Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lights, Camera, Action...

As you know, I'm in a lighting design class at school.  Contrary to what most may think, it's actually a very technical, mathematical and tedious class!  We're learning about how many lights are needed for each room and how many footcandles are necessary to produce good lighting in a space. Yep, footcandles. Bet you didn't know that was a word :)


Last Monday we went to a lighting show room and learned about different recessed cans and fixtures. I thought I'd share some of the knowledge I learned, then show some fabulous rooms with amazing lighting {because who really cares about the technical aspect anyways, right?!}


Lighting Tips:
- Each room should have two or more types of lighting. There is general, task, accent and decorative. Go here for more information on those in a previous post.
- There's no need for equal spacing between recessed cans. Instead, you should install the cans where you need the light the most in order to perform specific tasks.
-The best types of recessed cans are black or silver cans with the lamp placed high in the can. This direct the light down, and doesn't lead your eye to a big bright, white hole in the ceiling. 
-Recessed cans in a living room, or anywhere you plan to read a lot, isn't the best idea! Other lighting fixtures such as pendants, chandeliers, vertical fixtures and table lamps suit reading much better.
- The proper height to hang a chandelier above a dining table is about 30". You also want to make sure the chandelier or pendant is 1' smaller in diameter than the table itself- this allows for 6" on either side of the table {so people don't lean in and hit their heads on the fixture}


Alright...enough of that! Onto the pretty stuff...
1. Great use of general, accent and decorative lighting:
via
2. Well lit hallway with accent lights directed at bookshelves to highlight them:
via
3. Recessed cans in a row above the countertop {workspace} & decorative and task lighting above island:
via 
4. Great placement {and loving the TWO chandeliers- genius!} The eyeball lights pointing to the botanical prints is also a perfect way to highlight the art and help create a mood:
via 
5. Again, two awesome pendants placed over the dining table at the right height above the table:
via
In other lighting class news, we're currently working on grayscale renderings of a floor plan, showing where light is needed. The lightest color gray marker shows where the most light should be placed {sink, toilet, art}, and the darkest colors show where the least amount of light in the room will fall. My partner, Courtney {who blogs! Check it out asap!}, and I had some fun practicing last night with the powder room. Here's our finished powder room grayscale... {final product is the nice one in the back left corner. The others were practices. See our progress?!}


We'll be back soon with even more progress on the rest of the house.
That's all for today!


What do you think makes good lighting in a space??
Happy Thursday!
Love,
Photobucket

29 comments

  1. beautiful inspiration pics. i love that hallway with the bookshelves and the giant drum shades over the dining table.

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  2. Believe it or not I think learning about the technical side of lighting sounds interesting. :)

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  3. Beautiful images! And I agree completely that there's no need for equal spacing between recessed cans. When they are placed equally apart - the space begins to resemble an airport runway!
    Great post... keep up the good work! Thanks for sharing and have a terrific Thursday

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  4. I love hearing about what you're learning in school, Michaela. This is so interesting! I love the look of the two pendants over the table, opens up so many more possibilities!

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  5. I currently live in an apartment and no matter what I do the lighting is tragic. I cannot wait to get a house so I can actually see lol. xo

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  6. love all the pics and the lighting..stunning!! I must say the picture of the hallway..I am gone over the ceiling : )

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  7. I think this is so neat that you're learning the ins and outs of proper lighting! It really makes such a big difference in a room. Love all the inspiration photos!

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  8. Thank you so much for sharing this! I love seeing that "balanced" look in a room and now realizing the design and technical reasoning behind why lights are placed where they are placed is very interesting to me. Do you have any tips on picture placement? The only one I've heard is that photos should be hung a wide handspan above your couch. Love the pictures & the tips for how to make lighting work well!

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  9. Hi Michaela! Love this post! I'm so sorry I didn't didn't get to comment yesterday to thank you so much for my guest post yesterday...I was traveling and couldn't access my phone. Anyway, thank you so so much!
    Stacy

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  10. I've really been thinking a lot about lighting recently for our new house, so I really needed this post! Such good information!

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  11. I can not WAIT to have a pretty house that I can put an even prettier chandelier in! Great picture inspiration!

    Sam
    http://petitefemmejolie.blogspot.com

    PS. I'm doing my very first giveaway today on my blog! Hope you'll check it out!

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  12. Ooh, love that kitchen! The lighting is so great, too!

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  13. I love that you share what you are learning--- it is so interesting because I kind of get it, even though I am not sure, given a "blank" room I could decorate it that well! I would just copy from a pinterest picture and hope they did it right! but like I said in my tweet, when I get a home one day I am going to hire you to give me ideas about how to arrange and decorate the rooms! Hoepfully that will be in less than a year!

    xo.
    ashley

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  14. Not lighting related, but the photo with the wall of botanicals makes me think of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I think I will always be reminded of that when seeing botanical artwork!

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  15. We are installing the lighting in our new upstairs right now. I went with white can lights in the hall, thinking it would blend better. Instead of a black or silver can that would draw your eye to it. I guess i was wrong?!

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  16. you're such a smarty pants! they certainly didn't cover this in my business classes in college ;) the inspiration images are making me droool..

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  17. How interesting! I think light brings so much warmth to a room, it makes me happy when done the right way. Keeping your advice for later!

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  18. So excited I came across your blog today. Timing is perfect! We are building a new home (breaking ground in a few weeks). Obviously, I am very excited, however am finding the whole process to be overwhelming. Especially selecting light fixtures. Thanks for your post on lighting. I need all the help I can get.

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  19. @Graciepie- No worries...it's not a hugeeee deal! Your eye is always drawn to brighter, whiter colors, though. That's why it's normally best to choose silver or black. I'm sure your hallway will still look beautiful! Kelly

    @Kelly- I'm so glad you found my blog! Thanks for stopping by. If you need help choosing any fixtures or anything for your new home, email me :) I'd LOVE to help! michaelawarner90@gmail.com

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  20. This is really awesome! It seems as if you're learning a lot and are very good at it as well!

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  21. We so need this post to come to real life in our house...as you know!

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  22. Sounds like a challenging class for sure! Good luck girly! I love the glass chandelier in the first pic and that white kitchen.. oh.my.word. I adore white everything. :)

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  23. It sounds like a wonderful and really interesting class. I think lighting absolutely makes the space. I'm a girl that has to have a dimmer on every light switch, too!

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  24. This is a really good post.

    I'm starting to really like your posts. Keep it up!

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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  25. Such great information, Michaela. I love that you are sharing some of the things that you are learning in design school with your readers. Lighting really can make or break a room! I love all of your inspiration photos!

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  26. What a surprise to have my master bedroom featured as the first picture on your blog! Thanks so much for the kind words! :-)

    Emily Hewett
    A Well Dressed Home
    awelldressedhome.com/blog

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  28. One of the many things I've noticed when we've looked at houses is the poor lighting in them. Is this a cookie cutter home thing? I'm wondering. I love your examples though, chandeliers are my favorite.

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  29. I love your blog and all of these rooms. Can I just have the kitchen? It is amazing!

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Thank you for stopping by! If you have a specific question, please email me at hello@michaelanoelledesigns.com. I always reply to emails! Have a blessed day! xoxo

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