I have outlined my residential projects for 2021 and Kitchen Lighting was one of the projects I was most excited about.
I have spent some time on this project – more time than required for two light fixtures.
Even though selecting lights is intuitive for me and I knew a lot about lighting before I even went to Design School I couldn’t stop myself from indulging in this project.
I am excited about lighting and love how this industry is constantly evolving. I have found a new supplier for lighting – Maple Ridge Lighting. MPL are able to source the products I want and they are centrally located. Win / win.
I did a quick sketch and recorded measurements of my kitchen and table area. This drawing is not to be shared – chicken scratches I tell you.
But I wanted to illustrate the process that I normally intuitively calculate, so I did a proper hand drawing of the top and side view of the two surfaces that I will be placing fixtures over.
Oops, you can see my chicken scratch/measurements at the top of this pic. Oh never mind them…
Next, this is a picture of my kitchen lighting currently. Hereon it will be “BEFORE”.
And here’s where I spent a lot of time building out my kitchen in my latest version of CADSOFT 15:
This picture is a good example of what the Software can do to illustrate a space. It is close to the real picture.
Where the Software falls short:
I couldn’t find my light fixtures exactly and had to find something similar in 3D Warehouse.
In the digital sketch - the glass shades over the Island are cream and the shades over the table are white. As you can see in the real picture my kitchen glass shades are the same, cream. I couldn’t change the colour in my digital drawing.
There are other details that bothered me but I wont mention, except the tiles…I couldn’t find my brown stacked kitchen tiles. I could find the small mosaic tiles (over the stove) but they looked horrible placed next to the main tile. Had to omit the mosaic and go with what I could.
The Design Style for my Great Room was Traditional but I am moving it towards Transitional Style. The light fixtures are a big impact item that can make this space feel current. I did just replace the portable lighting in my lounge area and posted about those lights in 2020.
Refresher on design terms:
Transitional Style is defined as Traditional and Modern.
Traditional lines are curvy.
Modern lines are straight.
Traditional colour schemes are red, green & gold.
Modern colour schemes black and (insert your favourite colour).
I had a lot of red. Let me tell you. My exterior house colour is RED. My kitchen Island was red. My accent kitchenware is red. But I am moving to Blue. I repainted my kitchen Island and posted about it here.
I have a beige colour scheme that is really on the warm side so it reads gold. I also have some green in my home. The dining room colour is Nantucket Gray. My bathroom is a dark olive green. I was definitely doing the Traditional Colour Scheme.
I am keeping the beige/gold colour, introducing blue because blue and yellow are complementary colours. But I must be mindful that I am transitioning and so the new fixtures must have a modern element to it.
Now that I have my measurements and design direction, its off to Research the perfect fixtures.
Pamela
Sources:#plbinteriors