Kitchens & Dining Rooms Archives - Page 3 of 3

Chandeliers and Umbrellas

A chandelier with a frame but no cover and candle-like lights in the middle

“Sacrifice for beauty,” someone once said. Not in my house. Lighting is not immune to questionable fashion trends, and we’re in the middle of one right now that makes many dining experiences less enjoyable. “Transitional” design has given birth to the open-structure chandelier, the philosophical equivalent of an umbrella without its fabric cover. You and […]

Buying Guides: Under Cabinet LEDs

A photograph of LED strip lights being compared to a quarter, which is presented for size and scale.

Straight from the depths of the mind of a lighting designer, here comes another fascinating, edge-of-your-seat, page-turning buying guide for the most exciting of all light fixtures: under-cabinet LED tape light. Oh yeah! Buying LED tape light (those tiny flexible LED strips with adhesive backing) would be easier if it weren’t for the seemingly endless […]

Buying Guide: Dining Room Chandeliers

A diagram of a rectangular dining room with labels for the Room Length, Room Width, Table Length, and Table Width. In the center of the table, a chandelier is defined by a circle and rectangle. Dimensions for the rectangle is 1/4-1/2 width and 1/3-2/3 length. Dimensions for the Round: 1/2-3/4 width or room length + width = inches.

Let’s take a quick break from the philosophical and answer a very basic question: How do you choose light fixtures? The answer is different from room to room and from person to person, but here are a few tips to guide the process for your dining room. Step 1: Choose a Size Most online chandelier-sizing […]

4 Reasons Light Should Change

A photo of the same branch of a tree taken at different days. Far left, the sky is cloudy and the branch is cast in silhouette. Middle, the sky is clear and the buds on the branches are highlighted and green. Right, another clear sky with full foliage on the branch.

Adapting to changing lighting conditions is so critical to the human visual experience that we have a body part designed just for this task- the iris. Each eye has a constantly changing aperture- opening- that allows us to see easily at sunset and at mid-day. The iris allows us to appreciate a candle-lit dinner and […]

Light for Knowing: A Dining Room

A dining room where the far wall is almost entirely windows.

Most dining areas, whether small traditional rooms or large contemporary spaces, have one thing in common: a table. It is easy, therefore, to begin lighting the dining room with light above the table that provides light for doing,but stopping there would leave the room unfinished. If we do not address light for knowing, the dining room will […]

Light for Doing: A Kitchen

A very brightly lit modern white kitchen labelled "light for feeling" and "light for doing"

Most folks I know never ask me to advise them on lighting their living rooms, but I get called in often to take a look at kitchens. Modern lifestyles place a much higher emphasis on kitchens than when many of our homes were built, and it makes sense that lighting these spaces has become more […]