How Illuminating – LED Lighting

Over the past decade, the improved quality of LED lighting has allowed homeowners to illuminate their homes in innovative and functional ways. LED strip lighting has become increasingly popular in the residential building sector as you can provide both task and feature lighting in a subtle and refined way. It is also a very timeless way that you can provide lighting to a space, whereas pendant and wall light fitting styles may date over time.

LED lights are a long lasting and more energy efficient light source as they require significantly less power to operate than halogen light. While LED lights are typically more expensive than halogen lights, they are actually the most cost effective option when you consider that the running costs of LED lights are far less compared to halogen lights. 

An effective application that people should consider LED lighting is to highlight external architectural features. We recently used LED strip lights to highlight a feature clad truss as well as used LED strip lights to highlight expanded mesh feature screening on another project which provided visual impact through ambient light patterns created by the mesh screens. 

The most common areas where we tend to include LED lights are for areas that have overhead cabinetry where task lighting is required over benchtops. These areas are usually the kitchen, appliance pantry, scullery, laundry, kitchenettes and so on and we recess the LED light strips into the cabinetry for a seamless finish. Bathroom mirrors are another common place where people tend to include LED strip lights for either task or ambient feature lighting. Other places where we have chosen to include LED lights for feature lighting is within cabinetry plinths, in letterboxes to both feature light house numbers and also provide task lighting internally. Recently we have also included led strip lighting to feature light custom designed items on a couple of projects such as custom designed furniture and staircase handrails where the design intent is to flood ambient lighting both up and down the staircase void. 

The most important thing to consider is whether adequate task lighting has been provided for the space. Consider feature lighting with a restrained approach – choose a hero element that you want to highlight rather than having an abundance of feature lighting otherwise the space tends to feel overdone and the original intent of feature lighting tends to get lost. We tend to stay away from light fittings that are on trend and favour timeless selections, as this is one of the first elements that will date within a space.

Lighting is one of the most crucial elements to a space as it has an effect on how other elements within the space appears, such as cabinetry, benchtop and floor finishes as well as paint colours, flooring and furniture selections. Ensuring that adequate task and feature lighting has been provided to a space is one of the most crucial items to spend time considering when designing a new home. 

Schedule a consultation with Weststyle’s custom home design team and build your dream home today.