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Special Home Lighting

There are many ways to achieve a comfortable level of illumination inside the house. There is a choice of chandeliers, ceiling or wall brackets, surface mounted or recessed items and lanterns.

Good lighting will complete the effect of your house and garden. Before buying lighting for your home or garden, consider where you want to put it. The thing to remember is that bright light does not always mean good light. It all depends on the place the lighting will be placed. You will obviously need strong light for the kitchen working areas. On the other hand, strong lighting in the garden could be tiring. For your garden you will rather need something more subtle and shaded.

Another tip is to avoid hard contrasts. Trying to combine different types of lighting in one room is a good idea but hard contrasts are tiring for the eyes. For reading or working, you will need direct lighting. To highlight the paintings or other objects and to add atmosphere to your room, use rather pools of light. A dimmer is a good solution if your room will be performing several functions. In the case of working or reading it will provide you with a stronger light but when you will fancy some relax, a lower light level will also be possible.

If you want to create a cosy atmosphere, use incandescent lamps. Fluorescent lamps, on the other hand, are cooler and probably better for utility rooms.

Low voltage halogen lamps are more energy efficient than incandescent lamps and, what’s more, they last twice as long. They give brilliant white light guaranteeing excellent colour rendering and enhancing the beauty of illuminated objects. These lamps come in a variety of sizes and wattages. They cannot be connected straight to the main supply but must be used in conjunction with transformers.

Stairs And Halls:

Stairs and halls are not places where we spend much time. However, they should be lit to prevent accidents. A well lit hall is more inviting and lets us feel safe moving around the home. Because there isn’t enough space to put lighting on the floor, ceiling and wall lamps are obvious. If your hall is more spacious, you may want to use a table lamp. It will add mood to your hall.
Halogens and track lights can be focused on pictures and be directed to dark corners. Make sure you illuminate the way, especially stairs. Be careful while fitting the lighting on the stairs and check that it doesn’t dazzle you and your family as you go up and down.

You might want to use a mirror to create a feeling of depth.
If you’d like to achieve unobtrusive illumination, ceiling fixtures, wall brackets and recessed fitting can be used.
It is worth using as much of the natural light as possible, so consider installing glass doors which will help to open spaces up.
And a small tip: don’t fit switches far from the doorways. It will save you walking through the dark to reach them.
Bar Lighting:

The lighting in the bar area can be broken into three groups:

1. over bar
2. under bar
3. back bar

Over bar - you can put there three small Halo brand bullseye lights. They are controlled by a single dimmer which can be located behind the bar. Each fixture has a 60 watt standard type bulb.

Under bar - you could install rope lights. They can be put along the underside of the bar to provide light in the work area. The lights can be plugged into a switch outlet and controlled by a switch next to the other dimmer switches behind the bar.

Back bar - it seems to be a good idea to put two additional highlights above the display area on the back bar. They can be controlled by a dimmer placed behind the bar.