I’ve had lighting on my mind lately as we’re honing in on our electrical layout for the farmhouse.  Lighting design for a home is a little more tricky than I thought it’d be.  There’s task, ambient, and source lighting  – each with a different purpose. Depending on the planned use of each space, there are a certain amount of lumens that should be available. What’s a lumen? It’s a basically a unit measurement for quantity of light.

 

For example, the kitchen needs task lighting over the counter tops so it’s bright enough to do work. Kitchen work space requires more lumens than say a hallway would.

 

So, to help ourselves organize what we need where, Blaine has developed a spreadsheet for each space in the house. It lists the ideal amount of lumens needed per room, the corresponding number and type of light bulbs, and it also captures the cost per fixture.  It’s easy to find light fixtures which meet the design criteria, however it’s been really difficult for me to find fixtures which meet the criteria …and are pretty to my eye …and which don’t break the bank!

 

So for the past few months, I’ve been spending a lot of my free time combing the internet and every antique & consignment store in Houston (and the surrounding countryside) in search of the perfect light fixtures.