Will you be starting a personal renovation project soon? Renovating your home can be made easier especially if you hire professionals for the design phase and the construction itself. Although it is advised to acquire the services of an interior designer and a licensed contractor, it is understandable if you opt not to especially if there are budget constraints. But even if you do have the capacity to hire these professionals, it is still highly recommended for you to be active and take part in the process.
Illumination plays a very important role in the interior design of your home and it is one aspect that you should involve yourself in. Choosing the right lightings when renovating may actually be more complex than when you’re constructing a new home. This is why it is a great idea to engage yourself when planning for lightings. After all, you’re the one who will be using the space so it must not only live to your standards but it must also cater your daily life requirements. If you want proper guidance on how to plan for lightings prior to renovation, continue reading.
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Importance of Planning Lightings Pre-Renovation
Before we dive into the details, let us first establish why it is important to plan lightings pre-renovation.
First, be wary of one of the common mistakes in construction – lack of anticipation especially on provisions for electrical devices. Imagine your home is already 95% finished with floorings and ceilings installed and everything painted. Then just as you were about to install your lighting fixture, you realize that the wiring is not on the right location. You’re then left with only three choices – first is to demolish, re-wire, and re-do finishes; second is to use exposed electrical moldings so you won’t have to destroy anything, or finally, just accept that your initial plan will not come to fruition. Neither of these choices are fine hence it is imperative to have proper planning before executing.
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Second, it’s exemplified by the saying “a goal without a plan is just a wish”. In this context, it means that planning will give direction to your lighting and without it, you’ll find it hard to produce desirable results or any outcome at all.
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Third, especially with renovation, you may not have the luxury to re-do everything. In this case, there could be issues when it comes to budget or there may be restrictions within the community or the building management. For example, you may want to install cove lightings in your living room but there is no more available power supply for additional lighting. With proper planning pre-renovation, you’ll be able to realize even just at the start that another form of accent lighting should be placed instead of forcing cove lighting. Maybe there are power supply on the walls, then you may add a wall lamp instead of cove lighting.
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There are many more reasons why it is important to have proper planning for lightings but hopefully these three will suffice to convince you to conduct proper planning pre-renovation.
How to Plan Your Lighting Pre-renovation
Draft a Floor Plan
If you have a design professional, then it’s expected that you already have a floor plan. If not, sketch your home particularly the actual site condition. It may be best to rescale in size when drawing the interior of your home through a graphing paper. You may use a scale of 1:50, meaning every 1 centimeter or inch of your floor plan represents 50 centimeters or inches in reality.
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Indicate Immovable Items
It is important to indicate fixtures that are immovable. This includes windows, doors, exposed columns, fireplaces, stairs, and partition walls. If you are bound to remove a dry wall, then don’t draw it on your floor plan anymore.
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Indicate Your Furniture
Oftentimes, your furniture and its respective location will dictate the location of your lighting fixtures. It’s important to mark it correctly in your floor plan. Try to mimic the shape and size of the furniture so you have proper idea on the available space you have in your room. Furniture such as sofa, kitchen cabinets, kitchen islands, dining set, beds, cabinets, and the like should be indicated. If you already have decors in mind, it’s also highly suggested to indicate it already. Perhaps you want to add displays on glass cabinets or special artworks that you need to be highlighted, indicate it on your floor plan.
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Consider the Function of Each Room
It is important that as early as the planning stage, you already know the function of each room in your home. Will the living room be for watching television or simply just to entertain guests? Is the bedroom solely for sleeping or will you do overtime work or late night studies inside? Ask some more questions like this which will help you identify the right lighting fixtures for each room and its respective placement.
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Pinpoint Locations for Lighting Fixtures
With furniture, other fixtures, and the function of each room in mind, you may now indicate the exact location of your lighting fixtures. It is important to have sufficient knowledge on lighting and its importance. Read more here.
In general, you want to add general lighting otherwise known as ambient lighting. It is expected to be the main source of light for your space. The usual lighting fixtures used for general lighting include ceiling lights, hanging lamps and pendant lamps.
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Next, you may want to add task lighting. This is why the functions of each room were asked to be specified previously. Tasks such as studying, working, reading, food preparations and the like will be better with task lighting provided. Pendant lights, wall lamps, and track lights are used commonly for task lighting.
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Next, add additional lighting that will beautify your home more. Not only should it make your space look warm and nice, it should also add lighting to your home to make it brighter. This is called accent lighting and it usually separates a livable home from a great home. Under cabinet lights, wall lamps, recessed lights and linear lamps are the most common lighting fixtures used for accent lighting.
Image Credit: Renonation, Jesigns Interior Design
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Other Lighting Techniques to Take Note of During Planning Prior to Renovation
Cove Ceiling or Tray Ceiling
It has been emphasized previously that even at an early stage, the expected look of the home should already be finalized. You do not want to do back jobs or demolish anything you have already installed. It is both costly and inefficient. You may want to consider installing cove ceiling or tray ceiling and it should be noted as early as the planning stages. This can make your home look basic but classy, simple but sophisticated, and just special in general. It’s hard to explain what these types of ceilings can bright to the table but it is assured to make your home nicer if planned and done right.
Image Credit: Qanvast, Metamorph Design
The ceiling itself is already a design but installing cove lighting or recessed lighting will bring your home to another level.
Under Cabinet Lights
Under cabinet lighting can also elevate your home and you can do it in the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the bedroom, well practically in every part of your home. It’s important to take note of this during the planning stage since the construction of your cabinets will slightly be different should you opt for this technique. Trust me, it will be a hassle if you decide you want under cabinet lighting when your cabinets are already fabricated more so assembled already. Basically, you want to hide the lighting fixture for under cabinet lights so you want to conceal it and your construction professional or worker knows how to do this.
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Maximizing Natural Lighting
Anyone wants something free and natural lighting is the only free light you can get. You may want to maximize it especially in your living room and bedroom. If you have big window openings, use it to your advantage and install curtains or blinds that are flexible enough to allow light to pass through if you want to.
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Natural lighting it also a must for your laundry area especially if you are living in a HDB or a condominium with no outdoor space or lack thereof. it’s essential for wet areas like the laundry because bacteria tends to grow in spaces where you use lots of water.
Pendant Lights for Nightstands
You often see pendant lights used for the kitchen island and dining tables. But you may also use it in the bedroom as a nightstand lamp. Not only is it space saving but it is also stylish and unique. It has the ability to transform your bedroom and provide better ambiance.
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Conclusion:
There are many more steps in planning that can help you in your renovation that were not mentioned in this reading. There are also other techniques that you can use. Truly, sky is the limit when it comes to renovation. But the most important thing is that you do proper planning pre-renovation instead of doing things on the fly. Understanding its importance and taking note of the things aforementioned will no doubt help you in your renovation project. Always remember what American Scientist Benjamin Franklin said, “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Good luck!
