Author Archives: Bev Martin

The chilly months of winter can often make us appreciate the warmth and comfort of our homes. While the weather outside may be snowy and cold, it’s nice to relax indoors within a pleasant atmosphere away from these seasonal concerns. Remodeling for the winter can be a fantastic way of creating a comfortable refuge, giving you and your family a relaxed and inviting space in which to live until spring. As with any remodeling project, lighting plays an important role in how everything is perceived. With winter remodeling, a few particular touches have the potential to transform your ho  me into one perfect for lifting you up out of the cold.

As the nights are becoming darker, your lighting fixtures should provide a soft glow that accentuates the feeling of warmth within the room. Lightbulbs themselves play an important role here, with different color accents providing different moods. Blue-white bulbs generally give off a colder vibe, so try to find bulbs with a warm white color for all your fixtures. Overhead lights are great but aren’t strictly a necessity. You may find it more appealing to use table and floor lamps throughout, providing a snuggly, low lit environment to curl up in. Of course, another great way to achieve a warm, cozy effect is through chandeliers. Modern chandeliers offer a brilliant twinkling effect to your light that can really enhance its beauty as it illuminates. Lantern style coverings for lamps and wall-mounted lights are excellent for the same reason. They offer a peaceful warm glow while providing a gorgeously quaint aesthetic to their surroundings. You may also enjoy some stylish glass covers for your wall-mounted lights, as these come in an assortment of exquisite shapes that pair well with the soft wintery theme.

At Yale Lighting, we offer thousands of options to choose from in our online catalog and within our two showrooms in Pennsylvania. Visit us here to learn more and take a look at all the different ways of transforming your home lighting this winter!

Back in the day, you say a single bulb hanging in the center of the room with a pull-string and a button in most bedrooms. Bedroom lighting has come a long way since then. Modern bedroom lighting is geared toward the variety of activities that often take place in a bedroom. Here are 4 quick lighting tips for the modern bedroom that you should keep in mind.

Layered Lighting

To create the very best usable light for the various activities that take place in your bedroom you will want to layer your lighting. This is a type of lighting design, which focuses on different levels of illumination for different aspects of the room. The three main levels of layering include:

• Ambient lighting creates a soft glow in various corners of the room.
• Task lighting directs light to a specific position in order to provide light for specific tasks.
• Accent lighting draws attention to certain features of the room like artwork.

Layering is important when it comes to creating various types of moods and draws out the design features of your bedroom.

Consider Brightness Levels

That single bare bulb in the middle of those bedrooms of the past probably isn’t the look you’re going for in a modern bedroom, but it provides a great point of contrast. Brightness in varying degrees is one of the concepts associated with layering. Ambient light, tends to be a dim suggestion of light, but accent lighting and task lighting can be brighter by degrees. The suggested lumens for a bedroom range between 2,000 and 4,000 with whatever bright lights are included focused on a specific spot for the purpose of accenting or providing task lighting.

Consider Lighting Colors

This doesn’t mean that you go with all of the colors of the rainbow for a disco throwback look. The lighting colors we are talking about has to do with the glow given off by various types of bulbs. You don’t have to go with straight bright white. Today’s lighting colors have varying ranges with amber, rose, violet and blue hints to create a warmer and more relaxing tone.

Dimmers

What would a modern bedroom be without some useful gadgets like dimmers that are operated by a remote control? Dimmers are one way to have more control over properly lighting the range of activities that often take place in a bedroom.

Lighting a bedroom has gone well beyond the days of a single bare bulb and a bedside lamp. Modern lighting for a bedroom is best achieved through layering and greater consideration for brightness and color. Yale Lighting can help you design and install the right type of modern lighting in your bedroom

After the holidays are over and your bright Christmas lights come down, it’s easy to feel stuck in a rut for the rest of winter. Every year, it seems like there is little to look forward to until the thaw of spring comes along. An easy way to keep your spirits up is to continue to put effort into your outdoor lighting. Think dreamy and picturesque. Big, fluffy snowflakes lit up by soft lighting outside of your home will welcome you home into th  e warmth inside. Here are some lighting trends to keep your outdoor lighting exciting after the holidays.

Spotlights

Spotlights are all about showcasing your favorite features of your home. This can be as exciting as spacing multiple spotlights along the entire front of your house and lighting up the whole thing — always a gorgeous look for a snow-covered home — or as subtle as pointing one spotlight toward the beautiful tree in your front yard. Consider your favorite aspects of the front of your home and light it up; it’s hard to go wrong with spotlights in winter.

Outdoor Lamp Posts

Consider adding a lamp post near your entryway. Lamp posts are a classic choice for unique lighting outside of your home that never goes out of style. A snow-capped lamp post is sure to give your front door the warm glow you’re looking for.

