Day: September 4, 2024

All the latest lighting looks from The Block 2024

April 08, 2024

Lighting sets the tone for any space. Downlights in particular provide a modern and flexible way to illuminate your home. Mandi, a seasoned Lighting Designer at Beacon Design Studio, brings her expertise from working in-studio and collaborating with teams on projects like Channel 9’s The Block. We sat down with her to gain insights into how to make the most of what downlights have to offer.

Finding the Right Brightness

According to Mandi, getting the brightness right is essential for creating the perfect atmosphere. “It’s not just about flooding a room with light,” she explains. “It’s about understanding the space and what kind of light it needs.” Mandi breaks down downlights into two main types: COBs (Chip on Board) and SMDs (Surface Mounted Diodes). COBs provide focused light, great for task-oriented areas, while SMDs offer a more diffused glow, perfect for general lighting.

For many, the challenge lies in realising that they may not need as much light as they think. When clients visit Beacon Design Studio seeking advice on downlight placements, the intent is to understand their specific needs and usage of the space, focusing on how bright they want the space, how big the space is, its intended use, existing artwork, and architectural details. It’s crucial to avoid over-lighting dead spaces and flooding the floor unnecessarily. Instead, the emphasis is on leveraging the reflective qualities of wall lighting. 

Placing Downlights with Purpose

Downlights can enhance any room, but it’s all about how you use them. “From bedrooms to hallways, downlights can work wonders,” she says. She emphasises the importance of thoughtful placement to maximise functionality and ambience without overwhelming the space.

In bedrooms, placing downlights towards the end of the bed ensures general lighting without flooding the face with uncomfortable brightness, fostering a more relaxing atmosphere.

In living rooms, downlights can provide a dual function. Their main purpose is to provide general lighting, flooding a room with bright light. But downlights can also be used to illuminate and highlight artwork, enhancing the space’s aesthetic appeal. 

In hallways, directing the light onto walls can make the space appear larger by creating a reflective effect. It’s important to focus on lighting the walls rather than the floor for optimal results.

In bathrooms, downlights should be used for general lighting only. Placing them above a mirror may cast unwanted shadows for makeup application. But there is one exception to the rule; directing the downlight into the mirror. Using a gimbaled downlight such as the City III gimbal you can eliminate shadows by reflecting light back, making applying makeup and shaving a much easier task.

Pantry lighting can be tricky due to shelves. Adjustable downlights like the MFL Titans allow for precise placement to avoid odd shadows and facilitate finding items at the back.

For exterior lighting, flooding the area with light is unnecessary. Placing lights beneath the eaves or near the door is sufficient.

Choosing the Right Colour Temperature

Colour temperature plays a big role in setting the mood of a space. Mandi leans towards warm lighting for comfort and relaxation, avoiding bright white tones that may give a clinical feel. While people are often advised when lighting offices, studies, bathrooms, and kitchens to use cool light, warm white can also work well in these areas. However, the key consideration is the number of downlights used in the space and how they are utilised.

Embracing Smart Technology

Smart downlights are an underutilised technology, despite their practicality and convenience in homes. Once installed, you can use an app on your phone to create “scenes”, such as soft, gentle light for movie nights to zoned lighting for when you’re cleaning up after dinner. You can switch between colour temperatures, turn your lights on and off when you’re not home to give the appearance of an occupied home; you can even use your downlights in place of an alarm clock, setting them to slowly turn on in the morning. They’re not just about aesthetics; they can simplify your daily routine.

Beacon Design Studio: Your Lighting Solution

The Beacon Design Studio is all about making lighting design easy and accessible. “Whether you’re renovating your home or starting from scratch, we’re here to help,” Mandi says. From initial consultations to full lighting plans, Beacon Design Studio has you covered.

Downlights are more than just fixtures – they’re tools for creating the perfect ambience in any space. 

Although often overlooked, strip lighting is a flexible and customisable way to add a warm glow, especially in places where traditional light globes can’t fit. We’re sharing 15 of our favourite ways to use strip lighting to brighten your home.

November 04, 2019

You possibly have already mastered the technique of using pendants, table lamps, floor lamps, downlights and track lights to illuminate your home. But there’s one more source of light your home will be happy to have, and that’s LED strip lighting. Modest in appearance and gentle in light intensity, it discreetly adds a layer of luxury to your home while also being super functional.

LED strip lights are thin, flexible and customisable which means they can practically fit anywhere, especially in places where traditional light globes can’t, like under the bed or behind shelves. So, no more wondering what’s going on in those dark corners!

To help you get started, we’re sharing 15 of our favourite ways to use strip lighting to brighten different areas of your home.

Strip lighting is always welcome in the kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of your home where most of the living happens – cooking meals, packing lunch boxes, entertaining guests, and even doing paperwork or finishing off that office presentation. As such, appropriate lighting is crucial. Strip lighting gives you an extra layer of flexibility in this high traffic space. Some clever places to consider placing your new strip lighting include: 

1. Under cabinets, above splash backs

While pendants, downlights and track lights provide good overall visibility, adding LED strip lights to the undersides of your overhead cabinetry softly illuminates work tops so that you can safely prepare meals and accurately read recipes.

