Ceilings

I had a great post all queued about bathroom lighting and forgot to snap the corresponding picture. With tons of pics on the phone, it shouldn't be hard to find a suitable alternative (or not).

For now, look up...the ceiling is actually a good opportunity to be unique for not a ton of dough. Let's look at some different ideas to perhaps distinguish your home or property.

Have a look:

This is a large ornate ceiling medallion I saw at a house designed by Tocci Development in Needham. You can buy them much cheaper in plastic instead of wood. A similar medallion in plastic will cost $250-500.

"Never waste a ceiling" to quote Cliff Long, yet another upscale developer from my hometown. By designing this grooved ceiling, he will be able to provide ambient (read last weeks post) lighting throughout the space.

Or you can do everything like the Lennox hotel....Light the diameter of the dome and hang lights (they have about 12 in this installation).

Once again, you don't have to break the bank on stainless appliances to highlight your property...sometimes it's the simple ideas.

Out Of The Closet

We know the evils of fluorescent. It produces a harsh, hospital grade light. To review, the beloved, yellow incandescent is at 2500 degree Kelvin, and the evil fluorescent is at the other spectrum of 5000 degree. This white light is bad everywhere but one place.

Place fluorescent in your closet...Fluorescent and high kelvin lighting are better for distinguishing blues, blacks and darker colors. Incandescent is softer, and is therefore better everywhere else.

And Then There were Two

Wine storage has always fascinated me. When America discovered wine in the 90's, factories scrambled to find suitable products. Wine refrigerators seemingly popped out of nowhere, but essentially they were regular refrigerators with wine racks inside.

Its pretty sensible using existing products to satisfy a totally different market. It is, however, not practical to someone who appreciates wine. Wine is very different than most consumables. Because it is a living grape, wine needs to be stored properly. It will react to light, temperature, vibration and humidity. Any changes will alter the complexion and the taste.

The first company to address the category realistically was SubZero.

They thought about wine as part of the design of this product. There is a low E door with hidden lighting to block harmful UV light. There are two temperature units for red and white and a gasket to prevent crossover. The racks slide and the compressor is on rubber grommets to prevent vibration

Absent from a cave, this was the best unit until now.

The new Uline 2275 series...

The Uline has many of the same features. It is almost a carbon copy of the SubZero. I am unsure of the vibration difference, but there are certainly 2 products now worth considering.

The LED Revolution Started Here?

LED technology was actually pioneered about 3 miles away from Yale in Southie by a company called Color Kinetics. Although the company could not manufacture a white LED, Kinetics was great with colors and very popular commercially.

In July of 2007, they were purchased by Philips for 688 million. The strategy was to further CKs LED technology and marry that with Philips worldwide distribution. Their commercial installations are awesome.

But this synergy has produced this family of residential fixtures:

Hopefully more are on the way...