Washington Post Magazine

We have another famous and quoted person on staff! This one was a little slow to reach my radar, but in last weekend's Washington Post magazine, our own Erin Schwartz is quoted in their "Design Trends" section.

The fixture pictured is a Murray Feiss F2537/4SLP.

Here's what the blurb says: Whether your style is traditional, transitional or modern, pendant lighting fixtures with shades are giving homewoners a chic alternative to chandeliers, according to Erin Schwartz, showroom buyer and lighting consultant for Dominion Electric. "I use them throughout homes to cast a softer, more diffuse light," she says. "They have nice clean lines and look great in a variety of decors." Typically drum-shaped, the shades may be simple or highly embellished. Metal filigree and crystal fringe are particularly popular adornments. Some manufacturers offer custom options, letting clients choose from a range of fabrics or supply their own fabric. The Murray Feiss shade shown here has a sliver leaf patina over an ivory linen shade.

And then we also had an ad in the magazine. You're welcome to print it from here and bring it in for the 10% off! This fixture is an Artcraft AC743 and is a perfect example of a drum shade adorned with crystal fringe!

http://www.mygazines.com/issue/7124/8

I am absolutley tickled that Linda Longo of Home Lighting & Accessories magazine mentions my blog in this month's editorial of her magazine. According to her, I've "mastered the art of social media & interactive customer engagement"! I'm not sure I've completely mastered it, but I sure have fun with it! You can read all her kind words here:

http://www.mygazines.com/issue/7124/8

WAC Lighting

We just had a great visit from Ryan Berlin from WAC Lighting, along with our local rep, Ed Armenta. They told us about a great video on WAC's website that talks about the integrity of the company:

http://www.waclighting.com/data/arti_img/videos/

I had forgotten that WAC has a 5 year warranty on all of their products, which is much longer than most of our other vendors. They also have some amazing new LED products like these:

This is an LED pendant that I'm dying to see in person (they hope to be shipping them in a couple of weeks). It lights both up through the glass, as well as down onto your work surface. I'll have one on display in my office as soon as we can get one!

This is a gorgeous little LED display light. We gave him some feedback about how we'd like to see it tweaked so we could use it as a desk lamp, a picture light, or a bedside reading light, so hopefully there will be new versions some day!

This picture represents their LED tape light that can now be used under water ~ in pools, fountains, fish tanks, you name it! It can be submerged up to 5 feet.


This is another LED pendant that we DID get to see, and it is amazingly bright! I'm also going to order one of these to hang in my office. This one only shines down, but it's still stunning!

And this is their LED puck light. A lot of people are coming out with LED units for under cabinets, but there is SUCH variety in color, light output, and the quality of the light. WAC seems to have nailed it on their puck, so we plan to get one of these on display soon!

So come visit us in Chantilly in a few weeks if you'd like to see any of these products live and in action! I think LED is making it an exciting time to be in lighting!

Washington Post

I feel like the Washington Post must have a new employee with a lighting background ~ there have been 2 articles in less than a week that I think are worth mentioning here!

First, in Thursday's Local Living section was this article with the tag line "Is you kitchen glaring at you? You don't have to put up with those looks anymore. Innovations in lighting can make the room glow warmly."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021604630.html?wpisrc=nl_home

Then in today's Style section, in the Kids Post area, they had a cute article about the Girl Scouts campaign to change 63,000 light bulbs from incandescent to CFL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/22/AR2010022204142.html/

They say that if every home in America replaced just one incandescent bulb a year with an energy-saving variety, it would cut down on so much pollution that it would be like taking 800,000 cars off the road. And if every local Girl Scout replaced just one light bulb, those homes would save nearly $300,000 a year in energy costs ($4.76 per house). Pretty amazing numbers!

ASID CEU seminars

Happy Friday!
We've zeroed in on 2 sets of dates for our next two ASID CEU seminars, so I thought I should go ahead and publish them so our desinger friends can Save the Dates!

In April, our seminars will be sponsored by Hadco Landscape Lighting. On Tuesday 4/27 we will have a seminar in Arlington from 10:30 to 12:30, and then in Chantilly from 4:00 to 6:00. On Wednesday 4/28 we will do it again in Laurel from 10:30 to 12:30. You can learn more about Hadco on their website: www.hadco.com. Lew Waltz will focus on residential landscape lighting, outdoor living, layout & spacing of landscape lighting, wattage & voltage drop issues, and the newest in their LED products.

