May 18, 2016 Key Lighting Trends for Million Dollar Homes

Lighting has no limits in million dollar homes. Not only can it be used to illuminate, highlight and set the mood of a room, it can actually radically change the character of a home when used effectively as part of most luxury house plans.

Some lighting is more suited to certain rooms than others, so here is a quick room by room guide to the current highlights of lighting.

Bathroom

In 2016, we have seen an increase in different lighting trends in the bathroom for custom designed homes. Many prestige home builders opt for statement chandeliers to enhance the luxury of the bathroom.

So you do your makeup in front of an oversized mirror—women don’t shy away! Antique sconces are a charming way to brighten up the bathroom and provide the perfect amount of ‘makeup lighting’ when placed just above the oversized mirror. They are mostly available in brown, gold and bronze colours however; there are some modern sconces in silver.

Bathrooms can sometimes seem mundane when there are many straight lines, a great choice for your luxury home designs would be to add large rounded Edison lights to soften the edgy space.

Bedroom

Bedside table lamps are a must in custom designed homes. As a rule of thumb, your side lamp height should be tall enough to light up the pages of your book when you are sitting in bed.

A common debate for bedroom lighting in million dollar homes is whether to go with lamps or down lights directly above the bed. Why not have both? The two types of lighting complement each other and ensure that you have just the right amount of lighting depending on how you feel.

Another great tip with down lighting in the bedroom is to have them individually wired to a dimmer switch.

Hallway

The hallway doesn’t necessarily have top-of-mind status when you think about your luxury house plans. Yet there are many simple additions that don’t detract from the rest of the house and provide ample lighting.

Your hallway may be lined with wonderful paintings, side tables and vases. A great way to illuminate these walls is to use ‘wall washing’ that ultimately aims to highlight the objects lining your walls. When attempting wall washing it is best to install lights about half a metre away from the wall.

Living room

Maintaining the correct lighting in the living room in your luxury home design is important. Lighting in the living room can give you that added punch of style.

Chandeliers are the most common and traditional form of lighting for the living room. They provide a main source of lighting when positioned over a seating area and establish the ambience of the room. Chandeliers come in all sorts of sculptural shapes which aim to fill the area and excess space, from the ceiling to living space.

Floor lamps are handy to have near couches or seats, especially for evenings; they make it easier to read and provide a hint of light when watching TV.

Make sure the area is well lit with natural light for the daytime.

Kitchen

The key to a perfect kitchen is a well-lit work area. It is a safety essential and you want to be able to see all of your ingredients even when darkness falls. As with the bedroom, one thing that is trending at the moment is to layer your lighting. To do this you can use a variety of ambient, accent, and decorative lighting. Of course during the day lighting won’t be as much of a problem so natural light is important for your work area.

Recently, there has been a rise in pendant lighting above the island bench as the main source of lighting for food preparation. Recessed lights should also be included in your luxury home plan for general lighting in the kitchen as smaller decorative lighting won’t be enough.

Outdoor

To brighten up your front yard at night it might work well to consider spotlighting a feature tree or fountain.

Also popular and practical for million dollar homes are singular evenly spaced lights on each step leading to the house, making sure every step is illuminated.

Lighting up the literal outside of your home is an extravagant touch. Evenly spaced spotlights surrounding your home make a statement– great for when you have people coming over or are the host of an extravagant party.