The 4 Deadly Sins of Lighting Design

Light is one of those things that you likely don’t think about – until there’s something off about it. Do you struggle to read the menu in a dimly lit restaurant? How about not seeing the road well in a rental car with lighting that’s a far cry from the LEDs in your BMW? 

When it comes to home lighting, you’ll notice light or lack of it for other reasons. Maybe it’s glare or a kitchen that simply is not bright enough for effective food preparation. These are the sins that professional lighting designers strive to avoid. Keep reading below for four lighting mistakes to avoid in your Destin, FL home.

SEE ALSO: 3 Smart Lighting Design Ideas for Home Offices

Uneven Lighting

Some spaces, like bathrooms and kitchens, are the worst offenders of poor lighting. In a bathroom, it may be the overly bright light over the mirror or the dimly lit shower. In a living area, sometimes it’s dark corners that didn’t get covered by the four cans in the ceiling. The solution? Layered lighting is a technique that designers use to create a balanced lighting plan for a space.

Glare

On the other end of the spectrum, overly bright lighting in the wrong concentration and areas cause glare. In a living area, glare might come from a shiny floor or the large expanse of the TV screen. In a kitchen, poorly designed lighting glares off a highly polished countertop on an island. To ameliorate this, dimmers and appropriate lighting intensity help, as well as a layered lighting design that doesn’t rely on one type of light for all the illumination.

Fatiguing Light

Too much and too little of a good thing – like light – causes problems. Too much natural light coming into a space at certain times of day can strain the eyes, and overly bright light all day can also tire the eyes. Two solutions can help, and one of them isn’t lighting. Motorized shades and window treatments can be programmed to open and close or raise and lower to manage sunlight effectively. Tunable lighting is modern LED lighting that is dynamically capable of changing color temperature, so you can have bright energizing light when you need it and warmer, more relaxing light later in the day to wind down. 

Rigid Lighting

Lighting should be able to adapt to the activity and need, not rely on an on-off switch from supernova to a black hole. For example, the lighting needed for meal preparation in the kitchen differs from what you want for relaxing with a book or watching TV in comfort. Lighting control systems can help precisely manage multiple lighting sources to create the right ambiance for work, play, relaxation, and entertainment. 

Want to learn more about the techniques lighting designers use? GHT Group has invested heavily in offering the best home lighting technology and solutions, from DMF LED lighting to tunable Ketra lights and Lutron lighting control. Call us at (770) 955-8909, contact us here, or use the chat box below to connect with us right away. We look forward to working with you!