Electrical - Lighting
Pendant lights Choosing decorative pendant lighting to go over the island can be the most stressful for homeowners because a design can change the whole look and feel of a kitchen. Madsen advises to firstly make sure the size of the pendant suits the size of the room. “Too often we have seen pendant lights installed that are too large, gaining too much attention to the eye and dominating a space,” he says. Contemporary Kitchen by Union Studio Union Studio But how high should you hang them above the benchtop? “As a general rule, we position the bottom of the pendant 60-70 centimetres above the benchtop surface,” Madsen says. This dimension can change, however, depending on the size of the pendant – smaller pendants can be positioned lower while larger can be placed higher. Tip: Madsen advises checking with your supplier that the pendant cord can be extended to suit the correct height above the benchtop. Keep in mind that it’s often harder to extend pendants hung by a chain.
Take it outdoors Gone are the days for the need for floodlights that blind not only your unwanted visitors. Outdoor lighting is available as a continuous strip of light that acts as general lighting, but also looks sophisticated as accent lighting by highlighting the contrast between the top and base of the feature wall.
Hide the source Concealed lighting gives the illusion of natural daylight; and light in this linear format offers subtle general light or accents an interesting architectural feature. From a concealed location, a wash of light can deliver an even coverage across a surface. BONUS TIP: To ensure your accent lighting does the trick, make sure the light source is brighter than the rest of the light in the room.
Soften up an entrance The mood and ambience in the entrance to this home is created by diffusing light behind translucent panelled gates. Again, on arrival, a sense of anticipation is created. Ensure that the placement of the light source is well hidden so that you can’t see the light fitting, but only the glow of its light.
Create a sense of arrival The way you light up a home’s approach can create a sense of what lies ahead and indoors. The outdoor steps pictured here could easily have been flood lit to show you safely up the stairs, but by highlighting each riser with surface-mounted, low-output lights, a sense of anticipation is created – a bit like walking the red carpet.
Play hide and seek It looks like they aren’t there, but the lighting fixtures in this kitchen are simply rather subtle. Ambiance is created by white diffused light hidden in kick boards, along overhead suspended racks and in bulkhead pelmets. This option is rather intense, so doesn’t require too much extra light cast by other sources.
Create an artistic exhibition If you have pieces of art to show off in your hallway, or any other room for that matter, you’ll need to create all a spectacle worthy of the Guggenheim Museum. There can be no more powerful a design tool than lighting to highlight the works of art, sculpture and furniture pieces that occupy a space. The stage-managed lighting in this wide hallway shows how strategic placement of light is key to creating the right theatrical effect. Colour also plays a huge role in creating the right ambiance in a room – the dark walls seen here help absorb a lot of the light to create this rich, dramatic atmosphere.
Strut your stuff with a runway Hallways are notoriously either dark or, the opposite, over-lit. They can also be boring, purely a means of getting from one room to another. However, if you want to make corridors come alive and be as joyful as other parts of your home, be strategic about lighting. Placed well, ceiling-mounted light fittings in a hallway can become statement pieces, like the circular architectural drums pictured here. They are like runway lights beckoning you to walk down the aisle to the room beyond.
It’s essential to have an open mind Talk to your designer about different lighting approaches; there’s so much more you can do than carpet bomb a space with downlights. This glazed dining room is a great example. A space like this forces the designer to look at alternative locations to fix the lighting, as most of the space is glass. Custom brackets allow the suspended lighting strip to create intimate dining light, while floor-recessed, colour-changing uplights provide a different perspective, framing the windows and doors.
Variety is key The options now available with LED lighting offer great opportunities for layering your light. For instance, miniature 1W LED fittings can be used to create low-level accent lighting in niches, on ledges and in the floor. Building your lighting up in layers will give you a richer scheme as well as offering the option of different lighting scenes, including late-night dim settings ideal for a relaxing soak.
It’s important to have someone planning all practicalities You don’t necessarily need to plan driver locations, cable lengths and waterproof connections for external lighting and so on all by yourself, but you do need to make sure someone is covering it. Your lighting design should be a practical pack with detailed drawings and wiring schedules, and your electrician should feel confident he or she has all the necessary information to turn the plan into a reality. Make sure your electrician and lighting designer are communicating regularly and you should have a much smoother project.
Special features can be beautifully showcased with the right lighting The more you can visualise how your space is going to be used and the look and feel you’re trying to achieve, the richer the lighting design can be. Lighting supports and complements the interior design and can take advantage of the features you’re planning. In this beautiful modern bedroom, the floating bed is accentuated by a simple under-lighting scheme, which sees the bed floating on a cushion of light.
You can put light where you want it Resist the temptation to deliver an even coverage of light across all your space: if you light everything evenly, you’ll end up highlighting nothing. Also, this is your home, not an office with regulatory lighting demands. So have some fun with it; plan for how you’re going to use the space and what you need the light for. A lighting designer should be able to give you great, shadow-free task lighting on your work surfaces, good ambient lighting, and interesting accent lighting to pick out focal points and areas of interest in your design.
