. Your living room requires lighting that is diffused and subdued, intended to create atmosphere and mood. You and your guests will look fabulous and feel relaxed in the soft illumination of good ambient lighting.

Art Lighting - has specific lighting requirements as well. Too much light will wash out a painting in the worst way, and not enough light will cause the same painting to blend into the wood work. When it comes to lighting artwork, there is a fine balance between too little and overkill. A painting without directed light focused on it might as well be hanging in the closet!

Outdoor Landscape Lighting - is an art form all its own. It will create the first impression people make when arriving to your new home after dark. Well-placed outdoor lighting along walkways shows consideration for guests and adds safety to your garden of ‘de-lights’. Landscapes come alive at night with the use of subtle outdoor landscape lighting. You can create drama by up-lighting trees, fountains and architectural details. Pools, fountains and pathways become part of a composition of shadowy forms and plays of light.

Dimmer Controls - Within the design mix of a good lighting plan, be sure to include the use of dimmers wherever possible. Many people make the mistake of overlooking the use of dimmer switches. By putting your lights on a dimming system, you can change the mood of a room by simply adjusting the level of illumination desired.

Poor lighting is usually a result of too much light rather than not enough. There’s nothing worse than a track full of halogen light fixtures blasting light into a room without a dimmer switch for control. As natural light begins to fade at the end of the day, lighting becomes even more intense. Dimmers allow you to bring the level of brightness down a notch and avoid an otherwise harsh effect. Attempts at enhancing a painting, an architectural detail or some other point of interest will be nullified if over lit. Because there is such a fine line between too much and too little when it comes to lighting objects, true success can really only be achieved with a dimmer.

Using a dimming system can not only vary the mood in a room, it can also lower the costs of your electricity bill and prolong the life of expensive specialty bulbs. Using light control with dimmers has become a popular energy and money saver. Dimmers reduce wasted energy by using only the amount of electricity that’s necessary. According to Barbara Kopitz, a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers, when light is dimmed 25%, a dimmer saves about 20% of the electricity required. When dimmed 50%, it saves about 40% of electricity. When a bulb is dimmed by 25%, it will last four times as long then at full power. Dimmed at 50%, it can last up to 20 times longer!

Experts will agree that the lighting design in a new house should automatically include dimmer controls. Dimmers can be installed as a central control pad with changeable presets or on individual switches. When considering the many benefits that dimmers provide, it would be an oversight not to include them within the lighting design specs of your new home.
    

With the wide range of high-tech designer choices available in functional home lighting, there’s no limit to the possibilities that you can incorporate into your décor plans. If you give a comprehensive lighting plan to your building contractor at construction kickoff, you will ensure that all your lighting desires get implemented.  Your new house will be transformed into your dream home with a flick of a switch!!
 

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