Illuminating the latest in lighting style
Bring together gorgeous colours, interesting art, tasteful furnishings and well-designed accessories and you’ll have the perfect room, no?
Not if you’ve neglected the lighting, says design expert Karl Lohnes. “Half of your room’s decor could be lost. You can have a beautiful room, but one lonely bulb hanging from the ceiling won’t achieve the feeling you want.”
There are lots of little ways to use light to create more interesting spaces, says Lohnes. “Throwing a little light behind a plant or on a piece of art is easy and inexpensive, and it can really change a room.”
Recently, Lohnes has been working with the new generation of LEDs from Philips (philips.ca), which he prizes for their quality of light and energy efficiency.
In the past, homeowners have been hesitant about using LEDs, says Lohnes, because the light was too similar to fluorescent. “You might appreciate it in a laundry room or garage or workroom, but not in a living room or bedroom.”
Newer models throw a soft white light reminiscent of incandescent. “They’re also cool to the touch, so I don’t have to worry that the heat from the reading lamp beside my sofa will discolour fabric or art. And I love the energy savings,” adds Lohnes, noting that Philips says replacing a 60 watt incandescent with a 12.5 watt LED will use 80 per cent less energy.
Lohnes has become a fan of Philips’ retrofit bulbs for halogen fixtures, and they’re dimmable, which is “a great way to create ambience.”
Asked about the relatively high price of LEDs, Lohnes suggests that consumers consider the cost versus value equation. “Yes, you might spend $30, but if you don’t buy another bulb for 15 or 20 years, you’ve saved money. And that’s not even counting the energy savings, which can be significant, especially in a house with small children.”
Christopher Thompson, a U.S.based lighting designer whose Studio Lux (studiolux.com) has won numerous awards for lighting, concurs that good lighting is crucial to good design.
He comes to the table with a background in theatrical design, which, he said in a recent email interview, gives him “the ability to look at people and their environment and understand that through lighting you can manipulate the perception of that environment, or alter their emotions.”
That, says Thompson, is why people are drawn to dimmers, candles, reflected light, table lamps or wall-washing with light.
A designer for commercial and institutional facilities, and an advocate of green design, Thompson also knows how easily lighting can enlarge an energy footprint. He’s acutely aware that in the U.S. in 2010, lighting consumption constituted about 14 per cent of the 202 billion kWh used in residential electricity consumption. He’s now at the forefront of the green lighting movement, and is involved in such high-profile projects as the multi-year eco-lighting retrofit of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West (franklloyd wright.org) in Scottsdale, Ariz., which will mix energy-efficient technologies with solar power to create a grid-neutral campus. Thompson’s team began using color-changing LED technology in commercial designs several years ago. Back then, they took a backseat to incandescent, low voltage and fluorescent. That’s changed, in part because many jurisdictions have phased out incandescent lights and designers are looking for efficient alternatives. While Thompson agrees that LED technology has significantly improved, he adds that it’s also “fraught with the challenges of embracing a new technology that in many cases has not proven itself.” He suggests consumers exercise caution in choosing LED lamps, suggesting that they’re not all created equal. Good advice, given that manufacturers can be expected to unleash a flurry of new LED products over the next few years. One winning new entry is Sylvania’s new Mosaic strips — multi- coloured, teeny-tiny rectangular LEDs on flexible strips that stick to any clean, dry surface.
Up to 10 strips can be joined to create up to 6 metres (20 feet) and special connectors can be used to negotiate corners. Strips can also be cut with scissors at pre-marked spots. A remote lets the user choose from 15 colours, including white. Lights can be set to fade or flash on and off, or to change in a sequence of colours. Very fun.
A kit comes with four .6-metre (2-foot) strips and sells for about $50 at Home Depot. For more information on these, and on Sylvania’s own extensive retrofit LED line, go to sylvania.com.
I used Mosaic strips to create a light sculpture by hanging them from an Umbra Foto fall stand. To see the result, and read more on lighting design and trends from Christopher Thompson, go to thestar.blogs.com/onthehouse.