Archive for the ‘Home Remodeling’ Category
Friday, July 10th, 2009
by Tom Sanderrs
Your bathroom does not just need to be a place to shave and bathe. You can add excitement to this room and make it a fun place to be. Gone are the days when bathrooms were just equipped with a bright ceiling light and maybe a task light over the mirror. Now there are all sorts of different lighting fixtures available to dress up your bathroom.
Good task lighting for your bathroom is a must. Lighting around the mirror will be your priority concern. Try not to install ceiling lights straight above the mirror, because it will cast shadows. It would be wise to place vertical lights on either side of the mirror. Ensure that they give adequate light. You cannot go wrong with LED light bars or decorative lamps. Overhead lighting above the mirror can be done but is not as good. This type of illumination needs specific measurements; 80″ from the floor ands 2ft long.
Brighten up your shower with some recessed lighting. It is wise to use glass protection covers rather than cheaper plastic as the plastic will discolor over time. Decorative tiles can be highlighted by angled lighting. You can also brighten up your toilet area.
Different colors can be used for accent and ambient lighting; this will add drama to your bathroom. A relaxing mood can be created in this way. An example of a relaxing color is blue. For a more intimate atmosphere pink or yellow can be used.
Underwater lighting with different colors can be utilized for your spar or Jacuzzi tub. The light will filter through the water and add excitement to your spar experience. Changing colors are fun also red and blue colors are popular.
An exciting trend in bathrooms is to decorate this room in a Japanese style. For lighting this means that you will try to mimic illumination filtered through paper. You can do this by putting lights behind paper panels. This will give a special diffuse illumination in the bathroom. This type of light is very calming and helps you to feel relaxed.
A hanging lamp will also help to create a Japanese atmosphere. You can get a white paper shade to create diffuse illumination. A shoji lamp is one that is made of wood covered with rice paper. You can put this in a corner of your bathroom, for an authentic oriental look, that will make your bathroom unique and personal.
There are numerous ways to add excitement to your bathroom. There are now many more options than plain ceiling lights and a few task lights. With a little thought and imagination you can transform your bathroom into a fun and wonderful place. Why not make your bathroom fun, as you will be spending the beginning and end of the day here.
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Friday, July 10th, 2009
by Tom Sanderrs
Task lighting is simply good quality lighting that adequately illuminates a work area so you can see what you are doing. In a home, task lighting can be particularly useful in kitchens, bathrooms, home offices, garages, workshops, and even in living rooms and bedrooms. Anywhere you will be working on a task that requires good lighting, you should consider installing proper task lighting.
When you think of task lighting, large commercial fluorescent light panels with the long narrow bulbs immediately come to mind. But task lighting need not always be wall or ceiling mount lights or light fixtures. Sometimes task lighting is better provided by a specific style of lamp or a flexible system of lights. And task lighting, though predominantly functional, need not be unattractive or clinical in appearance. There are a wide variety of stylish options available to provide aesthetic appeal as well as utility-in materials ranging from bamboo and wood to glass and copper-and everything in between that will fit every style of home.
For kitchens you can purchase task lighting in the form of fixtures that are mounted under the kitchen cupboards. This way the countertops are well lit. However for other areas such as the sink, stove or island you can choose to install recessed or track lighting to provide adequate illumination. Another place where task lighting comes in handy is over eating tables in the kitchen, as well as dining room. These are often places where people also do work, such as writing or paying bills.
Generally, task lighting in the bathroom is installed above or on the sides of the mirror. This placement helps to assist you when it comes to grooming or the putting on of make-up or even shaving. One way it could be done is with attractive wall sconces or a strip fixture which is mounted horizontally over the mirror. Also liked by many people is a ceiling light fixture. These can be located in the center of the room or over a shower, bathtub or whirlpool. If there is sufficient ceiling height, a pendant light fixture or chandelier might be an option that helps you to create a spa-like experience.
In the home office, craft room or workshop of your home it is of utmost importance to have the right lighting since the activities that take place in these rooms, such as sewing or reading, require a lot of light. Having the proper lighting alleviate eyestrain and as a good safety precaution, especially working with power tools, it is necessary to have adequate task lighting in the room. Adequate lighting is important to have directly above the area where the work takes place, even if the room seems well lit from a chandelier or other overhead light fixture. Monorail lighting or track lighting is often ideal since it can be moved or angled and that way the light will shine where it is needed most.
If you have a garage and utilize it for work benches or work on your vehicles here, then it is essential to have task lighting located over the places where work is done. In garages people often use overhead lighting, floodlights or utility lights that can easily be hung from a small hook right above what you are working on, such as a car engine.
