The Four Basic Styles Of Chandeliers

Have you ever wanted to buy a chandelier but did not know which type to buy? Well, then you have come to the right place, because we are going to be talking about four of the most popular ones out there. The four types of chandeliers that we will be talking about today are glass chandeliers, crystal chandeliers, antler chandeliers and alabaster chandeliers.

The first type of chandelier that we are going to be going over is the glass chandelier. These chandeliers are for the most part cheaper versions of the crystal chandelier. You can usually find these types of chandeliers in middle class homes and economy hotels and motels. The price of these imitations can run anywhere from twenty dollars to a couple hundred. However, there is an exception to these types of chandeliers and they are made on the island of Murano. Murano glass fixtures are among some of the most sought after in the world, and their prices reflect their popularity.

Crystal chandeliers are the next type of chandeliers that we are going to be looking at here. They are often found in high-end homes and establishments. This is especially true for Waterford crystal chandeliers. Waterford crystals are among some of the most pure and sought after, and for this reason they are also some of the most expensive.

Antler chandeliers are a third lighting option. Antler is a relatively new material that is being used in chandelier and light fixture construction. There are many different types of antlers available. Some examples of the most popular ones are mule deer, white tail deer, elk, moose, and big horn ram. These types of chandeliers are more than likely going to be found in rustic style cabins and western influenced hunting lodges and mountain homes.

If you are looking for a chandelier with both high end class and earthy appeal, then the alabaster kind is the one for you. Alabaster is compact, fine textured gypsum or a translucent calcite that is used in carving chandelier shades. Another good reason to purchase one of these unique light fixtures is because no two shades are exactly the same.

Hopefully after reading this article you will have a little bit more insight about which type of chandelier that you want for your home. No matter which one you decide to buy, the best advice I can give you is to choose the type you personally enjoy.

Here are some resources for more information pertaining outdoor chandeliers and alabaster chandelier shades.

Guide to Choosing the Right Light Fitting for the Home

Several types of light fitting is currently available in the market. The number of options is a great advantage but it may also have some drawbacks for some people. With different choices, it can be harder to choose the right type for use in a particular area of the house.

To be able to get the right product, an individual must first be familiar with the different types of light fitting available. There are three main types to choose from and these include the following:

1. Fluorescent light fittings
2. Traditional light fittings
3. Halogen fittings

Fluorescent light fittings are widely used in houses, offices, and in many industrial and commercial buildings. Usually available as linear tubes, these can be used as ceiling light fittings and may be used to illuminate large areas with cool bright light.

Traditional light fittings or traditional lamps are most often found in domestic lighting. They come in candle type shapes and as light bulbs. They are known for the warm light that emanates from them.

Halogen fittings are widely used as security as well as display lighting but they can also be used for domestic settings. Halogen light fittings provide a bright and crisp but warm light. These types of light fittings can be used in many other applications.

The different types of ceiling light fittings can be made from different kinds of materials including paper, brass, nickel and many other kinds of metals. They can also be made of different colors. Likewise, they can be made of different styles and designs.

Ceiling light fittings made of metals and other more durable materials tend to have higher prices compared to those made out of lesser durable materials. Nonetheless, with the right choice of design, any room can look elegant and attractive no matter the price of the light fitting.

Lighting Difficult Spaces With Mini Chandeliers

Many people won’t even think of mini chandeliers as being a worthwhile choice when lighting up smaller rooms such as a foyer or perhaps a staircase due to the fact they are accustomed to the grandiose, luxurious chandeliers as seen in the movies and on television. Despite the fact that small chandeliers might not have the lavish attractiveness of their much bigger counterparts, they’ll undoubtedly make a significant change in the way a room feels when used in the right way.

A foyer will commonly be the first place in your house that people will see, however it generally is one of the most challenging places to give satisfactory lighting. During the day, a lot of bright sunlight can come streaming into the foyer cause  all sorts of lighting chaos. Even though a flush mounted ceiling light fixture may well seem to be adequate for this type of enclosed area, higher ceilings or strong sunshine may easily overpower such typical entryway lighting.

