I’ll be the first to tell you that light fixtures are not the easiest to decide on. As a design firm that offers consultation and purchase orders of light fixtures, we take pride in finding lighting that will make your house “shine.” This year alone, we have provided light fixtures with design help for four new houses and 4 remodel and design projects. It is so important to put effort into selecting your lighting. In a home with an open floor plan, it can be challenging with the room’s definitions. Sometimes, we focus on the kitchen island first, so we can find that great breakfast room fixture to flow with the pendants or one exceptional lantern. When the plan opens into the family room and it calls for a light fixture, then the challenge becomes even greater. But, we manage to carry the lighting theme throughout the home.
We start with the sizing. How tall and how wide the fixture needs to be. If we are furnishing the house as well, we also consider the sizing of the dining table or the breakfast table for those chandeliers. Warm tone metal fixtures continue to be trending. For a long time, it was silver only, but warmer tones are showing up. For instance, iron finishes and gold finishes. Some people say I don’t even want to consider gold, with the brass long past us. But, don’t be so quick to judge the gold, as it is in everything this fall. Gold patina fixtures are on the rise and they are coming quickly. You will be amazed as to what gold will do as your accent color. A lot of designers are using gold with gray walls and gray fabrics. The juxtaposition of the two colors is amazing. Sometimes large scale will offset a room beautifully. Normally we scale the fixtures to the room and the space to be on the safe side.
LED lighting is a whole chapter by itself and we will write an update after our market coming up this October. We try to visit our lighting showrooms to get the latest on LED lighting. Most of our homes we remodel have switched to this technology for recessed lighting and currently are using LED bulb technology.