Featured

Builders & Lighting

Lighting designers and builders often complain about each other…instead of partnering for the benefit of all. Custom residential lighting design – the way it is normally done – can be the enemy of a builder’s desire to complete the project on time and on budget. Great lighting requires more planning (adding cost and time), better […]

Read More… from Builders & Lighting

Light for Doing: A Living Room

A living room packed with seating and tables with a ceiling fan light on

CFLS: Ceiling Fan Light Syndrome.  Great for vacuuming the carpet, awful for everything else. Everyone uses their living rooms differently, which means everyone’s idea of great lighting will be different.  In your living or family room you might watch television, read books, play games, relax on the couch, surf the internet on your iPad, knit, snack, […]

Read More… from Light for Doing: A Living Room

Light for Storytelling

A dining room where the far wall is almost entirely windows looking out onto a small river or creek.

Professional lighting designers use different terms like task, ambient, and accent light when describing what they do. And they may not always talk about storytelling, but it is embedded in their work none-the-less. When I’m working with a client who is converting an old brick warehouse into a frozen yogurt shop, I might suggest neon […]

Read More… from Light for Storytelling

Light for Changing

A bedroom with the bed off to the left, the right shows two windows framed with built in drawers and shelves and window seats

Imagine yourself in a windowless, featureless room, like an exam room at the hospital.  There is a light switch on the wall that turns on the overhead fluorescent fixtures.  You can have bright white light or pitch dark at the flick of a switch. And those are your only two choices.  So most of the […]

Read More… from Light for Changing

Light for Feeling

Tree branches with yellowing leaves against a blue sky

Once you have light for doing and light for knowing, it’s time to think about light for feeling. Can light impact how you feel?  Imagine yourself driving a car.  Suddenly, you see flashing red and blue lights coming from behind you.  Your heartrate rises, your brain goes to high alert, and you reach a state […]

Read More… from Light for Feeling

Light for Knowing

A very pitch black image with the outline of a person shining a weak light towards the camera

Light isn’t just for doing- it is also for knowing where we are, where we are going, and who we are with.  Imagine yourself in a large room that is completely dark- you cannot see anything.  Now add the most basic light for reading- a clip-on book light.  You can see the pages now, yes?  […]

Read More… from Light for Knowing

Light for Doing

A photograph of a desk underneath a slanted ceiling with a skylight. A lamp in the corner provides additional light.

Do you know how many footcandles you need to read a magazine?  Most likely not, and there is no reason you should.  But you are an expert at what you do in your home, and you need light to see it.  You need a certain kind of light to read your magazine, light that illuminates […]

Read More… from Light for Doing

Light Can Help You