I am overwhelmed: Shedding Light on Light Plans—A 4 Step Plan to Illuminate your Custom Home
Lighting: it’s one of the most important and often the most overlooked elements of home design.
Lighting is jewelry to a room. When well done—it pops. Quality lighting can set you at ease, lend a unique character to a room, and give you a sense of the person who inhabits the space.
EDUCATION
Lighting: it’s one of the most important and often the most overlooked elements of home design.
Lighting is jewelry to a room. When well done—it pops. Quality lighting can set you at ease, lend a unique character to a room, and give you a sense of the person who inhabits the space.
Quality lighting happens when we manipulate light sources to compensate for the lack of natural light. Simple.
But, how do you get there? How do you create a functional and stylish lighting decor in your home’s interior or exterior space and make every purchase count?
A plan. Your lighting plan will become as important as any flush mount or chandelier.
The Plan
What’s your objective?
The first and most critical part of the plan is to ask yourself: why do I want to change the lighting in a particular space?
There’s no right or wrong answer here. Are you bored with the old look? Perhaps you need extra light to apply your makeup so want to improve the illumination in the master bathroom.
Maybe the seasons are changing and the natural light is shifting, so your lighting needs to as well.
This is a fun, DISCOVERY phase to understand your motivation for change, and to understand why you’re investing time and resources into this residential decor project. This step will provide a baseline to know the direction of your new lighting arrangement.
Set Boundaries.
Decide where you want to change the lighting, and don’t.
Most home projects become difficult and laborious because we say we want to change the living room lighting, but half way through the project we realize those changes affect the kitchen lighting. So take spaces into consideration, not just rooms. This lets you light your side of the bed that allows you to work while your partner sleeps.
And don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to double your budget, you just have to know the lighting boundaries.
The opposite is also true. If your boundary is the kitchen countertop, sticking to that space will prevent you from rewiring your entire kitchen.
Trust me. Be real about your objectives and boundaries during the planning stage to save time, energy, and money in the long run.
A sketch of your plan is also imperative at this point. You don’t have to be an artist, but it’s necessary to visualize precisely where you want that task light to hit because this will affect where you wire.
Take stock!
What natural and sourced light do you already have? Make a list of light sources, including natural, that you have within your set boundaries. Where and when does natural light enter into the space? What permanent and moveable light fixtures exist within your boundary?
Knowing this, you can limit your purchases to what you need and leave the rest on the store shelves.
Theme
A lighting theme is crucial to your design plan. It simply means you’ve chosen a consistent lighting style where pieces relate to one another, but don’t necessarily match perfectly. Rest assured, the style of your home doesn’t have to limit the lighting theme.
How to develop a theme—select a statement piece, a lighting centerpiece. Is there a chandelier or pendant that you just can’t get off your mind? Use this as a starting point to select other complementary pieces that are both stylish and functional.
How do you know it’s functional? It helps you to viably achieve your lighting goal.
So, if the objective is to add more light to the master bathroom in order to better apply makeup, I suggest a mirror with builtin led light strips. These lit mirrors can act as the centerpiece, an anchor to your bathroom light scheme.
These come in lots of price points and options, including vertical or horizontal lighting stripes that can be adjusted between cool and warm color temperatures. This mirror is designed specifically for bathrooms and illuminates specifically for better makeup application and shaving.
Another option is the LED bathroom bar light. These versatile and high-power lights can be placed above or along existing mirrors, and adjusted to shed light where you need it most.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
Join our community of over 5000 readers and receive a well curated mix of inspiration, education, and resources on all things related to curating the home of your dreams.
Click here to sign up for this amazing free resource.
I am overwhelmed: How to select carpet.
Carpet is honestly one of the least expensive flooring options available. With this being said, it doesn’t mean there are few options and its and simple as 1, 2 3…just pick one. While it is most affordable, it is still an investment that should be considered before making a selection.
EDUCATION
Carpet is honestly one of the least expensive flooring options available. With this being said, it doesn’t mean there are few options and its and simple as 1, 2 3…just pick one. While it is most affordable, it is still an investment that should be considered before making a selection. If you opt for wall to wall carpet…just like hardwoods you will see it daily. I have put together a combination of my thoughts homeowners should know about before using carpet in their home.
There are many different material choices for carpet. Natural and man made. I will be speaking on the more common and attainable(synthetic) options.
Nylon is often the first fiber that most consumers think of. Nylon has proven itself over and over again. You’ve heard you get what you pay for? While it is often considered the most desired synthetic fiber…its going to best the most expensive.
Polyester comes next. Less expensive and durable. Because polyester tends to accepts dye very well…you will be able to find bold rich and striking colors. Let’s not forget that polyester is naturally stain resistent.
Olefin (polypropylene) is actually one of the least expensive options. This fiber tends to hold up very well to foot traffic—when used in a level berber loop pattern.
Frieze you say?
There are 2 loops or styles of carpet that tend to be affordable and desirabale.
Berber carpet is offered at lower price points are still fairly durable. Berber often cost less because of the olefin fiber content and the production process. All styles of carpet start out as looped. For cut-piles, the tips of the loops are sheared off. Obviously, Berbers do not need to undergo this step of the process, so they are less costly to produce.
Why are Berbers considered to be so durable? It is because the strongest part of a fiber is the side, rather than the top. When a fiber is looped around, it is the side of the fiber that is exposed to foot traffic (because the “ends” are tucked into the backing). Therefore, you are always walking on the strongest part of the fiber.
Frieze is another hardy style of carpet that will generally offer good durability at a lower price. Friezes consist of longer fibers that feature a high twist level which increases the fiber strength. Additionally, because the fibers are longer, they tend to lean over to the side. This means that much of the foot traffic occurs on the side of the fibers, which, as we just learned, is a good thing.
How can I save a little money? How is your buying power? Will you purchase 1800 square feet this year of 700,000 square feet of carpet? What are you asking? Listen. Buying power is real. Whenever possible buy what is in stock. You will never get better pricing when you special order anything when it comes to renovations, furniture, or design. If you don’t see it on the floor…ask to walk the warehouse. I promise! You will save a lot of money.
Shop local
Don’t assume the large national chains have the best prices or more options…its not always true. I have learned many times that there are many mom and pop flooring companies and carpet stores that can beat the prices and customer service levels of any national big box store. More often, these stores have been in business for a long time and have amazing location relationships with the mills directly. Ready to roll out the “red” carpet? Look around a local carpet showroom.
Upgrade the padding
You want me to pay for what? Yes… I want you to pay more for the padding than the carpet itself. Trust me… you will thank me. Most often, quality padding can make a lower priced carpet perform much better. When you are selecting your padding, I highly suggest that you purchase the best padding you can comfortably afford. Be careful that your big box store isn’t over selling. You don’t have to purchase the most expensive. I highly recommend that you purchase a minimum density of 8 pounds and 3/8” thickness.
This is a very quick overview of carpet as an affordable flooring option an how to maximize your budget.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Wanna keep in touch? Consider joining my weekly newsletter. A weekly newsletter keeping you up to date on the latest of all things real estate, interiors, renovations, and custom home building.
Join our community of over 5000 readers and receive a well curated mix of inspiration, education, and resources on all things related to curating the home of your dreams.