Lighting Tips and Resources

It's been a while since I've shared lighting tips, so I thought I'd do a little round-up today.  Kichler and the Philips group (Forecast & Thomas Lighting) talk about the 3 types of lighting, which is also referred to as light layering.  The 3 types are General/Decorative, Task, and Ambient.  Ideally it's best to have a little bit of all three in every room for optimum lighting and flexibility.

You can learn more about this from Kichler at
 http://www.kichler.com/consumer/help_page?nav_reset=true#
and Thomas at
 http://www.thomaslighting.com/lighting-tips/three-types-of-lighting/.


Next you'll need to decide what style of lighting you like.  Some styles to consider are classic traditional, fresh traditional, transitional,
 (http://www.thomaslighting.com/lighting-tips/the-styles-of-lighting/)
Arts & Crafts, contemporary, and modern (http://www.kichler.com//consumer/style_guide_page/portlet_style_guide/cms/begin?portlet_style_guideresource=/OpenCMS/sites/kichler.com/style_guide/page1.html#).

Thomas's example of classic traditional

Kichler's Mission or Arts & Crafts style

Kichler's modern style

Thomas's transistional

Thomas & Forecast have a great glossary of lighting terms.  Do you know what baffles, lumens, and mica are?  If not, you can learn all about them here:
http://www.thomaslighting.com/lighting-tips/lighting-glossary/

Progress Lighting has a virtual lighting guide that allows you to visualize lighting from Progress using photos from your own home.  You can try it here:
http://www.progressvirtuallighting.com/

And if you do not love looking at a computer screen and would rather have a book full of helpful hints, you can order a "Lighting Made Simple" guide from Hinkley Lighting:
http://www.hinkleylighting.com/guide/
(But Hinkley also has their tips online at http://www.hinkleylighting.com/be-inspired/lighting-tips/)
They'll tell you how to size your chandelier, which is like this:
To size a chandelier for your dining room, or to be the focal point of your space, measure the length and width of the room and add those figures together. The sum, converted to inches, will equal the diameter that you can use as a guideline when selecting the size of your chandelier.

If the resulting measurement (room length + width, converted to inches) seems inappropriate due to the size of your table, size your chandelier three quarters the width of your table.

In most cases, the bottom of your chandelier should sit approximately 30"–32" above the table top.

And I've just added a new board for Lighting Tips on our Pinterest Page, so you can find all these links and some pictures on Pinterest, too!
http://pinterest.com/dominionelecsup/lighting-tips/

Please remember that we have lots of experts at all 3 of our Dominion Electric Supply showrooms!  We have 12 lighting designers who are certified by the American Lighting Association, so please let us know how we can help with YOUR lighting design.