Home & Garden Blog » Lighting

Outdoor Lighting: Ambiance vs. Effectiveness

brock — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:38:37 +0000

Anyone that enjoys entertaining outdoors knows that once the sun goes down, the light of the full moon isn’t enough to sustain the party momentum. You need to have some sort of outdoor lighting so that everyone can see where they are going.

The goal of outdoor lighting is a gentle melding of form and function. You want something that provides adequate light that isn’t too obtrusive but, at the same time, isn’t a decorative nightmare. Electrical lighting tends to be at one extreme or the other.

Motion sensor and other lamps will light up the backyard and keep away burglars, but it can also blind guests. You flip the switch and suddenly you feel like you’re at a baseball game, minus the stale beer. These massive light-bringers also tend to be flat, decoratively speaking.

They are made to sit high and shine down on a large area. These also tend to attract bugs as well, so your backyard ends up looking like a bad B-movie. Swarms of mosquitoes, moths and gnats will harass your guests until they get fed up and leave, or are completely eaten (kidding).

Smaller lamps look amazing, but don’t throw out much light. Instead, you need to buy several and hang them throughout the yard area. This can get expensive depending on how big your yard is, but as for form versus function, this is my preferred choice.

The other option is a natural gas or solar powered lantern. The downfall with these is the flammability of natural gas and reliability of solar. If you have a few cloudy days, then you could be in the dark by 9 p.m. I also like to stay away from lanterns that use candles because of the fire hazard. A big gust of wind will blow them out, but a small gust can cause a fire.

If you want the ultimate in ambiance for outdoor lighting, then you can’t go wrong with a fire pit. The sound of crackling wood and the flicker of flame is peaceful and unobtrusive. It throws a good amount of light, but keeps the party cozy. I wouldn’t suggest it in the summer, but an October fire pit, complete with marshmallow roasting, is guaranteed to be a hit. If you add some graham crackers and chocolate to the mix, you’re guaranteed to have repeat customers.

Creating a Cozy Atmosphere: Dimmer Switch

brock — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:20:23 +0000

I remember waking up in the middle of the night in pitch blackness and heading into the kitchen for a quick drink of water or pop from the fridge. I stepped into the room and turned on the light and was greeted with blinding light.

I felt like I was about to be taken to the mothership, until my eyes adjusted and it was just the glaring bulbs at full power. It was at this time that I began considering the idea of a dimmer. Light switches are great, but along with saving your eyes, they are also great for creating a comfy and even romantic mood.

1. It’s always best to start by heading over to the circuit breaker and cutting the power to the room for the dimmer. This is just common sense, as you don’t want to be messing with live wires. A comfy mood isn’t worth the risk of electrocuting yourself.

2. Unscrew the light switch face plate and remove the plate. This switch will still be there, but you should be able to have access to the wires that connect to the switch. Pull out the switch as far as you can without pulling out the wires, and examine how the wires are connected. Wiring is generally color coded, so remember what colors are attached to what ports in the light switch.

3. Disconnect the light switch from the wiring and set it aside. The good news is a dimmer switch connects exactly the same way as a light switch. The dimming mechanism is inside the switch itself and has nothing to do with the wiring. Reconnect the wires in the opposite order they were removed and replace the new dimmer faceplate.

4. The final step is to turn the power back on and test your handy work.

I have a dimmer in two of my rooms, the kitchen and the dining room. It’s nice to not have the harsh light in the kitchen when going for a midnight snack and the dining room is the perfect place to have a glass of wine with my wife after the kids go to bed at a decent hour. (This happens about twice a year.)

The Importance of Sunlight

brock — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:20:28 +0000

There has been a lot said for the detrimental effects of fluorescent lighting on mood and sickness and the benefits of natural sunlight. In the home, we cover up windows for privacy and flood the inside with lamps, forgetting that natural sunlight is right outside the window.

The purpose of windows was to let sunlight into a home back when people didn’t have light bulbs. It saved the precious fuels they used for lighting until the nighttime, when it was truly needed. With the creation of cheap electrical light, windows became more decorative, and natural light was put to the wayside.

People forget that we need natural light. Sunlight actually provides important nutrients to the body, and without it, we can become sick. During the Industrial Revolution, when pollution clouds blocked out the sun, people developed a disease called rickets (a vitamin D deficiency that affects metabolism, among other things) because of the lack of sunlight. When babies get jaundice when born, the first treatment is a few hours a day in direct sunlight. I know I had to do that for all three of my children for a few days.

Natural lighting also helps create heat, and for anyone who has seen their electric or gas bill lately, you know how expensive it can be to provide artificially. Sunlight comes through the window and heats the inside of your home for free. It’s nice to know that Mother Nature isn’t charging us per kilowatt hour.

If you have a little do-it-yourself knowledge, then you can put in a skylight and let in more light. During the day, this can be a primary way to light and possibly heat the home on slightly cool days. You can replace small window pairs with a large bay window that can illuminate an entire room.