In-Ground Lighting

In winter, it can be helpful to find lighting solutions that are practical as well as aesthetic. Adding some in-ground solar lights along your driveway and walkways will surely add to the ambiance you’re looking for in your dreamy winter home, but it’s also safety must. Slippery walkways are a huge risk in winter and in-ground lights help you keep an eye out for any patches of ice.

Don’t let the winter blues get you down once the holidays are over. Keep your home warm and welcoming with soft outdoor lighting! Contact us today for help choosing the perfect winter lighting for your home.

Have you ever taken a look around your living and felt that something was missing? There’s a good possibility that your living room lighting just might need to be updated.

This is a room that is so multi-functional, it really should have lighting that meets a wide variety of needs as well. During the day, different activities will create the need for a different type of illumination that what you might use in the evening. But how can you accomplish a va  riety of light without an over abundance of light fixtures and lamps? That’s just what we’re going to tell you about.

Different Types of Living Room Lighting

Some homeowners believe that just one type of lighting should be enough to suffice, and for some rooms, that can be true. The living room offers a more complicated scenario, however, in that you’ll want different types of lighting at different times of the day.

Overhead lights have often been the go-to lighting source for many living rooms. These days, you have many more options for your spaces, and each one adds a different characteristic. Table lamps, for example, can tone the light down, giving a cozy and inviting ambiance for evening gatherings. You can attain a very similar effect from floor lamps, but with a bit more light, since they are taller and cover more area.

Wall sconces might seem dated, but can really bring out the personality of a room when correctly placed. You can also use them along with other light sources, for the perfect living room lighting. You can also ask a salesperson about our chandeliers, recessed lighting, track lighting and more.

Dialing In the Perfect Lighting for You

The important thing is that you find the perfect lighting for your living room. That means taking into consideration your needs, preferences, existing decor and so much more. The professional and experienced sales staff at Yale Lighting look forward to assisting you, so be sure to contact us at your convenience.

Most kitchens have one or two central light sources. The biggest light will be in the middle of the open walkway. If your k itchen has an island or a wrap-around countertop, there may be a few recessed lights above it. But the only other sources of illumination that your kitchen came with is indirect lighting from other rooms. That leaves a lot of the room in shadow, no matter how bright the bulbs are. So add light in these three spaces to make your kitchen more functional and more comfortable:

1. Add lights to the bottom of your upper cabinets.

A lot of work gets done on your kitchen counters. But there’s not always enough light to do it easily. Whenever you’re chopping up produce or mixing together a recipe, you stand between the light and your workspace. Get rid of the shadows with undercabinet lighting. You can either add wires through the base of your cabinets or get battery-powered LED fixtures.

2. Find where appliances and decorations leave shadows.

If you have a small kitchen, you don’t have a lot of space for storage. That means your appliances and jars may live on the countertops. Don’t just get frustrated the next time you realize you’re working in the shadows. Mark where the most frustrating dim spots are and look for lighting fixtures that can help.

3. Brighten up your lower cabinets.

The interiors of your cabinets are even darker. But while your upper cabinets have the advantage of being closer to the light and farther from obstructions, your lower cabinets are completely dark. Add lights you can flip on and off whenever you need to look through them.

Adding a light to the cabinet under the sink is even more useful/ You can keep an eye out for water damage and have an easier time organizing your cleaning supplies.

Go to Yale Lighting for more season lighting and home decoration tips that will brighten up your day.

You’ve recreated a gorgeous holiday landscape outside your home. You’ve managed to add holiday cheer and warmth to your main floor, but what about your bathroom? After all, cold bathroom floors on early mornings are no fun, but with a few classy lighting choices, you can easily turn your bathroom into a winter haven filled with soft warmth even your toes will want to sink into.

Mason Jar Lights

Those strings of soft fairy lights are much more versatile than you’d expect, especially with their huge selection of colors to choose from. Pick up a few strands of these battery operated lights and drop them in various sized mason jars. Scatter them around your bathroom, on the back of your garden tub, in the windowsill, on your sink. The soft glow will make an instant (and easy) change to your atmosphere.

Energy Efficient Night Lights

These small lights may not glow very bright, but when the lights go off, they come on. The light they project is just enough to turn any space, especially a small one, into a wintery type of place. They are handy year round all over the house, and they save you money on your light bill.

Copper Wire Lights

For those phytophilous’ out there, a rustic yet elegant way to jazz up your bathroom with a wintery touch would be to add copper wire lights around and under your favorite plants and accessories. Since these are available in a wide array of colors, they are fantastic mood enhancers. Another great thing about these lights is that you can string them together if you needed a longer strand. Don’t be afraid to go crazy with these lights. Your creativity will shine.