It often happens that activities such as reading, homework and other hobbies are done in the living or bedroom. That is why it is necessary to have the right task lighting installed and that can come in the form of a side lamp on a night table, table lamp, floor lamp, sconces on either side of the bed, wall mounted reading lamp with a flexible arm or even clip-on lights.
Whether you are typing, sewing, painting, welding, cooking, reading, writing, or building a birdhouse, proper task lighting is essential for safety and comfort. Ergonomics in the workplace dictate that employers provide proper lighting, but in your home, it’s up to you to take the initiative! And with so many attractive lighting options available today, you’ll enjoy “decorating” your home with beautiful and functional task lighting.
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Monday, July 6th, 2009
by Jane A Moore
Closet storage can be a nightmare if it is disorganized. Nothing is worse than running out the door and being unable to find your gloves or umbrella. Worse yet is having a fear of even opening the closet and causing a time wasting avalanche. Your life is much easy when you know where your belongings are and they are easy to access. Also your house is easier to clean up when you have a special place for everything. Carefully thought out closet storage systems can be a happy addition to your house.
Even your junk closet needs a bit of organization. There are cheap and easy ways to organize a closet. One of the simplest and most inexpensive ways is to buy some easy to assemble plastic stacking shelves and some transparent plastic bins. Make sure the bins are 2 inches less in height than the height space of the shelves otherwise it will be a sticky fit. Put a 3×5 sticker on the end of each bin and make note of the contents.
You can save even more money by putting together some sort of stacking or shelving system with found or recycled objects. A popular option for shelving is finding or buying cheap shelves, and using bricks or blocks to stack them together. You might even have everything on hand left over from the last renovation you did. Just make sure to wash any found items well, and you might even think about giving the shelves and/or stacking blocks a coat of paint to brighten them up.
Another really simple and cost effective organizer solution is to use hooks for as many items as can easily be hung. You can find double hooks, and even clothes rack style hooks very inexpensively. All sorts of things that you typically find in closets can be hung up, and if you have a bunch of related things that just seem to go all over the place, consider finding a cloth shopping bag, or mesh bag to collect related items and get them out of the way by hanging them up.
Another cost free way to arrange closet storage is to examine the actual stuff that is stored in the closet. For the best organization closets’ should be homogenized. That means the stuff should more or less the same and accessed at the same rate. A coat that is used every day should not be stored with a tennis racket that is never used or Christmas decorations that are pulled out once per year. If you don’t use something throw it out. If you use it once or twice per year, store it in a closet with other items used with the same frequency.
With all the shows about life organizing and closet makeovers, it’s easy to think that you need to go out and buy extensive and expensive organizers and organizing gadgets. This is not really necessary, and you can end up saving a lot of money by just thinking about innovative ways to create cheap closet organizers.
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Monday, July 6th, 2009
by Tom Sanderrs
The kitchen is one of the busiest places in the house. Not only is food prepared here, many families also eat in the kitchen. This calls for several variations of lighting to accommodate these activities.
The type of illumination you may require will be dependent on the size of your kitchen. If you have a smaller kitchen you may only need a ceiling light with a few task lights over the sink and counters. However a larger kitchen will require different types of lighting.
A number of contemporary kitchens are bigger and even have islands. Overhead lighting will be required for this. The lighting will be multi task, in that it will highlight the island and illuminate the work space. Pendant lighting is a good alternative. Multiple lamps with shades will point the light downward. This will satisfy the need for decoration and task illumination.
For ambient or general illumination recessed ceiling lights are often used. They will spread an even glow over the room and allow you to have a good illumination to do most of your work in the kitchen.
If there is a dining area in the kitchen then a hanging light fixture can be used. Often these are multi lamp pendent fixtures. These will give extra illumination to the dining table and will also draw attention to this as a focal point in the kitchen. This can also work as a good task light for any work you want to do in this area.
Under the counter lighting can increase lighting for this area. Over the counter illumination will bounce off the ceiling and draw attention to it. You can use LED bars and track lighting for this type of lighting effect. Track lighting has the added advantage of being able to redirect the lamps to point the light towards the ceiling.
It is a good idea to seek some advice for lighting your kitchen as this is a tricky room to illuminate well. In order to concentrate on key areas it is a good thing to plan well. Professional lighting advisors can be found on the Internet.
Suggestions and picture galleries can be found at a number of lighting websites. You will get informative information and some creative new ideas when you look at these sites. Once you have a plan and some ideas for your kitchen you can then select what you need at your local lighting store. Sometimes you can get useful advice here.
