What follows below are screenshots from my house SketchUp and ideas I had for lighting the various places in the house. I sent these to a lighting designer I contracted with through UpWork, named Diane Borys. Her firm is called Noctiluca Lighting Design. She provided really good advice. It was money well-spent. I'll include her comments and drawings here.
A quick note. I'm using Philips Hue lights as an example here because I'm very interested in automating the intensity and color temperature of the lights throughout the day. It does not have to be Philips Hue though.
Translucent Panels
The key architectural feature of the house is the translucent front wall of the house. The photo on the right is an inspiration shot.
I like these for the daylight interior lighting it will provide but also the night-time look of it when lit from within. What we do in the areas below will obviously affect how this is illuminated at night, so I am including the piece first as one thing to keep in mind.
Kitchen Lighting
I was thinking in the kitchen to have recessed lighting over the kitchen cabinets. There will be an island in front of the sink that is not entirely clear from the screenshot below. I was thinking of hanging a Philips Hue Hanging light over the island.
Living Area
This is a small house. Only about 950 square feet. The living area is right in front of the kitchen. The screenshot below on the left is if you turned to your left slightly from the kitchen view above. I was thinking of another hanging light there, similar to the one above the island. Again, it doesn't have to be this fixture.
The screenshot below is if you turned all the way to the right from the shot above. That space above the sliding glass doors will be a good place to display some art of some type. I was thinking about building some type of enclosure above the sliding glass doors to hide lighting shining up to illuminate this space.
Bedroom Wall Above Kitchen
This shot below is looking towards the kitchen again but up towards the upstairs bedroom. This bedroom wall is translucent plastic as well, that should be able to have a nice glow. I don't know what to do about lighting on the outside of this bedroom.
Upstairs Bedroom
Since we are looking at that bedroom, here is a screenshot of the bedroom. I'm looking for ideas here. One thought I had is using the top of the ceiling to do something like the idea on photo on the right.
Some thoughts and comments:
- There is an outline where the bed will go.
- I'm not sure how much light the example photo above actually gives out.
- The bedroom screenshot above is if we just walked in the door. Our backs are to the translucent bedroom door. Not sure how to provide some illumination there.
Downstairs Bedroom
No ideas here. We can build a ledge behind the bed to shine lights down (or up). The window placement above the bed is not set in stone. It can be removed if it's better.
Bathroom
The inspiration shot is on the right. Should this be tiny recessed lighting?
Screened Porch
The shot below is the screened porch looking into the living area. You can see the translucent panels to the front. The ceilings are quite high here; 20 ft. Should we echo the type of lighting used in the living room (eg: two hanging lights)?
Wrap-around Porch
The shot below is if we kept backing up to where we are out of the house and looking towards the screened porch. Any ideas on how to light the porch areas? The roof is 20 ft here as well. The white beams going across are just beams - not ceilings.
Diane's Suggestions
Diane gave me a couple of different options to choose from. She started with the idea I was kicking around of using hanging, 'pendant' lights, shown above from Philips. I was going to hang these too low. There were other amateur mistakes I was going to make without her help. As I had it, they would have added some glare and created some unneeded shadows.
Her second suggestion were small can lights, with wide distribution lenses. One of the most beneficial things for me was the consistency of light placement that she mapped out. I probably would not have arranged them this thoughtfully. Nor would I have placed them as close to the translucent wall as she suggested. That is going to make for a much nicer glow at night.
Another thing that was helpful was her recommendations on how to achieve the ceiling wash idea from the upstairs bedroom section above. I was going to put in only in the upstairs bedroom but she suggested doing it throughout the house. I think that will be a very nice addition.
I'm really excited about the lighting thanks to Diane.