Lights can be voice activated Expanding on the technology and lighting control systems mentioned above, did you know you can control your lights by talking to them? Apple, Google, and Amazon all have systems with voice control that can respond to your verbal commands. This technology doesn’t just apply to homes with significant investment in full lighting control systems, but can also be implemented by just installing several compatible smart bulbs from partnered manufacturers. So get excited, saying ‘Lights on’ as you walk into your home and getting an instant result is here, right now.
Lighting systems are becoming pretty amazing Technology can be a beautiful thing, and when it saves energy as well as significantly improving the functionality and liveability of your home, it’s well worth considering if you’re building a new house. Full lighting control systems such as C-Bus or Dynalite can make a home simpler (you decide which switches control which lights), more flexible (change your mind, change your programming), and more beautiful (dimming, mood lighting, architectural lighting). Systems like these can also add convenience (one switch can set a global scene such as ‘All Off’ or ‘Welcome Home’), can be safer (sensor lighting and integration to alarm systems), thrifty (use less electricity and extend bulb life), and smarter (you can control all your lights from smartphones and iPads). Lighting can also be integrated with mechanical systems, irrigation systems, window treatments, air conditioning, ceiling fans and your audio/visual system.
Lights can adapt to the daylight It’s very common in new office buildings to utilise ‘daylight harvesting’, and it’s quite an amazing technology. Essentially, a designer will nominate the light level required in an open space up front. Light level sensors are installed throughout, then when the daylight coming through the windows is less than the designated light level, lights are automatically turned on and are dimmed to a level that brings the ambient light up to that pre-determined level. On a bright, sunny day the lights may be dimmed to 5 or 10 per cent; on a cloudy or rainy day the lights may need to run at 80 or 90 per cent, so overall we are using way less energy. The main benefit after energy saving is consistency of light level. The person occupying the room may not even be aware the lights are dynamically changing brightness to compensate for any loss of daylight. Daylight harvesting is now beginning to be used in homes, particularly in rooms where consistent lighting is useful, such as kitchens, laundries, studies, garages, and workshops.
For rooms like pantries, laundries, and utility rooms, sensors can be installed instead of a switch. In other rooms, you may not have the sensor turn on the light, but the greatest advantage of sensors is they can run a timer to turn off the light. Therefore when someone leaves a room, after a predetermined time of 5 or 10 minutes, the light is turned off. If you re-enter the room before the light goes off, then the timer is re-triggered and starts again. Essentially, empty rooms will automatically turn off the light after a set amount of time, saving energy, money, and your sanity.
Smaller sizes LEDs can be as small as the head of a pin, and this allows us to light our homes more discreetly and with more precision than ever. LED strips can be hidden inside cabinets, drawers, hanging rods in wardrobes, shelves and just about any place you can imagine. This means we can now position light where it is needed instead of attempting to fill a room with a broad wash of light that often causes glare.
What is a layered lighting scheme? Light layering is about creating different shades of light, playing with shadows and using colours to highlight a kitchen’s best features. It generally incorporates task lighting for food prep and cooking, ambient lighting for general illumination and character, and accent lighting to highlight specific features in a kitchen – such as a gorgeous splashback or a work of art.
Illuminate the dining table Think about how you light the dining table too. If you don’t have an island, this might be the perfect place to position a row of pendants. Here, two metal light fittings have been strategically placed above the table to light up the dining area and anchor its position in the room. Choose lights that aren’t too bulky and use bulbs that produce a warm glow rather than harsh beams.
Go for warmth Look at the temperature of light bulbs, which is measured in kelvins and is marked on the packaging. Light globes of 2000-3000K will give you a warm white light, perfect for a cosy kitchen. Opt for low-glare styles. A good mix of indirect (or ambient) lighting paired with task lights for prep zones will set a practical yet welcoming tone in the kitchen. Having them on separate dimmable switches makes it easy to alter the mood when cooking or relaxing. Tip: Be wary of shiny benchtops that can reflect glare back at you when you’re prepping.
Designer Strip Lighting
Rain. Light Drops
This multi-sensory light experience captures the shimmering sparkle of raindrops frozen in descent. Delicate strings of rippling light reflections combine in a product of sleek design brilliance to uplift your soul and enlighten your spirit. Individual Rain Drops are visually quite subtle but gain tremendous strength when multiplied and clustered in large groups. This truly breathtaking piece, so infinitely delicate and beautiful, makes a stunning focal light installation over tables in residential dining rooms and restaurants, ambient or accent lighting in living rooms, linear configurations or clusters over bars and kitchen islands and large chandelier configuration in lobbies, reception areas and other public spaces.
Under-cabinet lighting Getting task lighting right is crucial for preparing or cooking food – focused light on work zones will make life easy, but if it’s too bright, casts shadows or isn’t bright enough, it’s sure to annoy you over time. The Kitchen Broker’s Brian Patterson says task lighting should be positioned not to throw shadows in the work centres. “This is achieved best by concealed LED strip lighting under overhead cabinets above the bench area,” Patterson says. “This achieves not only good light, but lovely even light that floods the bench area and evenly displays splashbacks and benchtops.”
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