Pinterest is great to while away the hours while dreaming of glorius baked goods, luxurious vacation destinations, fabulous craft projects (that always come out perfect), and yes, even to dream of your new kitchen, bathroom, or whole home.
However… many pinterest images are not reality (there are some things on the internet that you just can’t believe), a great deal of what you see on these kinds of sites are photos by professional photographers, utilizing teams of stylists and most importanlty, studio lighting and perfectly timed daylight. Some of these photos will lead you to believe your dream kitchen can look like this, while lighiting it with an antique candleabra.
The problem is, you won’t be surrounded by a team of professional studio lighting experts when the sun goes down and you’re trying to prepare dinner!
What you need is professionaly designed lighting, based in reality, to provide you the comfort and illumination to live your life in style.
The key to lighting any room is layereing. You need ambient lighting for general illumination. This should provide a comfortable level of light for seeing your way around your space without glare from the sources. You also need task lighting, particularly in a kitchen, where you’ll be using knives! Task lighting provides focused light on work surfaces so you can see what you’re doing. Undercabinet lighting, including some recent very nice LED options, is much better for this than say recessed overhead lights that serve only to cast a shadow on the surface you’re bent over trying to see in the first place!
Good ambient and task lighting gets the job done, but what makes a room really special is accent lighting. Accents lighting casts a focus on architectural features or unique textures in a room. Accent lighting should be at least three times brighter than the light surrounding it.
Last but definitely not least, is decorative lighting, which can sometimes double as an ambient or task layer as well, depending on how the light is directed or diffused. It can be used to underscore a room’s color scheme or design style, but despite all the glory it gets on Pinterest, it’s never going to be enough to light a really useful kitchen.
Come pay us a visit, and we’ll “light the way” to your beautiful new space.
Article adapted from Residential Lighting Feb. 2014 and provided by J&J Electric, A family owned and operated lighting showroom, J&J has been serving customers since 1965. They provide lighting for residential, multi-family, hospitality and commercial projects throughout the mid-Willamette Valley. Contact J&J at: 541-928-8488
Be the first to comment