Let There be Strip Lights

We’ve spent the last week trying to produce an image of what our living room might look like at night with all the lights on. After setting up our 3D model and hitting the render button on Tuesday night, we went to sleep expecting the thing to be finished by the morning. Seven hours later, the damn thing was only 20% complete.  We knew renders with multiple light sources took a long time, but we weren’t expecting this!

Time for a new plan.  To convey the idea of what we’re thinking in terms of lighting, we’ll go with these images from one of our favorite UK architects, John Pawson.  This master of minimalism achieves some great effects without clutter.

In a similar vein, we plan to embed lights (in our case, LED strip and fluorescent tube lights) along ventilation gaps between our walls and ceilings.  Like the images above, we are aiming for subtle lines of overhead light.  Combined with floor lights cut out of the base of our walls and more light hidden strategically behind various shelves and furniture, we should have sufficient ambient lighting to guide you comfortably through the house.

To achieve this we project that we will install nearly 200 feet of LED and fluorescent lights.  The benefits here are many.  By hiding our primary source of ambient light, we don’t need to buy expensive bulbs or fret over the aesthetics of fixtures (which in our case tends to swing us toward very expensive units).  The embedded lights will also provide even lighting throughout, allowing us to avoid the harsh spots that come with overhead halogen cans.

And finally, LED and fluorescent lights are up to 10 times as energy efficient, leading to significant cost savings on our electric bills.  They also emit far less heat than halogens and incandescents.  Given the climate here, not having to put a dozen “halogen heaters” into each room will lower our AC bills and make living more comfortable.