It’s springtime, so the temperatures are rising and the sun is coming out more and more. Why not open the windows, throw back the curtains and let Mother Nature flow into your home? The benefits are many, and there is no cost to you.

During this time of year, my windows are all open, the sun shines into my home and it just makes me feel better. It lightens my mood and gives me the energy to do what needs to be done. Why not let it do the same for you?

Reading Lights & Book Clips: Brighten Your Life

brendan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:50:23 +0000

So today it is foggy and gross outside. (It seems as though Southern Californians get super depressed when there is no sunlight. They are all babies.) Anyway, this weather reminds me of my East Coast upbringing, where it is not unusual to need to use lights all the way through the morning to read and use computers. I realized that my lighting situation is not that great, so I took a look at my options for reading lights.

The first thing I found was that there are lots of different options. You can go for an LED desk lamp. LEDs are both very bright and very energy efficient. The desk lamps have several pretty attractive variates – they look modern or more traditional, but basically you can get any sort of desk lamp that looks like one you are used to for a price that you can love. There are the floor lamps that have an LED reading attachment – but I think these are pretty hideous. They look like a stick figure with one arm.

If you want to have a floor based reading light, why not go for a dedicated one, like Kovacs Reading Floor Lamp? (A lot of floor lamps have the ugly reading light attachment but none of them have the refinement of a floor lamp that was intended specifically for reading.) I actually have not found that many reading floor lamps that I like, so if you find some please share them below!

Of course, if you are reading at home, especially if you read in bed, you may want to just get a book light (also called a clip light). These lights are almost all LED, so again, they should be fairly bright. There is also this nifty product called the LightWedge Reading Light. It lights up the page of the book that you are reading, and nothing else. You slide a thin light right behind the page that you are reading, and then that is all that gets lit up. Because it is about $25, this may be the option I go for. (Check out the LightWedge Reading Light here.)

Here’s hoping that sunny weather will return soon, but until it does, I’m going to get myself a good reading lamp. Have you all found these lights effective? Let me know. Until tomorrow!

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/tomarthur/2465871081

The Indoor Lighting Guide

brendan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:03:58 +0000

So this is the third and final post in our three part series on lighting. Check out my post on natural lighting here, and outdoor lighting here. Today we’re talking about making lighting within your home more interesting. This does not have to be expensive – there are many different ways to do it.

There are many different kinds of lighting. There are ceiling lights, wall sconces, floor lamps, table lamps, candles, and other types of lighting like lava lamps and lit fishbowls. If you want to give a room a simple makeover, change up and layer the types of lighting. If you have a lot of ceiling lights in the room, consider adding table and floor lamps.

The types of light bulbs you use will really change the way the room looks. Different light bulbs have different tinges. Compact fluorescent bulbs are typically very white, while LED lights often have a slightly bluish tint, and halogen bulbs have the warm vaguely golden glow. Depending on the type of atmosphere you want in the room, you could literally just change your light bulbs to change up the way the room feels.

As an eco-friendly note: compact fluorescent and LED lights are much more environmentally friendly. At the same time, they are usually considered “harsher” lights. But some of the new ones have golden glows just like the old halogen bulbs that we all grew up with. So use these bulbs instead.

In addition to the color of the light bulbs, you also should pay attention to their brightness (luminosity is the technical term for it). If you want to emphasize certain parts of your room or create a more layered look, give the different lamps in your home bulbs of varying strength. For instance, you probably want table lamps to have a soft glow, but you may want the floor lamps to be a bit brighter. Changing up both the type of light bulb and its strength will totally let you change the way the room feels without spending more than $15 a room. How’s that for inexpensive redesign?

So in short, mix up the different types of lighting that you use. The different types of lights—ceiling, floor, table, etc—all have different hights and locations in a room. Consequently, the same bulb in each of these lights can have a very different feel. Putting lots of different kinds of lighting in the same room can make your life a lot more interesting.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you have any tips on indoor lighting, post them! Happy designing!

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/intercontinentalhongkong/4621458922

Green Outdoor Lighting

colleen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:32:00 +0000

We all want to save a little money while still being festive while we prepare for the holiday season, but how does “green” or “organic” living fit into either of those categories? Sometimes it’s hard in the throes of winter, to remember that greenery, though covered in snow, still survives. I like to pay a little homage to the shivering, icicle plants by dusting them with a little cheer, usually some strands or nets of lights to brighten up the night. It also has some value: the lights are small enough not to add to the light pollution of a city or suburban area, but also help to light the paths in front of your house when it gets dark early during the winter months. You’re doing a service to your neighbors and to your family by lighting their path, and hopefully it dissuades you from leaving all the lights on in your house, if you have a little ambient lighting coming in from the window!

