Ambient Lighting is the First Step in Home Illumination

Lighting is essential for function and utility in your home. But badly designed lighting will detract, while well-designed lighting can make even a mundane home dramatic. Your Park City, UT home is anything but ordinary, so imagine what it would look like with a great lighting plan. 

This month, we'll focus our blogs on how you can improve your home with the power of light. From good lighting design to home lighting control, the right light, properly applied and managed, can transform the way you live and enjoy your spaces. In the first of this three-part series, we'll discuss the latest options for ambient lighting, the first leg of the lighting design tripod. Ready to learn more? Please keep reading below!

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What is Ambient Lighting? 

Ambient lighting is what provides functional and general-purpose illumination in a room or space. For example, in the hallway, it's the overhead light that helps you navigate, but not the lights that might highlight your artwork and photographs. In the kitchen, it's the general light overhead, but not your under-counter lights. 

Today, the best solution for ambient lighting is LED technology. It’s 80% more efficient than incandescent, 20% more efficient than CFL, and far more long-lasting than either of those older technologies. Further, LED technology has allowed for more flexible and compact fixture designs, with more creative opportunities for installing lighting. 

If you are looking to retrofit your existing lighting, leading LED lighting companies like DMF are an excellent choice. They make a variety of downlights that fit into existing can soffits and wiring. One important feature to look for in LED lighting is warm dimming, which is the ability to dim to the range and color temperature of candlelight. Excellent dimming enables you to transform your space from a high-energy, brightly-lit zone to a relaxing, calming one at the touch of a button. Color-capable tunable lighting like Lutron’s Ketra brings an entirely new dimension to ambient lighting, adding dynamic color and color temperature control for both wellness and aesthetics. 

Other types of ambient lighting include pendants over kitchen islands and chandeliers in entryways and dining rooms. These are often combined with additional lighting like task and accent lighting, the other two legs of great lighting design, to create layered lighting that is the ultimate in form and function. 

Controlling Light

No matter how capable and beautiful your ambient lighting, it must be precisely controlled. You could have many dimmers and switches, but automated lighting control is key to achieving that layered lighting look that puts the crowning touch on your spaces. With a lighting control system from Lutron or Control4, you can set up the perfect levels and combination of lighting for any activity in every room of your house. Imagine a setting for cooking in a brightly lit kitchen, one for dining, and another for entertaining guests, all done with one touch on a keypad or touchscreen. Your home, perfectly illuminated!

 

At Show & Tell AV Solutions, we provide cutting-edge technology that enhances our clients’ everyday lives. Keep an eye on this space for more on lighting design and control. If you want to get started with better lighting right now, contact Show & Tell AV Solutions today!