2. Inside cabinets

Use it on shelves inside dark cabinets and pantries to make it easier to look for the ingredients you need.

3. On open shelves

If you have open shelves, use strip lighting to showcase your favourite cook books, collectibles, glassware, dinnerware or artwork.

4. Kitchen island and kickers

When you place strip lights in the recess between your kitchen island and floor, you can create a glamourous floating effect. Functionally, when you combine this with strips around kitchen kickers, it helps light up a pathway for enhanced safety.

Turn your bathroom into a spa with strip lighting

When you’re enjoying some much deserved ‘me time’, clever placement of strip lighting can create an ambience that helps you relax. Ideal places to add strip lighting include: 

5. Under vanities and behind mirrors

Backlight your mirror or light up the underside of your floating vanity to give your ensuite a glowing, luxurious vibe.

6. Around bathtubs

Wash your stress away as you bask in the calming ambience created by soft lighting around the bottom of your bathtub. (We know you want this in your bathroom right now!)

Pro tip: make sure your strip lights are rated IP65 for use in possibile splash zones if placing near your tub. 

Wind down with strip lighting in your bedroom

Your bedroom is your sanctuary after a long day and strip lighting works wonders to create a soothing, happy environment. Although you may not have thought to add lighting in some of these areas, we can promise you won’t regret some strategically placed strip lighting: 

7. Under beds and behind bed-heads

Besides making sure you can see any monster lurking under your bed or easily locate that missing shoe, strip lighting under your bed can help you find your way during the night without waking up your family. When used behind the bed-head, it creates a great ambience as well as doubles up as a reading light.

8. Above feature walls or in ceiling cornices

If you have a feature wall or intricate patterns on your ceiling cornices that you’d like to highlight, strip lighting can do the job.

9. In wardrobes

Whether it’s a built-in robe or walk-in wardrobe, strip lighting make getting dressed classy. Also, it’s super easy to find what you’re looking for when you can see it clearly. 

Pro tip: Consider installing sensors with your strip lighting for those times you need to turn on the lights hands-free. 

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Add comfort to your other living spaces by including strip lighting

Although strip lighting is not often thought of for spaces like the living room, this can also be a wonderful place to add strip lighting. Whether you’re watching TV, curling up with a good book or entertaining, you want this room to have a warm, welcoming feel and be able to impress anyone who walks in. Consider strip lighting for: 

10. Ceiling covings or cornices

Strip lighting works perfectly to highlight architectural details in the ceiling and creates a luxe layer of light in your living space. 

11. Stairways

Design a stairway to heaven (or at least to your rooms upstairs) by adding LED strips under the steps or below the railing. It’s a great idea for finding your way at night without turning on the main overhead lights. 

12. Under furniture

If you want to take the strip lighting fun a bit further, use it to illuminate your sofas and armchairs or perhaps the underside of your table for that great party effect. 

13. Behind or around picture frames

Let your memories glow by adding LED strips to your photo frames. Any artwork or paintings can also enjoy the limelight with their own strips. 

Make your outdoor area magical with strip lighting

Your garden and alfresco areas don’t always get the love they deserve. Although you won’t see strip lighting in these outdoor spaces during the day, at night when they’re turned on, magic happens. Think of adding strip lighting to: 

14. Step treads, pathways and railings

Linger longer in your backyard and enjoy the outdoors at night with strip lighting that creates an irresistible ambience. Use it to highlight steps, deck railings or your rear verandah.

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15. Awnings or backyard verandah roofs

Get creative! Use strip lights around the awning or roof of your verandah, balcony or even around your sun umbrellas and outdoor furniture. (Just, please stop when you reach your neighbour’s yard.)

Pro tip: Really set the mood with our colour changing Lucci Connect Gecko smart strip lighting. Rated IP65, they’re ideal for outdoor areas exposed to water or dust. 

Now all that’s left is to choose your strip lighting!

With so many options for where to use strip lighting, it’s time to choose the ones that fit your lifestyle. Our new architecturally-inspired Masson For Light custom LED strip lighting range is highly versatile and can be customised for any space in your home. It’s also IP65 rated for use in outdoor and wet areas.

Or if you want even more flexibility, you might prefer smart strip lighting from our LIFX range. Simply download the app, connect to WiFi and you’re ready to go. You can control the lights individually or as groups, set timers, adjust brightness to suit your mood and time of day, change colours and create lighting patterns.

Once you have selected your strip lighting, you can choose to have it surface mounted or recessed depending on the location and the effect you want to create.

Need help deciding on your strip lighting? 

If it all sounds too complicated, let the experts handle it for you. Visit any of our stores or book a personal consultation at our Lighting store and one of our accredited lighting designers will help you create the perfect lighting plan for you and your home.