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The mention of night lights probably reminds you of your childhood, when a glowing giraffe or a bright Mickey Mouse plugged into your bedroom wall kept you company at night. Many parents still use night lights as a fun and comforting way to put children at ease after dark. But night lights are more than just storybook characters to place around your child’s bedroom. Today’s sophisticated and beautiful night lights can add an elegant touch throughout your home.

Here are three important considerations to keep in mind when shopping for night lights for your home.

Choose a style that suits your home. Today’s night lights come in a wide variety of shapes and designs. Whether your home is contemporary or traditional, modern or classic, there is a night light designed to fit perfectly with your decor. Some night lights have intricate stained glass covers, while others have airy, elegant designs. Ornamentation like tassels and fringe, metal accents, and hand painted scenes can all add a touch of flair to your nightlight.

Thoughtful placement is key. Night lights are an excellent choice for providing soft lighting in dark hallways so that family members and guests can walk around your home safely at night. They are also a great option to illuminate dark bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens and other rooms. They provide just enough light for you to cross a room – or to find a light switch.

Holiday themed night lights add a festive touch. Using holiday-themed night lights throughout your home is a quick and easy way to add a festive touch. You can even use matched sets of holiday night lights to add a unique but interesting light in every room.

Night lights are an elegant accessory that can complement your home’s design and decor. Don’t forget to add this important item to your list when shopping for new lights. Contact us today to learn more about these and other lighting options.

There’s no doubt about it – modern times have brought looking at monitors and screens throughout large portions of the day to most of us – for work and pleasure. Our parents used to say that we’d go blind watching TV in the dark – while, perhaps not exactly true, it is definitely hard on the eyes. The harsh lighting of computers and television screens is no doubt a strain on vision. However, proper lighting can reduce eye strain, and help retain good eye health.

The idea is simple – to diffuse the brightness of the screen. Bias lighting provides background lighting, or behind the screen lighting. You don’t want a spot light shining at you, but rather diffuse lighting that is easy on the eyes. There is bias lighting specifically designed for use with desktop computers. But, with most of us moving around on laptops, subtle lighting in the rooms that we often use, is also preferred.

Natural lighting is great, if diffused. You don’t need even more glare from the sun, or its reflection. Bias lighting raises ambient light levels in the viewing area without directly shining light toward the viewer’s face and eyes, or shining light from behind, past the viewer toward the screen, which can cause glare.

Soft wall lights are great and some forms of floor lighting can work well. A floor lamp or desk lamp that has a good shade will also work. You are looking for gentle backlighting for your TV or computer screen.

The other key is the degree of light of the bulbs you use. You don’t want something too warm, or too soft – but rather as close to the reference point of your screen. Generally, that point is about 6500 K (Kelvin Color Temperature Scale), which cool light and daylight bulbs try to simulate.

Whatever fixtures you choose, you want your ambient light to be low and without glare. Use the same bulbs in all fixtures, so the intensity is constant. Use blinds or drapes to reduce glare from your windows, as needed. Our Yale Lighting Concepts pros can offer great advice for lighting for different rooms throughout the house. Feel free to give us a call, or stop by our showrooms.

Natural daylight becomes a scarce commodity in northern climates as autumn progresses into winter. People naturally rely on their home lighting to supplant and supplement the bleak winter light, but not all home lighting is created equal for that purpose. Studies have shown that the winter reduction in certain wavelengths of light will cause many people to experience mild depression or “seasonal affective disorder” (i.e. “SAD”) during the winter months. This condition can be offset with next generation LED lighting that can be tuned to replace the lost summer daylight.

New LED light fixtures and lighting systems are available in different categories, including dim-to-warm, white tunable, and fully-color tunable. Dim-to-warm fixtures and systems are ideal for dining rooms and bedrooms that call for more relaxed and inviting illumination, and fully-color tunable systems are best suited for large open areas that can be reconfigured to adapt to multiple different uses. White-tunable LED home lighting fixtures and systems may be the best option to offset SAD winter blues.

The quality and character of light that is generated by a fixture are rated according to color coordinated temperature (“CCT”) and color rendering index (“CRI”). CCT ratings do not refer to the actual physical temperature of the light or fixture, but instead to the perception of whether the light is bright or warm. Bright lights that include certain blue wavelengths of light to offset SAD will have higher CCT ratings, typically in the range of 5000K to 6000K. Look for these CCT ratings if you are interested in LED lights that can help improve your mood in the colder and darker months. White tunable LED lights that are in this range are also dimmable, which will allow you to scale back the brightness of the light at later times of the day.

The versatility and range of options offered by LED lighting systems can be overwhelming when you are looking for new lighting options for your home. The experts at Yale Lighting Concepts in all seven showrooms can help you make the best choice for your lighting needs. Please contact us to speak with one of our experts and for assistance with your lighting projects.

Chances are if you have seen HGTV’s Fixer Upper you have fallen in love with the inspirational home stylings of Chip and Joanna Gaines. Joanna always uses unique lighting fixtures to create an interior design that is welcoming, full of personality, and functional. Whether you personally adore modern farm-house décor or simply want to implement some character into your home, lighting fixtures are a great place to start.

Pendants

Orbital or bowl-shaped pendants are a Fixer Upper favorite for home offices and kitchens. The convenient variety of hardware finishes available for pendants takes the guess-work out of coordinating with the existing hardware throughout your home.

Sconces

Wall sconces cast a lovely glow for a relaxed ambience in an entryway, parlor, or bedroom. The structure of these distinctive lighting fixtures suggests a vintage feel, as if they are relics from a bygone era. Adding wall sconces to your home is an easy way to create antique atmosphere without spending hours at thrift stores and flea markets searching for just the right piece.

Chandeliers

Chandeliers are a guaranteed show stopper, sure to be the focal point of any room. Try adding a chandelier to your formal dining room for an instant source of pleasant mood lighting. Adding a chandelier to your interior lighting concept can be just as much a decorative statement piece as any item of furniture.

Choosing the proper lighting fixture is the finishing touch to adding warmth, texture, and dimension to a home that represents your individuality. Contact us today to explore your options and gather more information on how to incorporate Fixer Upper-style into your own home lighting.

1. A Classic Floor Lamp

Floor lamps allow you to showcase both design and detail work. They also often take multiple lightbulbs, ensuring that the space will be bright enough for anything from watching TV to reading a good book or entertaining guests. From classic to modern, your design options are almost endless.

2. A Ceiling Light

Ceiling lights are not always the norm in American living rooms, but they offer significant potential nonetheless. Your design options are more limited, but you can use them to ensure plenty of light especially if your windows don’t let as much natural light as you’d prefer.

3. A Table Lamp

In many ways, table lamps are the smaller brother of floor lamps. They allow you to add ambient light, while simultaneously offering a design opportunity through both their lampshade and design. You should never rely on a table lamp alone to light your living room, but adding one – on an end table, perhaps – to your existing lighting options can both brighten up the space and enhance the room’s interior design.

Lighting your living room, at its core, comes down to your personal preference. But the above three options allow you to customize the space to make sure that you can enjoy both the light and the design of the most-used room in your house. For more information on how to light up the various rooms in your home, contact us.