Picking out the lights for a 4600 sq. ft house was something I never imagined would consume so much of my time. But it did. Very much of my time. So very, very, much of my time. I want to share with you some of the steps I took to finally finish all my choices in hopes to save you time and money!
First, after you have the cost for your build or renovation, know that lighting can be around 1-3% of that total budget. Suppose that you are building a 300,000 custom home then your lighting package should be around 3,000-9,000. Note this does not include installation. Once you set the budget decide which rooms you want the more pricey lights in. For example, I did more costly lights in foyer, kitchen, and primary suite. For rooms like the laundry room and guest bedrooms I went with budget friendly options. Next, I went to designer lighting stores, box stores like Home Depot, and searched the internet to get a feel of which room would cost the most. I also found inspirations pictures on Pinterest and Houzz to help me pick a style. This helped me get a feel for what I could spend.
After budget was set I shopped and shopped. I went back to all the places I listed above to find out what was on sale. Since I had a pretty good idea of my style I could rule items out fairly quickly. Let me take a moment here to say how I did that. I knew in my house I wanted chandelier type lighting. So most of my lighting has a nod to candles in it. Go check out some of my choices in my "shop" tab and you will see exactly what I mean. I shopped clearance and outlets also, I tried to stay focused on my style and not sway too much. Picking a feature that I wanted in most of the lights really helped me stay on track. And trust me it is easy to lose focus.....I did that more than I care to admit!
For me, I wanted a cohesiveness and consistency for my lighting. Besides the design feature in most of my lights, I also wanted most of the metals to match, at least in the main areas. So for those I picked one company, Millennium Lighting. They are a very affordable and good quality lighting company. There a lot of gold tones out there, so once I knew Millennium had the one I wanted I order the light fixtures from there so they would all match! Some of my lights will be matte black and brushed nickel. Those metals are pretty consistent no matter where you buy them. It's the gold I wanted to be sure and all be the same tone.
Lastly, visualize the lights in their space. Once the house had windows in and roof on, I walked around to get a feel about the lights I was leaning toward. I measured out where they would hang, how far down I wanted them to hang, and even decided where we would want all the light switches at. This helped a lot because I realized some lights I was thinking needed to be bigger, or smaller in some rooms. This takes time, but will save you later from making a mistake.
To sum up the tips:
1. Set Budget
2. Pick a style
3. Shop best price
4. Visualize in space
And don't forget the details like which ones you want on a remote, which ones you want dimmable, and talk to electrician about where all the recessed lights will go. Just like you layer clothes on when you are cold, lighting should be layered. In most of my rooms I will have a main ceiling light, recessed lighting, and a lamp or two which should create ambient, task, and accent lighting. The perfect combination!
Hope this helps!!
Comments