The home project: Let there be light
We have a shortcoming in our current home: good, artificial basic lighting. Daylight, on the other hand, shines brightly into the bay window and fills almost the entire living/dining area with warm light. As soon as the sun goes down, it tends to get dim. The 2700k bulbs provide homogeneous light, but that’s about it. The lamp above the dining table only illuminates it optimally to a limited extent, the indirect lights provide accents but are too weak. We naturally want to optimize this for the new apartment. Although there are professionals for this topic, we are trying to find the best solution for us in terms of light sources – with a lot of research.
Those who have the choice are spoiled for choice
In the basic configuration, we would be entitled to over 20 built-in spotlights distributed across the entrance area/corridor, the kitchen area, the bathrooms and the master bedroom. However, we are only keeping six of these 20. Four of them exclusively illuminate the kitchen unit. The remaining two are located in front of the reduit. From our point of view, the spotlights have too narrow a beam angle and we don’t find them homely enough. We therefore decided to install three lamps from Flos (the model is called Clara) in the entrance area. With a diameter of 40 cm, the LED lamps provide better basic illumination in this area. The kitchen island is complemented by two Occhio Mito Volo lamps. We immediately fell in love with the lamps. On the one hand, the advantage is that the lamps also emit indirect light upwards, creating a wonderful ambience. We placed two Louis Poulsen lamps (VL45) with a diameter of 37 cm above the dining table . On the one hand, the lamps emit a diffuse light, so they are not too bright. On the other hand, the lower opening allows the dining table to be accentuated. For the library, we also have a lamp from Flos , the Glo-Ball 2 in the 45cm size. This will be complemented by a lamp from Menu (JWDA), which we already own, and a desk lamp on the secretary desk that has not yet been selected. As the library is separated by a window wall and not a wall, we would like to create a homely atmosphere here in particular with indirect lighting. On the bedside tables in the master bedroom, everything remains the same: here we have our two tried-and-tested Peek table lamps from Menu and we will add spotlights to the dressing room. In the bathrooms, in addition to the mirror cabinets, a room-wide, built-in light channel from LTS illuminates both rooms. And last but not least, we also fitted both children’s rooms with a Glo-Ball 2 from Flos. All lamps are of course dimmable and can therefore significantly change the mood in the room.
Of course, we are still missing one or two lamps, but we will take action on this once we have moved in.
Light temperature and light reflection value
The color temperature refers to the color of the light. This light color is in turn measured in Kelvin. In the case of lamps, the color spectra are referred to as warm white light, neutral white light and daylight white light.
– Warm white light corresponds to around 3000k
– Neutral white light corresponds to around 3300k to 5300k
– Daylight white corresponds to a light color of over 5300k
With the exception of the bathrooms and the dressing room, we continue to use a slightly warmer, cozier light of 2700k. We believe that mixing different light temperatures within a room is probably the biggest mistake and creates disharmony. In contrast, we set the luminaires in the bathroom and dressing room to 4000k for a slightly cooler, activating light.
Another important value is the so-called CRI value (Color Rendering Index). This serves as a unit of measurement for the reproduction of colors under different lighting conditions compared to the reproduction of colors under sunlight. Colors are perceived differently in different lighting conditions. The CRI value determines how faithfully the colors are reproduced by the light source used compared to the sun. The higher the CRI value, the more natural colors are perceived. A CRI value of over 90 can be described as good. It is therefore essential that you also pay attention to this qualitative value for light sources.
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Michel N. (38) and Michèle G. (37) live in Lucerne with their daughter Lilou (2) and their newborn son Rémi. The two communication specialists with a flair for beautiful living are fulfilling their wish to buy a condominium near the city limits of Lucerne. Bruno Wickart accompanies and advises the couple on their project from day one – from the floor plan design to the fully furnished property.
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