One of the unexpected joys of my 1THING: Plug In series is the discovery of new ideas and techniques that I can instantly apply to my own home- and the affirmation that some of the solutions that have evolved naturally over time in my home make some sense after all. This post has both. In […]
Recently I had the joy of virtually visiting a university classroom to talk about lighting with students. Since I can talk about lighting for hours and hours and hours, I usually ask the professor if there is a particular aspect of lighting they would like me to cover. One of my lectures this fall was […]
With just two months left in my 2022 blogging plan, I’m already growing nostalgic about my 1THING posts. The artificial constraints of narrowing all lighting down to just a single solution for new builds or plug-in retrofits for a handful of common spaces gave me focus and structure for the year, and the sketching exercises […]
In the October issue of Designing Lighting, I appeal to the lighting industry to redesign the downlight. There are some amazing downlights made – and none of them are compatible with any other. We – the industry – are creating a potential mess for our consumers down the road, and this is especially true in […]
A few years ago I spent a rather silly amount of time buying and testing light bulbs from local retailers in the hopes of finding something I liked. I failed. I tried again in 2020 and found a few I liked and our team built a buying guide around them. Now that buying guide is […]
Today is a notable day in my own fictitious universe, for I am awarding myself the fake Nobel Prize for Illumination Yakking. I toot my own proverbial horn because of my “discovery” of another “disease” rampant in residential lighting and – quite by accident – the theorizing of an ancillary condition. Yes, once again I […]
Budget conversations are my least favorite part of the lighting design process, though I have learned to dive right in rather than soft-pedal the costs and cause everyone bigger headaches down the road. The simple (unfortunate) truth is that really good lighting cannot be delivered for the same price as really bad lighting. Complicating the […]
I once read that the easiest ways to increase the sale price of your home were to paint the front door for a good first impression and add a deck to the back yard. I suppose adding a deck makes the back yard more enticing, perhaps even subconsciously saying to the buyer “purchase this home […]
The first article in my series on residential lighting for Designing Lighting is out, and I am honored to be a part of this magazine! Getting the series together was not easy, however, and I have a long way to go before all six articles are complete. What makes this hard? Writing for a peer […]
A few weeks ago I had fun detailing what happens in children’s bedrooms and why typical lighting falls short of serving human needs. This week I take another crack at the kids’ rooms, this time for my 1THING: Plug In solutions series. Honestly, it is a little tougher to light a child’s bedroom with plug […]