Small chandeliers, on the other hand, are multi-bulb lighting fixtures which may be wired to dimmer knobs. In the day time whenever the concentration of natural light reaches the strongest, the mini chandelier will be able to provide the area with plenty of light and so reduce the potential for glare. On over-cast days or perhaps in the night time periods, the chandelier is often dimmed in order to produce an appealing ambience for while also serving as sort of a focal point in the room.

Hallways might not exactly catch the eye or receive visitors the way a foyer does, but they nonetheless are infamously challenging to light effectively. Hallways are typically narrow and long and sometimes have very high ceilings. A mini chandelier is not going to overpower the place with an excessive amount of light similar to a full-sized chandelier. But, they will give off enough light to make the hallway safe in addition to improving upon it with elegance and taste. In a more narrow hallway, the mini-chandelier’s diameter shouldn’t be more than one-third of the ceiling width.

Making use of miniature chandeliers to improve lighting in modest areas of your home isn’t just restricted to a hallway or foyer. A small guest room will be greatly improved by adding a small chandelier to it. Actually any small room or space that you might want to decorate and enrich with style can be an ideal location to put mini chandeliers. Just remember to compliment the small chandelier with surrounding decor features so that it fits right in.

How To Choose Chrome Ceiling Lights

Choosing chrome ceiling lights can be a tough job when you factor in the huge number of choices that are currently on the market.  There are certainly a lot of choices, but there is also a clear path to the right one for your home, which I’ll outline in this post.

Ceiling lights essentially come in three styles; flush and semi-flush mounted, track lights, and pendant lights.  This method will help you determine any of those.  When it comes to chandeliers, there is a different method due to their very high price.

In order to figure out which chrome lights are the best for your room you have to closely examine your room.  It’s good to have other chrome in your room that will work as an accent to your light, like chrome door knobs or faucets.  If not, you can add some in later.  Look at everything that is currently in this room, or the things that you plan on adding to it.  Factor in artwork, furniture, cabinets, fixtures, and even flooring or rugs and jot down any similarities that all of these thing have.  You’re looking for qualities like color, texture, shape, and size.  All of these things are going to determine what style of light you should buy.  Once you’ve compiled your list, you know have a shopping guide that will show you exactly the qualities that you should look for in your new light!

On top of what it should look like, you also have to factor in your ceiling height.  If you’re working with standard or lower height ceilings, pendant lighting is probably out of the question.  Along with height, look at the amount of light that is currently in the different corners of your room.  If some are much darker than others, add that to your list of needs so you can find a new light that will illuminate those.

Following all of the steps listed above will paint a very clear picture of what your new chrome ceiling light is going to look like.  You’ll know size, color, type, texture, and how much light it needs to put out.  Shopping is now a breeze!

Simple Tips for Choosing Chandelier Lighting

When it comes to decorating your home, chandelier lighting is one of the best investments you can make. A truly great chandelier will serve as the focal point of a room, capturing the attention of guests that pass beneath it. Of course, there is more to selecting and purchasing a chandelier than simply picking one out a placing it on your ceiling. You want to choose one that complements the overall decor of your home. Another thing to consider is the brightness of the fixture you choose. Not all rooms are the same, so it’s important to balance the brightness of the fixture with the amount of shadows you’re looking to create.

Fortunately, brightness can be adjusted using chandelier lamp shades. The amount of light you need will be directly proportional to the size of the room and the mood you’re looking to create. After all, you don’t want to place a huge fixture in a small room only to have your guests squinting at the amount of light. The basic tips listed below will allow you to purchase a fixture that will fit your personality and the type of room you’re looking to enhance.

Most chandeliers will tend to broadcast light directly onto the subjects beneath them, so it’s important not to purchase something too large or over the top. The light should be bright enough to avoid harsh shadows, but should not cause people to squint. Another reason to avoid installing large fixtures in a small room is that a larger fixture will tend to add heat to the room. This is particularly true if the room you’re trying to light is small in size or doesn’t have sufficient air flow. If you insist on installing a large fixture, it may make sense to choose a lower wattage bulb, which will emit less heat.