Then in July, we'll have Jeff Dross from Kichler Lighting's LED division. He will be in Arlington on Wed. 7/28 from 10:30 to 12:30, then Chantilly from 4:00 to 6:00, and Laurel will be Thu. 7/29 from 10:30 to 12:30. Kichler has all sorts of amazing new LED solutions for under cabinets, in coves, inside cabinets, etc. so this will be a great opportunity to learn about these emerging technologies. You can learn more about them now at www.kichler.com.

Please let me know if you'd like any more details about either of these events now. If you're not sure you're on our email invitation list, I can certainly add you, so contact me! cschla@dominionelectric.com or 703-814-7460.

Mariana Imports

Happy Presidents' Day! I was just reading the latest edition of Home Lighting & Accessories Magazine (edited by my new cyber-friend, Linda Longo!), and saw this featured picture of a new Mariana Imports chandelier that we just hung in the showroom last week:

This is Mariana model #360550 ~ the Adriana in an aged platinum finish with silver leaf infused glass. It's very unique!

So I thought I should show you some of the other pieces they hung last week ~ and they're still working on assembling a few more!

The one above is #920604 ~ and we also display the linear version of it (#920304). They are done in a Burnished Solid Brass with Champagne Silk Shades.

#750947 ~ Torched Copper Finish Combined with Antiqued Brass and Pale Silk Drum Shades

#730450 ~ Smoked Platimun with Snowy Frosted Glass

#890659 ~ Renaissance Brown with Molten Cognac Glass

#930674 ~ Iron Struture, with Stardust Silver Leaf Finish and enhanced by a Shimmering Champagne Wash

#880631 ~ Torched Copper with Off-White Dupioni Silk Shades

Light Show Online

Hello everyone! Dominion Electric is finally open for business again today, after digging ourselves out of back-to-back snowstorms here! Nothing like being stuck at home for a few days to make me happy to see my desk again!

I got an email from our Kichler rep (Michael Graves) ~ he had gotten this email from a North Carolina rep:
"My very good friend and business associate, Richard Allan, has produced a series of YOUTUBE videos featuring products from several great companies that he represents and that show at the Dallas Market. He is producing these under the name LIGHT SHOW. I think if you view them, you will find them interesting, informative, & enlightening, (no pun intended!) As you are choosing the videos you are interested in seeing, please note that he has, or will be doing, clips for several lines we represent: Kichler, Fanimation, WAC, Mariana, & Bruck.
As a favor to Richard, through me, please subscribe to Light Show. You can do so by clicking the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thelightshowonline#grid/user/308B1E95C7273F59 "

I had trouble with that link from work, so here are a couple of others to try if you also have difficulties:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9o3YZM8w-U/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YyCa2JtFHg/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgaK_WLqFJQ/
My favorite is the "Lacey" family ~ it reminds me of a much more expensive family we used to have by another manufacturer.





After watching all of Richard's videos, I feel like I attended the Dallas Market in January. Thanks, Richard! (And thanks also to Michael Graves & Skip Hulett for sharing.)

$5 off Snowman Coupon

Would you believe we are now preparing for ANOTHER record snowstorm here in Chantilly, VA?!?! So I thought it would be another good day to share our cute little snowman coupon! I think they're still saying we may get 2-3 FEET of snow, so we should have plenty of the stuff around to build entire families of snow men, women, and children!



So just print out this coupon and bring it into any of our 3 showrooms for your $5 off anything in our stores!

And don't forget to sign up as a Dominion Facebook fan ~
http://www.facebook.com/DominionElectricSupply/ ~ when we get to 300 fans we'll raffle off that $100 gift certificate! We're 1/3 of the way there already... :)

cool new Minka tools on the web

I just got a call from our rep, Steve Saks, showing me his great new web site:

http://www.stevesaks.com/

He reps Minka Lavery, Minka Aire, Metropolitan Lighting, George Kovacs, Kenroy Home, Ambience Lamps & Mirrors, and Mariner-Spain. One of the neatest things is his link to another Minka rep's blog, which shows all their new products from Dallas:

http://mckinley615.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

You have no idea what a great tool this is ~ Minka is traditionally quite slow to get us catalogs of new products. So now we have this quick link we can use in the mean time! Fabulous! He says he'd love to hear what your favorite new Minka series is, so if you have a vote, let us know!

I think this one gets my vote....

New Murray Feiss on display

Can you believe it is February already?! Shocking! Well here's a fixture that could cure the winter blues:

We just hung this Murray Feiss F2468/4 last week, and then today I got the latest issue of Residential Lighting magazine, and the very same piece graces their front cover:

Our Arlington store displays the flush mount, # FM330:


Isn't it a cool series? I think it's my new favorite in our showroom....