Make Your Kitchen the Perfect Gathering Spot

We offer you tips for taking the hub of your home to new heights with well-planned, beautiful lighting. A well-lit kitchen will make your family and friends want to pull up a chair and stay a while. Light can help enliven a space, making food look more appetizing and helping dark tables feel bright and convivial. The advent of slimline LEDs (many of which do not require hardwiring) means it is now easier than ever to retrofit difficult spaces, such as under cabinets, without a huge investment. A spacious kitchen needs layers of light - an overall light, task light and accent light - to be efficient and create a homey feel.

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The Art of Lighting

Lighting design is a science and an art, incorporate it into a yacht and there are additional challenges and benefits. Yachts have their own unique challenges when it comes to lighting.  There are elements that need to be taken into consideration – design, décor, heat, power consumption, durability, etc.  There’s one type of light that can cover all of these areas….LED lighting.  LED lighting is the newest technology in lighting.  LED’s can be used to build energy-efficient lighting products that save energy, help protect the environment, reduce maintenance costs and make people and objects look much more attractive than traditional lighting.  And they can last much longer than traditional lighting.

For the interior of your yacht, LED lighting has the benefits of being small, flexible, durable, and use less electrical energy on their own which in turn reduces the amount of heat they produce.  They also come in a range of color temperatures to work with the design of your space.  LED lights offer the range from warm lighting to cooler lighting depending on the needs.  If your yacht has a crisp, clean all white interior, a cooler light will set if off and give the whites a pure crisp look.  If the interior is designed in warmer tones with a lot of darker wood work you will want a warmer color to bring in the warmth of the wood. 

With the right design, LED lights can have a lifetime of 50,000 hours and more in continuous operation. Depending on how many hour-a-day they are operating, that can be from 6 to 7 years to as many as 20 to 30.

The initial costs of LED lighting are more expensive than traditional lighting but how do you define expensive?  Is it the up-front cost of a light or do you factor in the cost of energy to run that light and the cost to change the light bulbs? 

You are cruising on a warm summer night, the yacht is anchored and there are no mosquitoes buzzing around yourself or the lights….Just another benefit of LED lighting.  Studies have shown that insects fly less towards LED lights than to traditional lamps.

Another perk of LED lights on yachts is their durability in rough conditions.  Other lamps have difficulties surviving the water, salt, wave impact, vibration, UV radiation and the big temperature differences on board.  A correctly constructed LED light can withstand the harshest conditions. 

LED lights have the ability to dim the light without flickering and they use less electrical energy, which, on a boat, is the same as less diesel consumption.  Electrical energy is a major issue when designing a yacht, so anything you can do to reduce energy consumption is a benefit – for the fuel use and the air conditioning.

The design element with LED lighting is used to influence mood.  The programming of different LED colors can change the mood, or enhance an experience.  Applications include the modification of a pool of illumination or a lounge light that changes according to the time of day.

The interior and exterior design of your yacht should be as unique, if not more, than your home.  

LED Tips for Your Home -Part 3

Bedroom

Photo Courtesy of Tech Lighting

Your bedroom needs very little light most of the time. However, practical light levels are needed for cleaning and tasks, and this can be obtained by combining wall lights and discreet overhead lighting that can always be dimmed for ambience.

Good bedside reading lights are essential. This means installing a specific reading light such as a wall-mounted flexible LED as well as a substantial lamp on bedside table.

Keep in mind that LED-powered lamps draw just a few watts but produce lumens of up to 400 while lasting about 50,000 hours – 50 times as long as incandescent lights.

Bathroom

Photo Courtesy of Lightology

Bathrooms are becoming more of a place of relaxation, so having lights in niches help to create a mood ambiance.

• A good way to start lighting your bathroom is to connect bathroom lights with a dimmer switch so that you can regulate the level of lights.

• Recessed and overhead lighting has become very popular, especially for bathroom with low ceilings.

• Having a bathroom mirror with dimmable LED lights is another valuable lighting idea since the lights illuminate and help in tasks like brushing the teeth, putting make-up, shaving, etc and since they are dimmable, you can adjust the level of light as your needs.

• Also, you can add colored lighting to your bathroom; it is very effective and creates a sharp contrast. You can do this by inserting colored linear LED (known as RGB, or red, green, blue) behind cantilevered Plexiglas or glass shelves.

Installing LED lighting is definitely a wise idea to help the environment, while saving you money. Visit one of our showrooms and ask our experts to help you incorporate LED in the room of your choice.