4 Lighting Design Faux Pas – And How to Avoid Them
Good Lighting is Not a Matter of Chance
Do you ever enter a room or a space and immediately notice something is off? In a kitchen, perhaps the bright overhead lights glare off the shiny countertops. Or maybe a room seems cold because the light color temperature makes it all look like overhead lights at the local big box retailer.
Light has tremendous power to make or break a space, no matter how exquisitely finished and furnished. Good lighting is not left to chance or even a few rules of thumb (although there are some); it’s all about the right light for the space and its contents and intended uses. Here are a few lighting design mistakes you’ll want to avoid in your Las Vegas, NV home.
SEE ALSO: 5 Ways to Use Lighting Control Scenes for Fun, Efficiency, and Safety
Uneven Lighting
Lighting needs to fit the specific space. Some living areas have parts with too much light, while corners might be dim, simply by the way the overhead ambient lighting was arranged. Bathrooms are often the worst culprits, with overly bright lighting above mirrors and showers that are too dim. What’s the right approach? Layered lighting is a technique used by lighting design professionals to create a lighting plan for a space that balances functionality and aesthetics, using ambient light, accent, and task lighting fixtures.
Glare
Kitchens are often guilty of producing too much glare. Kitchens typically have bright overhead lighting, and when positioned wrong, will create glare from shiny floors or countertops. The wrong under-counter lights can cause glare when not properly specified and installed. What’s the solution? Dimmers can help, as well as specifying the right amount of ambient lighting and lumens of output. Again, a layered lighting approach creates a plan where different types of lighting work together to pleasingly illuminate the space functionally and aesthetically.
Fatiguing Light
When your smartphone screen is too dim or too bright for the ambient light, either situation is fatiguing to the eye. If you have trouble reading in a room with all the lights employed, something is wrong. If you have to rest your eyes because the lights are too bright, that’s also a problem. But smart technology comes to the rescue in a couple of ways.
Lighting control can tame an overly bright space by dimming ambient and task lights to a workable and pleasing level. For a more sophisticated solution, new LED tunable light systems let you dynamically manage the color temperature of the light. Turn it up to brighter, bluer tones (like bright sunlight) for focus and visibility of the task at hand, and turn it to redder and amber tones later in the day to subtle relax the body, in the same way our circadian rhythms respond to the natural light of the day. Not only is it healthier lighting for mood and focus, but you can also use it to create a beautiful atmosphere in your home.
Are you ready to step up to the next level of smart home automation? Get started by reaching out to the team at Fusion Home Systems today! We look forward to working with you.