Apart from the amount of light the fixture emits, it’s also important to choose a fixture that is visually appealing. There are chandeliers available in a variety of different shapes and sizes, including those with semi-precious crystals and even black crystals. For those that want something truly unique, there is even an option to have custom chandeliers made, though be prepared for a significantly higher cost.

Old Fashioned Oil Lamps for a New Home Fragrance

Air fresheners for the home can be expensive devices to maintain, but a great alternative is old fashioned oil lamps. Everyone likes to make their personal living space “personal”. One of the ways we do that is to change the fragrance of the air in our homes. In fact, usually people will notice your homes scent as soon as they enter the door, for the good or bad.

So many times we spend way too much money trying to make the air smells pleasing in our homes.  You can see how important this is by the types and numbers of shops selling scented candles and other potpourri to add scent to the home. Incense is another high sales commodity for home fragrance, but it is bad for the lungs and makes a smoky mess.

Another primary way we freshen our homes are these air fresheners that plug into the wall outlet and come with an exchangeable cartridge. These are nice, but will cost a pretty penny in the long run after you replace the cartridges a few times. You also have to buy the same brand cartridges as the device, and this allows the company to increase the prices for the refills. Very rarely will be you able to replace a cartridge with another companies’ model. You will also be limited to whatever fragrances that company sells.

The point of this article is this. You do have a choice. Some people call it “essential oil diffusion”, and it is becoming more popular these days. The secret is to find a cheap and simple way to diffuse oil into the air as means to add fragrance and the answer may be simple oil lamps.

To do this you need a glass jar ( small ), some refined olive oil, a piece of thin material, and some fragrant essential oil. There are many advantages to this simple design. The oil will burn very clean and will provide light as well as fragrance. Most of the time, you can expect olive oil to be very allergy friendly and it doesn’t produce much smoke either. If you would rather not have a “homemade” version, just go to a local antique shop and buy an old oil lamp from them. You can buy scented lamp oil for this and this would be the most simple way to implement this. Try this old fashioned way of adding fragrance to your home air and you will fall in love with it.

The Number One Landscape Lighting Mistake

There is one absolutely vital rule in garden lighting, but unfortunately most homeowners violate it when they are laying out their garden   The number one rule in garden lighting is that less light is more.  Less light accentuates the night and your garden lighting features and leaves your yard with a stylish touch.

Unfortunately too many people install so many lights in their yard that it looks like you’re looking at the Las Vegas Strip, not a well-designed garden. 

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Your garden gets bathed in bright light from the sun all day, why do you want to look at it in the same circumstances at night?  To avoid making this mistake, follow these tips for designing your garden lighting. 

The first thing that you want to think about when you’re placing your garden lights is how you are going to light the large features on your landscape.  Some of the most dramatic effects that you can make involve lighting your trees and large shrubs, so make sure to design these first and get the right lighting style that you want for them.  Draw where you are going to place the lights on a sketch of your property.

After this, you have to start planning your outdoor path lighting.  This is important because you will be using these to walk around at night, so these areas need to be well lit to avoid trips and falls.  If the area outside your home is a minefield of unseen objects waiting to be tripped over, all the accent lighting in the world doesn’t do you any good.

Finally, after this is done, you can look for other areas to fill in light.  Be careful not to fill in too much though!  Only fill in dark areas or places with some interesting features, like a flowerbed or the texture of a wall.

Visit the  Garden Lights Guru for more information on landscape lighting.

Interior Lighting Basics

When lighting any room in the home it is important to realise that while a light source has practical implications it can also be creative and decorative. The most important factors of a good lighting system are the quality of light, the color, the intensity and the direction. Lighting should be used to enhance the surroundings and to create the correct level of light for the tasks performed in the room. For example, lighting a stairway requires brighter light to avoid any accidents while using the stairs.

Different sources of light are also required to illuminate various light and dark areas in your house. If you have dark colors in your room then more lighting is needed to create adequate light. If your room has lighter colors and surfaces then it will not need as much light as the surfaces will do a good job of reflecting any light that falls on them. There are some very useful guides on this from retail stores such as argos, and you can also find free information on the internet at the many home design web sites.

