Hill House

Gregg pendant light by Foscarini

As we progress with our drawing set, I thought it would be helpful to dedicate some posts to lighting, plumbing fixtures, materials and appliances.  We’ll focus on lighting for this post.

Generally, we do our best to make sure the lighting source (bulb) is never in view.  By doing so, more attention is focused on surfaces, textures and the general mood, and less attention is driven at a glaring light bulb.  We also try to add dimmers to as many fixtures as possible.  Not only does this allow full control of the lighting, it also extends the bulbs life span.  You will also notice, if you’re lights are on dimmers, rarely do you have them turned up all the way…a nice ‘green’ bonus.

As with most of our projects, we have a budget to adhere too.  We generally achieve this a number of ways.  Firstly, we purchase as many of them as possible ourselves (this includes dimmer switches), which avoids an electricians mark up.  Conversely, this means we ‘own’ any problems with the fixture, but this is a small price for us to pay.  Another way to control costs find the least expensive ‘typical’ fixtures as possible.  For instance, ther are thousands of companies that make a 4″ recessed can light.  Many of them are really expensive, many of them are not so expensive but are still comparable and there are a few that aren’t worth the money.  It’s worth it to know the difference.  We then couple these inexpensive fixtures with some ‘art’ pieces, such as the Gregg pendant in the image above from Foscarini.

rope light

Rope light is a great inexpensive way to add depth and focus to your lighting.  It can generally be used both indoors and out and the bulbs can last 35,000 hrs.  It’s not as bright as a cove light, but just bright enough to was across a set of stairs or accentuate a floating wall mounted cabinet.

xenon task light

Xenon lights (sometimes referred to as Festoon) are another great way to add indirect task lighting.  Xenon bulbs offer superior light quality and extremely long life.  They are dimmable and suitable for under cabinet task light and light coves.  Both the above options vary in price but can be found reasonably inexpensively at Affordable Quality Lighting.

Next is the most common light fixture – the recessed cans.  These come in a few verities: IC (can touch insulation) and Non-IC (cannot come into contact with insulation).  As well as line voltage (incandescent) or low voltage, which typically are more expensive because they have a transformer that steps down the power before it reaches the fixture.  We generally do our best to stay away from anything larger than 4″.  We’ve found a 4″ low voltage can light on a dimmer with an MR16 bulb and a clear alzak (chrome) adjustable trim to be the best option in terms of quality of light, control of light and value.  The bulbs last for years with a dimmer switch and the light rendition of a halogen bulb is about as good as you can get.  There are thousands of options out there…ranging in price from about $30 to several hundred dollars.

econolight 4" recessed can

The fixture to the right is about the cheapest one we’ve found.  At $23.90 for the housing, it’s hard to beat.  The clear alzak trim is only $3.80 more…this is less expensive than home depot.  The one downside is this company, Econolight, doesn’t offer an adjustable trim.  There are other options out there….larger sizes, as well as both compact fluorescent and LED.  Fluorescents typically don’t dim well and the nature of the bulb doesn’t focus lighting in one direction.  LED’s are out there but are much more expensive up front and I’m not sure the level of control is quite there yet.  On the higher end there are products like this one from RSA.  The fixture is 4″ square, offers a variety of bulb adjustment, is offered in both a magnetic and electronic transformer, and is 100% trimless.  You install this fixture right after drywall is hung and they mud up to the fixture so it appears as a square in the ceiling.

RSA square trimless recessed light

So far, we haven’t talked about fluorescent fixtures.  This is a tricky subject to get into.  There are strong arguments regarding the environmental impacts of mercury from the bulbs, but on the other hand, they use very little energy and burn very cool temperature wise.  Our strategy is to use them in coves where you can’t seem them in places that we don’t feel we need to dim them.  There are some options available that are dimmable and with the right bulb they actually do a great job dimming, but the dimmable ballasts are usually $150 or so per ballast – which puts this option out of our budget for most of the general fluorescent lighting.  There are some decent high output bulbs that are dimmable in pendant fixtures.  We’ve used this fixture before (see the Douglass residence on our web site).  This one, by

Artemide 2.5 HO T5

Artemide is one of our favorites for task lighting a kitchen island or even over a dining table.  It’s availible in both up and down light, can be dimmed and is also availible with halogen bulbs.  We’re using a version of this fixture over both kitchen islands in our SIPs house.