• Lighting Options for Your Home

    Note: this is a guest post and consideration was received for its
    publication. Creative commons licensed photograph by Jeremy Levine
    design
    .

    When you’re looking to spruce up your home, lighting is one of
    the easiest ways to give the space a new feel while keeping it
    consistent with your current theme or décor. Lighting is a
    relatively easy fix and most of the items can be found online in
    places such as LEDRopelightsandmore
    or in most retail stores, which means you’ll be able to simply
    make use of the new appliances without a lot of work.

    When you’ve decided you’d like to upgrade your
    lighting
    , you’ll need to decide what kind of theme you’re
    looking for and what kind of space you’re dealing with so you can
    most effectively use the room you’ve got for the best lighting
    possible.

    Keep in mind that you can really change the ambience of a room
    simply by switching out the colors of the bulbs you’re using or
    adding in splashes of colors through lamps or rope lights. They
    make light bulbs in pretty much every color imaginable ranging
    from soft pinks for a romantic bedroom atmosphere or bright blues
    for something a bit more fun and wild.

    In most cases these bulbs can be used in the lamps and lighting
    houses you’ve already got, which means you won’t need to purchase
    anything else to get the benefits. Even fluorescent black lights
    can be placed in most traditional fluorescent housings, meaning
    you can save money just by buying the black light bulbs.

    Rope lights are a great way add a little bit of ambient lighting
    to a room quite easily. The best part about using rope lights is
    that they’re designed in such a way that they can be easily
    hidden behind furniture or on the corners of a room, keeping them
    out of sight while still emanating quite a bit of light. These
    are probably the easiest lighting pieces to install as oftentimes
    they’ll only need a few tacks or wall hooks to be used
    effectively.


    Chandeliers
    are a classic lighting prop and for good reason.
    They add a lot of light to any room and they have such a great
    look to them that they work with pretty much every theme or décor
    you could possibly imagine. They add a ton of class to any space
    and the best part is that because they’re meant to be center
    pieces, the light flows around the housing, meaning you can light
    an entire room with just one furnishing.

    Contrary to popular belief chandeliers are becoming easier and
    easier to install and most of them can be hooked into the
    existing wiring that’s already in the roof.

    Another very easy lighting idea that is simple to implement is
    simply using what you’ve already got and using it creatively. One
    of the best ways to control the lighting in any room is to use
    sheers or lamp coverings as they’ll allow the light to filter
    through the fabric in different consistencies depending on the
    thickness and color of the material. If you add this in with one
    of the aforementioned colored light bulbs you’ll see that your
    entire room will look quite different.

    Lighting is probably the easiest way to upgrade or spruce up any
    room in the house and it’s really quite easy to implement. It
    doesn’t take a lot to change some of the lighting options in your
    room and you’ll see a huge difference that will be sure to keep
    you happy.

  • Tips on How to Light Up Your Living Room

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    From time to time, we allow a company or craftsperson we know and trust to place a sponsored post here at Hewn and Hammered. This particular piece is from Bunning's Warehouse, a dependable supplier of lighting for a wide variety of residential projects.

    Lighting is a very important element when it comes to creating the atmosphere of a room. Here are some tips to assist you light up your living room.

    Planning and preparation is a big ingredient when it comes to a successful project. Some people decorate a room and only late in the piece, do they think of lighting, but if you can have it in the equation at the beginning, it will assist you greatly. Not just in terms of fixtures, but in terms of having an electrician set up the wiring to accommodate your needs.

    Your lighting needs are going to be contingent on how you use the room. This will be determined by things such as the amount of people in your family, their age and the way you entertain. As the living room is a room that requires versatility so too, the lighting in the room will need to be able to fulfill a variety of functions. So bear this in mind.

    As opposed to pendant lighting which a lot of people have traditionally gone for, wall lighting will make the room rich in light. This is great in terms of making the room very friendly and warm as well as creating an atmosphere which is conducive to entertaining.

    If there are things in the room such as a piece of art that you would like to draw attention to, don’t be afraid to highlight it or them with a spot light. Strategically placed spot lights can create a very powerful affect.

    As can lamp shades, which apart from providing light can help contribute to the aesthetic of the room. High quality lamp shades can be very expensive so pick one that is within your budget. The same applies to chandeliers which will add depth to the room. Certain pieces can become the centre piece of the whole room and depending on the atmosphere you want to create, this could be one way to go.

    If there are times when you don’t want all of the light on, you may rely on some smaller more subtle plug-in or task lights. A table lamp work wells for this scenario and be very effective. Something that people fail to remember is to avoid placing a lighting fixture next to a wall. If you don’t, you will find that much of the light will be wasted.

    Feel free to utilize as many different types as you need. Blend task and ambient light as well as lamps to form the combination you are looking for in order to create that right feel for the room.

    Remember that installing a dimmer provides you with instant flexibility and is great if you would like some mood lighting.

    While you may be blending different types of lighting, you need to be sure that the theme you are working on creating is consistent. All of the fixtures need to be in-sync with each other. If you are doing it yourself and without a decorator, make sure you keep this in mind.

    Another great way to add some color to an otherwise bland room – or, alternately, to complement a very colorful theme that you already have – is to use custom-sized perspex sheets from Simply Plastics. Often overlooked, these sturdy and archival plastics – which are really more like glass in that they don't fog, bow or deform over time – can be used as window inserts or in a wide range of other places to add a splash of bright color. They come in a wide range of colors, transparency/opacity levels, and can even be pre-cut to almost any size you can imagine.

    You shouldn’t be afraid to experiment and change things up. Trial-and-error is a sound way to find the successful living room lighting combination you are looking for.

    sposored post • image by acrylic online

  • we’re #1 (for houseporn, at least)

    I noticed today that we were getting an awful lot of visitors who found us from Google searches for "houseporn." 200 today alone! After checking, I found that we were the number 1 result for this rather odd search term. Not that I’m complaining.

    So, to accomodate all of you, some very G-rated houseporn (my favorite kind):

    Houseporn

    This was created with BigHugeLabs’ neat Mosaic Maker. Too bad it doesn’t generate a clickable html/javascript mosaic!

    The photographers are as follows. Click on each link to see the original photo:

    1. Heintz Art Metal Collection, 2. details, 3. IMG 1431, 4. Detailed woodwork, 5. Our Dining Room, 6. Arts & Crafts door, 7. Secessionist style Art Glass Door, 8. Plinthy, 9. Roycroft Hanging Lantern, 10. MG 0447, 11. Rockridge – 30, 12. Kitchen Remodel – After, 13. Maybeck church