The Simple Gift of Light #9 Comfort. Work. Safety. Three of our lighting zones have names that invoke ideas that most of us want: few would say “no comfort, please.” The Glare Zone, however, has a much different ring to it. Perhaps every human eye should come with a READ ME FIRST! warning, every home […]
The Simple Gift of Light #3 Would you like to wake gently each morning, refreshed and ready for the new day? Light can help you. A few years ago I caught some kind of nasty cough, the kind that gets worse when lying horizontal (so much for sleep), and it just wouldn’t go away. For […]
Ready to roll up your proverbial (or literal, I suppose) shirtsleeves? This series is all about helping aspiring residential lighting designers, architects, interior designers, and DIY homeowners get better light in their homes. If you want to know why this is important and dig into the theory behind this series, check out the Simple Gift of […]
The second post of the Simple Gift of Light series is the first step of relighting your life: fuel up. The first step towards improving your life with the simple gift of light is to start seeing light like our ancestors did: as a mystical, magical, and even sacred gift. This is going to take […]
Introducing a second new series for 2025 focused on practical advice for designers. Today I start a second new series for the year that I hope will make a strong compliment to the first. Last week I started the Simple Gift of Light series as a place to explore several key benefits of light in […]
Introduction to a new series for 2025…and beyond? Light, to me, is the first divine gift of the universe. In the middle of a career centered on light, I have more questions than answers, despite knowing more than ever before. Why, for example, do so many people suffer from light that hurts as much as […]
We recently lost a potential client to a manufacturer who offered “free” lighting design services (so long as you purchased fixtures from them, of course, which have the cost of service buried into the sale price). My first reaction was indignation but, as is often the case, a closer look revealed a much more nuanced […]
In most of our kitchens, we prioritize our dogs or the dust bunnies that inevitably collect on top of cabinets, range hoods, and refrigerators. At least when planning light. We might put more money into our countertops, cabinets, backsplashes, sinks, and appliances than our floor, but we are systematically using the best light in the […]
Read More… from Dogs, Dust Bunnies, Downlights, & Disc Lights
Coffee, when poured into a mug and consumed, delivers a strongly desired boost of energy through caffeine. The same coffee, when poured onto the laptop, can be ruinous. The question of usefulness or harmfulness, applied to coffee, is answered by the use. The same can be true for light, especially outside. But indulge me a […]
Not all that is new in lighting is much better. One of the newest trends in architectural and residential lighting is tubes of light about 1” in diameter. When I started my career a rather good number of years ago, we called these T8 Fluorescent Tubes, and they were universally loathed for their institutional feel. […]
Feeling a bit groggy as you start your workday today? Hundreds of millions of Americans will be a bit less productive this morning, require a bit more coffee, and be a little more grumpy than usual. Just like we were last year at this time, and likely will be again next year unless we change […]