Mock It Up

It has been almost 12 years since we built our house and moved in. Recently we have been reevaluating our lighting choices throughout the house -most specifically in the main living area. We have a lot of halogen cans. A lot.

Halogen cans suck energy, and as I posted about recently, I have grown to dislike the way they look aesthetically. I still feel that cans which act as wall washers are fine, but I think the ceiling plane looks better uninterrupted by a smattering of cans, not to mention that the downward light they cast isn't all that cozy.

Also in this equation and part of the conversation is that the main room is in need of paint -everywhere. This is a perfect time to change lighting if it is going to happen. 

Lighting is tricky so we asked the architect who designed our house to guide us in some decisions.  I'm so glad we did this because the whole lumens thing is quite complicated and I'm glad to have someone advising who knows what the fuck they are doing.

Anyway, bla bla bla. We narrowed down what some of the options might be from the manufacturer that we liked. Next step, the safest bet to make, is to mock up the design just to get an idea of how the space is going to look with said lights. When I was in design school, I always rolled my eyes when my adviser suggested doing a full scale mock up. (What a pain! I had so little time to complete the assignment as it was). And yes, a computer rendering can be done but there is nothing like being able to walk around and observe objects in space in real life.

Mocking up in cardboard and gaffer tape is actually quite easy. It took me only a couple of hours to make three "lights" and hang them in the room. 

As expected, the exercise was quite informative. I am pleased with the proportion of fixtures over the island. 

I completely guessed at the hanging height. That will be determined by the spread of the beam (which as I mentioned the architect who knows what he's doing) will determine. 

The wall above the stove and the galley between the island and stove still requires more light. The second fixture I find to look crowded. I feel that hanging anything from the ceiling here will look awkward. So now I'm thinking some sort of articulated sconce on the wall above the shelf might be a solution. And it must be a LED, and have the same "utilitarian" vibe as the rest of the kitchen. The search goes on.