Foldable Shapes

These aren’t just for outside. A well-placed foldable star or snowflake can transform your bathroom into a cozy haven for all those warm bubble baths you dream of. You can hang them against your wall or dangle them from your ceiling.

Lighted Wall Sconces

There are so many options for these lights. They are versatile and just switching out one type for another can be a very easy way to change the atmosphere in your bathroom. Jewel Box bath bars would be an excellent permanent set up for creating softer mood lighting in your bathroom.

Chandeliers

Perhaps you’d like something a bit more permanent in your bathroom. There are plenty of options for you, too! A good start would be to hang a snowflake or spiral fiber optic chandelier from your ceiling.

Whirly Hanging Tea Light Candle Holders

This hot trend in interior designing offers so much flexibility and creativity! Decorate your orbs with tea light topped flower petals or just the tea lights themselves and hang them around your bathroom. Since you can add anything you want inside the orbs, you have even more options to maintain a seasonal vibe all year long. The transformation these light offer is an incredibly soft glow that can be as dim or bright as you’d like.

As you can see, there are many, many options for transforming your bathroom into a winterscape. Contact us today and let us take the stress out of your interior lighting needs!

The child in all of us loves to admire the homes we pass in the midst of winter that emulate the joy of the Holidays with their bright colorful lights, Holiday symbolism and winter themes. The adult part of us wishfully thinks “next year”. Well guess what? Next year is here!

Late fall is a great time for planning, researching and acquiring all that you need to turn your home into the fantasy winter landscape you’ve been dreaming about with that “WOW” curb appeal factor. For those in New England, the mantra “the sooner, the better” definitely holds true too as cold fingers and thumbs tend to make hanging lights just that bit harder and this year, remember, there are no excuses!

What To Consider

• Power Outlets: Newer homes tend to have several on the property’s exterior and with today’s low voltage lights, these can usually be put to good use with the addition of grounded multiple outlet strips and extension cords. If however you live in an older home, check out your options and if you’re out of luck, get in touch with a licensed electrician. It’s pretty easy to add a socket or two and shouldn’t break the bank but your electrician will be much happier doing this before the snow flies!
• Scope: Decide on the extent of your outside lighting project and any budget constraints that may exist. Sometimes it’s simpler to start small and build on your vision over a couple of years but for others, the “big picture” is everything – Think of “Home Alone”!
• House Scapes: Decorating the home’s immediate exterior. Ideas include –
  • Front Porch decoration
  • Lighted wreaths to highlight windows, doors or natural high points of your home’s exterior,
  • Lights strung from the eaves, around windows and doors.
• Yardscapes: These tend to fall into three categories
  • Religious displays – a lighted nativity scene for example
  • Highlighting of your yard’s natural features – seasonal lighting of trees, shrubs, pathways and small structures. In addition the natural features may be embellished with Holiday motives – for example a lighted sleigh mounted on a gazebo.
  • Standalone yard displays: lighted snowmen, symbolic signage “Believe”, “Joy”, “‘Tis the Season”, Santa and His Sleigh, Chanukiah, etc.

Once you have a broad plan in mind come and talk to us. We’ll walk you through the logistics from extension cords to the best lighting options to achieve just the right look for your home and neighborhood. With today’s low voltage lighting and LED’s, it has never been easier to install a breathtaking landscape and recycle the same lights and decorative features year after year. We will also help you with products to automate everything so that lights and displays come on at dusk and turn off automatically without creating a rift with your neighbors!

Everyone talks about illumination for the major rooms in a home, but without adequate hallway lighting, your domicile can still give off an oppressive or even spooky feeling. People naturally want to avoid dark areas, especially ones that have places where something could be hiding, such as doors that open to darkened rooms. This is why many horror movie ads feature long, d  ark hallways. Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid having this sort of feeling in your home.

Great Hallway Lighting Options

There are two main options that are great for hallways: Ceiling lights and wall sconces. Ceiling lights, when placed correctly, will spread light evenly along the hallway so there are no dark and spooky shadows. There are seemingly infinite ceiling light variations, so you can get the exact look you want.

Wall sconces also come in a wide variety of forms, ranging from basic to ultra-modern. You will likely need a few more of these than you would ceiling lights since they tend to produce pools of light instead of an “over-all” type of illumination. However, they have the benefit of being easier to reach when it’s time to clean the shade or change the bulbs.

Controlling Hallway Lighting

It’s always best to set up hallway lighting so that it can be controlled by wall switches. This lets those using the hall light it up before they enter. Put a switch on each end for the most safety and convenience. You may already have the needed switches, but if you don’t, an electrician can easily install them.

As you consider your lighting options, make sure you take your hallways into account. Then, you can be sure that the “dark and spooky” esthetic will stay in the movies where it belongs.

When it’s time to get your new lights, be sure to contact us here at Yale Lighting. We have all you need to make your home bright and cheery!