A bigger well established store will offer you a better choice. Good advice is offered by their experienced sales personnel. Additionally they can assist you in finding a good installation service.
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Monday, July 6th, 2009
by Tom Sanderrs
Governments, as well as various environmental organizations encourage people to save energy due to the fact that the energy crisis is worldwide getting worse. Taking advantage of energy efficient light bulbs is one of the best and simplest ways to help save energy and do something good for the environment. As a bonus, using energy efficient light bulbs will not only save energy but also save you money.
All you have to do is change the light bulbs you use and replace them with energy efficient ones in order to reduce your electric bill by hundreds of dollars every year. There are many differences, though, between the various types of light bulbs and it is a fact that most people don’t know about this or how they can save money using them.
There are many types of lighting out there and it is important for you to know them. The lighting out there can actually be separated into three different types. The oldest and most commonly used in homes and offices is the incandescent lamps. These type of light bulbs are unquestionably the least efficient. The other two are discharge lamps and light-emitting diodes.
Discharge lamps are also a kind of lighting and are more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs. However, you must understand how they work since they make use of a glowing gas. Examples include fluorescent light bulbs and high-intensity discharge lamps.
Light-emitting diode light bulbs are the third kind, but are not often found in homes. Knowing that discharge lamps use glowing gas and incandescent lamps use a glowing filament is important, especially since the glowing gas is the much more energy efficient choice.
A deeper understanding of energy efficiency is still important, though. Consumers have to know and understand a product before making a purchase and this way they can save a lot of money in the long run. When it comes to light bulbs, the term luminous flux refers to the amount of light that is emitted from a lamp and this can guide you when making a purchase.
This is measured by lumens or lm. Approximately 700lm is emitted by a the common 60W incandescent light bulb. Then there is the 58W tubular fluorescent lamp which emits about 5000lm.Interestingly, these two light bulbs which cost about the same, emit significantly different quantities of light.
Another significant thing to understand is the word that is used when referring to lamp efficiency. Efficacy, is a term used when describing lamp efficiency. If you want to figure out what the efficacy is there is actually a formula that is used to accomplish that. The formula to do this is simply the ratio between the amount of light produced by a lamp and the amount of power that is needed to make that amount of light.
The best way to keep our electricity bills lower is by using light bulbs that are significantly more efficient. By using these light bulbs you will not only save money, but you will save energy which in turn then helps to save the environment.
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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
by Tom Sanderrs
Ambient lighting is found in many rooms, it is in fact the basic lighting. It will light up the entire room and is usually overhead lighting. It is fairly dull and is usually just white light. Different colors and LED lighting can be used to create a more exciting form of illumination. A wide variety of ceiling and overhead lights are available for this purpose.
If you want to save money you can use low energy illumination like fluorescent lighting. This will give a bright white light to the room. This type of lighting is often seen in bathrooms and kitchens.
Light bars are bright LED lights with very low energy consumption. They are not the usual run of overhead lighting but are good for different areas like hallways and entertainment centers. When placed in hallways they will give a bright illumination which makes the home brighter and more cheerful. Ambient lighting of this type that is placed in entrance hallways gives the visitor a nice upbeat feeling as they enter your home.
Can lighting or Recessed lighting creates a softer light and is nice for bedrooms and rooms you want to relax in. You can use a soft yellow color rather than the bright white ceiling illumination. This will create a more romantic atmosphere in the room. Alternatively you can use a dimmer to change the light from a bright working light to a softer calmer atmosphere.
Different ambient lighting can be created by using chandeliers and pendants. A reasonably big chandelier is needed for good ambient lighting. A room with a moderately high ceiling is nicely complimented by a chandelier’s many reflective pieces of glass. The whole room will be illuminated with a wonderful shining light. Modern day chandeliers are often less complex and consist of a smaller number of lamps. This is better for smaller rooms.
You can use pendant lighting for illuminating a room. A cozier warm atmosphere will be created by pendent lighting that reflects off the ceiling. This soft light is more romantic than white ceiling lights. Your room will look different and unique when you use pendent lighting fixtures.
You can play around with LED colored ambient lighting to create various atmospheres in a room. An entertainment area can be spiced up with light bars that are synchronized to music. Specific colors will create different moods in a room. You can try different colors to create various effects. Pink or yellow colors will give a romantic cozy feel to a bedroom or dining area. When you need less light a dimmer can be used.
There are many ways that ambient lighting can be used in your residence. You can use ambient lighting as a basic illumination and add other illumination to add character and atmosphere to a room. There are so many fun ways to experiment with lighting and it will make a surprising difference to your home.
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