And Then There Was Light!

Written by Jaqui Lividini

This week is all about lighting, the next project among our never-ending scope of projects!

Surprise! The house has an antiquated electrical system, so everything needs to be rewired. This means we now have to start from scratch, an exciting but complex process. We have to figure out which rooms need lights and what type of lights they need.

The first step was to go room-by-room and attempt to picture each room during both the day and night. It helps to envision the function of each room–will we be primarily working or relaxing?

After function comes aesthetic: We need to answer questions such as whether a light should be recessed, a sconce, a pendant, or even a lamp. Then what will the switches look like? That was easy–we decided on vintage mother-of-pearl button switches from a favorite source of ours, Rejuvenation Hardware.

Next comes the question of where the switches and outlets should go. It's all quite complicated and takes time; each room is a project unto itself.

The house has great light to begin with: It's filled with amazing natural light due to the reflection from the water. So we spent the weekend with our second family–our Design Development gurus and our brilliant designer Charles Riley– and went room-by-room to analyze which type of lighting we wanted. We also needed to take into consideration what is acceptable for the budget, which always seems to rear its ugly head. It's tough setting limits here because lighting is such a crucial element in the creation of ambiance.

After all of our initial traumas, however, it's nice to work on the icing-on-the-cake elements of an already great house!