5 Pro Tips to Up Your Lighting Game
Good lighting can perk up your home and your mood.
Few things can ruin an otherwise successful interior like ill-considered lighting, whether glaring, shadowy or just inadequate. It’s not simply a matter of aesthetics or function; it’s psychological, too.
“We believe there’s nothing more important in enhancing our sense of well-being than good quality light,” says Eric Nelson of Rich Brilliant Willing, an NYC-based manufacturer of LED light fixtures, founded in 2007 to give consumers stylish lighting choices that are also energy-conscious.
Sound like an elusive goal? Here are five practical ways to pull it off:
1. Vary light sources within a space.
“It’s all about layering,” says Staci Ruiz, a longtime Manhattan-based lighting consultant. “Don’t rely on a single light source to produce all the light in a room. Typically, you want several — ambient light for general illumination, indirect light and task light” for reading or other close work.
Ambient light is often supplied by an overhead pendant (hanging) fixture or chandelier. Think of these as statement pieces, advises Nelson, or “functional works of art,” like Rich Brilliant Willing’s circular Cinema chandelier or Mori Squash pendant, which emits a soft glow through fabric stretched over different-shaped frames.
2. Go LED.
There’s a revolution going on in the lighting field, and its initials are LED (light-emitting diode). LED used to get a bad rap for making rooms look cold or clinical, but that’s a thing of the past.
In the last decade, LED technology has improved dramatically. “LEDs are getting much closer to incandescent lighting” in delivering warm, skin-flattering tones, says Ruiz, who favors it especially for lighting her clients’ artwork. “There’s no heat factor, no maintenance, and the color rendering is superior – that’s why LED is becoming universally used.”
In just about every application you can think of, LED bulbs or fixtures with built-in LED bulbs are supplanting old-school incandescents (which are energy hogs), fluorescents (that contain toxic mercury) and halogens (which get very hot and tend to have maintenance issues). LED bulbs cost about $6 each and can last 10 years or longer.
“If you’re renovating, LED is really the only way to go,” Nelson says. “You’ll save money in the long run and cut down on energy consumption.”
For home use, choose warm LEDs (2700K or higher), which are more flattering, easier on the eyes and less likely to disrupt circadian rhythms than cooler lights.
3. Use dimmers, but hire a pro to install them for LED fixtures.
Dimmers are powerful tools to adjust the level of illumination and change the ambiance of a room, making a room used for work by day a relaxing dining area by night.
But consumer-level dimmers don’t yet quite cut it with LED fixtures; they can cause annoying flickering. Best to hire a licensed electrical contractor for installation.
4. Deploy recessed lighting sparingly (if at all) in a historic house.
Recessed lighting can can work fine in newer buildings, “so long as you can dim it and supplement it with task or accent lighting for a more inviting atmosphere,” Nelson says.
If you’re renovating, create deeper recesses to avoid a direct view of the light source, suggests Bhavesh Shah of Open Studio, a Brooklyn-based architecture and design firm.
And in Shah’s view, it’s best to avoid recessed lighting altogether where it disturbs plaster ceilings or historic details like crown moldings and medallions. “A chandelier with uplighting serves perfectly fine in combination with floor lamps,” table lamps and other light sources, he says.
Shah often uses wall washers, designed to illuminate vertical surfaces, to enhance the texture of exposed brick.
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5. Don’t stint on illumination.
“Under-illumination can be depressing,” Shah says. “Thirty to 50 watts per square foot is a good rule of thumb to follow.”
When swapping out LED bulbs for incandescents, remember that 10 watts is the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent.
And don’t forget the sun. Daylight costs nothing; maximize it by baring windows during the day and hanging mirrors on walls opposite windows to reflect and bounce light back into a room.
Earth Day is April 22. Pull those curtains back and replace a bulb!
Design journalist Cara Greenberg writes the Insider column for Brownstoner and blogs at casaCARA.
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