I do not like messy things. You might not believe me based on the usual state of my desktop, but disorganization and messes slowly sap my strength. A freshly organized and cleaned desk invigorates. My team never sees my desk, as we are a distributed workforce (also known as work-from-home or remote workers), but they […]
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 […]
What makes a pretty good house? My first exposure to the Taunton Press was as an avid reader of Sarah Susanka’s The Not So Big House books. Taunton is also responsible for Fine Homebuilding (to which I subscribe and for whom I have written) and Fine Woodworking, among others. Now Taunton has published a new […]
My children are at the age where calling them kids becomes increasingly dubious. Sixteen and twenty-one years of age, they spend more time away from home every year. That doesn’t mean that stepping on LEGOs is a past hazard- the threat is still very real. (And yes, I know that the correct term is LEGO, […]