Tag Archives: landscape lighting

Make a Statement in the Heart of Your Home with Kitchen Lighting

The kitchen is one of the most important parts of your home, often referred to as the heart of the home. It’s where people spend a great deal of their time when they are at home. FEISS Prarielands-IslandChand-Kitchen

1) The Modern Chandelier

You may think of chandeliers as fitting only for classic, traditional homes. But they can be modern too, giving your kitchen a conversation piece at its ceiling. If modern is your thing, look for finishes like brushed nickel, clean lines, and purposefully little detail work.

2) The Basic Island Light

If your kitchen features an island, it deserves its own light. You will likely spend much of your time preparing foods or entertaining guests at this space, so you need to make sure it’s well-lit. But at the same time, you may be worried that the light will take away from the island itself. In that case, choose an island light with clean lines and plenty of glass to avoid attracting too much attention.

3) The Ornate Alternative

Finally, both chandeliers and island lights offer the ability to truly showcase your taste in more classical works. If you live in a traditional home, or simply like ornate features in your kitchen, look for character-heavy pieces with curves, details, and more. Finishes like bronze work especially well in that case.

All three of these options are very different in their style, but could work well in your kitchen depending on your taste. Of course, your options don’t end there – to find the perfect light for your space, browse our catalog or contact us.

Lighting Your Way to Earth Day

4-21 image Earth Day The first Earth Day (April 22) was in 1970 and was started to highlight the need to reduce our output of carbon and garbage and to take time to remember the beauty of our shared home. The official Earth Day website offers a short history of the movement, noting that “Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to the narrative—cynicism versus activism.” But the reinvention in 2010 helped to reshape that narrative to a call to respond to the current concerns around climate change.

Each year, Earth Day provides an opportunity to look anew at ways we can protect the environment because each year, technology has found new ways to do so. For a quick example, think of the light bulb. We’ve switched from incandescent bulbs to CFLs to LEDs, one of the most energy-efficient bulbs.

The lighting industry is also responding, with the advent of smart phones that can help you manage your lighting systems whether you are home or not. Remember when you used to leave a light on when you left on vacation? Then came those timers you plug into the wall? Now you can use smart applications that work with your phone to either create a pattern of lighting while you are away for long stretches. They can also be activated when you arrive home, providing lighted paths to your house and within your house to assure a safe and energy-efficient re-entry into your home.

When you begin to think about Earth Day and the ways you can help to save energy (and money), contact us; we can help you plan for the immediate and perpetual future.

How Does Your Garden (and Landscaping) Glow?

Spring is a kind of sensorial celebration – vivid colors, sweet scents and the gentle buzz of life reawakened. Now through the end of fall, your outdoor spaces become an extension of your home. What better way to celebrate the return of outdoor living than to invest in some energy-efficient landscape lighting to showcase nature’s beauty?Hinkley Landscape 115_HardyIsland_16022MZ

Today’s landscape and garden lighting options highlight your best garden and landscape features, while using less energy than ever before.

• Honor a favorite tree with strategically-placed, recessed well-lights. They provide seamless up-lighting for a beloved tree and require less energy when powered by an easy-to-install low-voltage system.
• Highlight your best features with landscape accent spotlights. They’re ideal for illuminating large shrubs, flower beds and trees, and can also be wired to a low-voltage system.
• Add a little shimmer to your pond with an LED pond light kit. LEDs offer superior protection against water corrosion and have an extra-long lifespan.
• Step up safety and style with LED-powered step lights. Available in a variety of finishes, they help guests navigate their way safely while adding a distinctive ambience.
• Get all decked out with deck lighting. Rail, post-cap and wall-mount lights powered by a low-voltage system will save you green and extend the use of your deck well into the evening hours.

Feeling inspired? Browse our online catalog for a huge selection of outdoor lighting options, or visit a Yale Lighting Concepts & Design showroom today!

Five High-Impact Ways to Illuminate Your Outdoor Spaces

Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor Lighting

Spring is in the air. In the not-so-distant future, warmer weather and longer days will beckon us to spend more time outdoors. When it comes to injecting drama and beauty into your exterior spaces, nothing quite beats the glow and sparkle of thoughtfully planned outdoor lighting.

To give your home an instant ambience upgrade that will boost curb appeal and extend the use of your outdoor spaces, consider these five, high-impact ideas from our lighting designers:

1. A warm welcome. Path lights – available in a variety of styles – create a welcoming glow and help guests navigate walkways safely. Bring a sense of balance to your lighting plan by staggering the arrangement of your lights and consider low-voltage options for optimal energy savings.
2. Natural drama. Accent the natural beauty of your property and your home’s unique architectural details with landscape lighting. Place up-lights under a beloved tree to create dramatic shadows and highlights its green foliage. Or install low voltage accent lights to highlight shrubs and other garden features.
3. All decked out. When the sun goes down, the party can go on with LED deck rail, recessed step and post-cap lights. For added ambience, consider outdoor-rated table and floor lamps to bring a cozy feel to your outdoor living spaces.
4. Water feature illumination. Add a little shimmer to your pond with an LED pond light kit. LEDs offer superior protection against water corrosion and have an extra-long lifespan.
5. Timing and controls. Automation is the easy way to ensure your home’s exterior is illuminated in the evening hours. Easy-to-install timers automatically turn outdoor lighting on and off during designated ties of the day and many feature dimmer controls for added energy savings.

Ready for a fresh, new take on exterior lighting? Stop by one of Yale Lighting Concepts & Design’s seven showrooms throughout Central and Southeastern PA, Northern DE, and Southern NJ or browse our huge selection of outdoor lighting including wall-mount fixtures, path lights, landscape lighting and more at YaleLightingConcepts.com.