Smarter.com’s helps you find the most festive lighting at the best price this holiday season. From net lighting to colored strands, they have you covered. Here are some of my top picks:

American NetLighting : $18.00

Solar Power LED Halloween Lights – 50 Bulb Strand : $22.95

Shop for more solar powered lighting at Smarter.com.

Breaking News: Outdoor Holiday Lights

colleen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:07:41 +0000

Hopefully you really decked out the house for Halloween. Jack-o’-lanterns, spooky cobwebs, maybe even a few lanterns hanging from the porch to light the ghosts and ghouls way in Old Hallow’s Eve. Children must have loved it, but now it’s time to switch gears and think about more mature, warm, inviting holiday lighting. Think candles in the windowsill, lights around the bare-boned trees, maybe a holiday wreath on the door with some glittering tinsel. When the temperature begins to drop, the cosiness and warmth of your home needs to rise! And that involves exterior lighting.

Some of the top hits for holiday lighting:

Electric Windowsill Candle from Piperclassics.com: $15.99

Cute design with a warm glow, this candle has an antique finish to make your home look even warmer.

Net LED lights from SaveOnCrafts.com: $11.29/sheet

This is perfect to drape evenly on trees, bushes, and shrubbery. Decorate without all the hassle!

Sports Celebrity Spotlight: Lance Armstrong

colleen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:57:01 +0000

Since we’re in the throes of the Tour de France, I thought it only proper to take a look at how one of the greatest cyclists the world has ever seen chooses to live his life when he’s not barreling down grueling hills, climbing the Alps, or exercising himself silly on a daily basis. With some much strain in his life, something has to be a luxury, and for Lance, it’s all about creating the perfect, relaxing home environment. Calling Austin, Texas his home, let’s see what we can learn from Mr. Armstrong’s decorative choices and how we can implement them for our own homes! Thanks to Architectural Digest.com, let’s take a critical look at Lance Armstrong’s home and see what we can learn!

Lance’s bungalow style home can best be described as an estate, not just a house. Why? Open porches, paths through gardens, tons of greenery all add to the effect of an expansive property, not just a house. Make your home feel more like a property by adding on porches and gardens for yourself!

If the home is to die for, take a look at the pool!

To gain a house that looks like this, you have to think about ambiance and night time lighting. What’s the most important factor? Weather! For us New Englanders, an outdoor pool can only be used for about 3 months out of the year. If you’re in the south, though, an outdoor pool is a beautiful and almost necessary addition to the home! To make a pool this beautiful and ambient at your home, think about tiki torches and underwater lighting, and even maybe some interesting tropical plant life. It’s all about the greenery and the lighting, and indoor it’s all about the lighting. Lance knows how to make his place restive and beautiful, gauge your own price range and see if creating an earthy, ambient architectural estate is within your price range. If not, easy simple solutions would be investing in some potted plants for the kitchen or living room, and some tiki torches or low lighting for the porches or backyard; the plants will make your house feel fresher, and the lighting will save on electricity and create more family friendly spaces in your home to enjoy during the warmer months.

The best advice I can give, though, for emulating Lance’s lifestyle, is to take up biking. Biking is not just for the rural-dwellers, city-rats benefit more from biking than anyone else. I’ve been switching between four New England cities for the past 3 years, and cannot stress more the necessity of clean, money-saving, exercise-inducing transportation like biking. It’s fast, it’s relatively painless (so long as your not in the Tour de France) and you get to see parts of the city that you would never experience underground in the subways or cursing your way through traffic. So sit back, relax and invest in a stable bicycle; the restful lifestyle is only a pedal away!

Outdoor Lighting Deal: Pottery Barn Lanterns

evette — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:00:17 +0000

Nothing is more romantic than sitting on your porch (if you’re lucky, right on the beach) right after the sun sets while gazing into each others eyes by candlelight. Ahhh. Relaxing and romantic. You can achieve this effect on your patio, balcony, or porch by purchasing a set of lanterns like the two below on sale at PotteryBarn.com.

These are awesome for the beach.

Bristol Lanterns: ~~$39-$79~~ Now: $29-$59 on sale!

These would work at the beach, or at your cabin in the mountains by the lake.

Grayson Lanterns: ~~$19.50-$179~~ Now: $15.00-$139 on sale!

Find at Smarter.com: Shop for more lanterns.
Discounts on outdoor lighting.

Let There Be “Green” Light

homegarden — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:51:44 +0000

These green ideas are truly bright! I didn’t realize being green can be so chic and even quirky. Check out these ingenious lamps I found at Inhabitat.com :

These beach ball lamps are so much fun to look at!

Perfect for an eco-friendly, urban space, the eggcrate lamp.

I’ve always wondered what I can do with old, non-functioning light bulbs.

I’ve thrown one too many Tupperware pieces, but the makers of these lamps found a fascinating way to reuse them.

I hope this lamp is for outdoor use.

This looks vintage & I love it!

These lamps definitely fascinates me. It takes being green to the next level!

Find at Smarter.com: Shop for energy saving light bulbs.