When choosing a new type of light it is valuable to know which kind of light is emitted from the various lamps. Tungsten produces softer, warmer light which is better for relaxing rooms. Halogen lamps give a very focused, crisp light that is very white in nature. They are best used in kitchens and bathrooms where good illumination is necessary. Low voltage halogen lights are very good for producing warmer lighting, and they also emit 30% more light than mains lighting. These low voltage lights are readily available from electrical outlets and stores as well as online at additions online and other reputable dealers. The cost is pretty low as well.

Flourescent lighting is ideal for lighting larger areas but has the disadvantage of deteriorating much quicker. They produce a white light that becomes dimmer as time goes by. To prolong their life look for fluorescent tubes with a higher phosphorous content. LED lighting is good for marking and guide lighting. Many people use them in hallways and corridors. The downside is that they are not as powerful as the other types mentioned here. The overall effect is a little less brighter.

Interior Lighting in the Living Room

Let’s talk about the single most used (or under-used) room in the house: The Living Room. In my years of experience I have found that houses fall into two categories — ones where the living room is used and ones where it isn’t. Whether it sits filled with furniture and empty of people, or furnished and full of life, the lighting for the living room is complex.

First a quick note on furniture and lighting design. Some pieces of furniture absorb light and other reflect it. Your lighting plan needs to account for this. For example, let’s say you love having a glass coffee table, like the one in the above picture. At certain times of the day, you could be dealing with serious glare from the glass. Consider those details in your lighting plan.

I picked this picture to illustrate some good lighting technique. You’ll notice the pot lights — the ceiling light — they are unobtrusive while still doing a good job of illuminating. Recessed lighting is not always a given, but in this room it works well. The decor of the room is allowed center stage, while the interior lighting plays a supporting role. Imagine this room with a chandelier. It’s a whole different experience. Suddenly you don’t see the glorious floor to ceiling bookshelves because of the mass of crystal hanging from the ceiling.

The secondary lighting in the photograph is created with table lamps. There is a lamp beside the chair nearest the bookcase and one by the sofa, plus there is obviously a good amount of natural light available, for daytime use. The lamplight must be sufficient for the homeowner’s needs.

As we always say, lighting happens in layers. The top layer, the ceiling light, is handled by the recessed lighting. The middle layer, the wall lighting, is handled (interestingly enough) by natural light, and possibly, by the fireplace at night.  The final layer, the floor/surface, is handled by the lamps.

It is a beautiful space. Lit with expert lighting design. You can achieve the same look without the lighting expert — you’ve got us to help.

The Way To Light Your Bathroom Makeup Vanity

Good lighting is needed in the bathroom to allow the room to be as effective and useful as possible. When choosing the lighting for your bathroom makeup vanity, be sure to choose a fixture that offers both optimal light and beauty, so that your bathroom will literally shine and be a pleasure to use.

Depending on the layout of your bathroom, the vanity lighting may be the only lighting in the room. Because there is very often little or no light coming in from the outside, proper bathroom lighting is a necessity. Applying makeup in semi darkness is bound to yield negative results, so it is to your advantage to be diligent about changing burnt-out light bulbs.

Each vanity lighting fixture produces a unique effect. If you like your bathroom to be well lit and cheerful, bright lighting with multiple light bulbs will be your best option. If you like a softer and calmer look, try a fixture that features accent or spot lighting. Be sure to use soft white light bulbs, not yellow ones, as you’ll want to see your reflection as true to life as possible. Try to avoid having the light shine directly on the mirror so as not to cause a glare which would obstruct your view in the mirror. Some vanities are made with light bulbs framing the mirror. This is good for a bathroom, because it offers a lot of light which is concentrated in front of the mirror, where you need it the most.

One other thing to consider is where the other light in the bathroom is coming from. If you add a striking light fixture into the room that also provides a nice amount of light, such as an electric pillar candle chandelier, then you will need less light at the actual vanity itself.

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