The Lighting Doctor

Lighting-Doctor-Lighting-Design — Good lighting design moves your eye around the room, while offering flattering illumination for the people within the space. The best lighting is subtle — it makes you feel good but you don’t really know why.

Light and Shadow: Great Design Needs Both

TIP 1: Light makes right You can’t understand light without also knowing darkness. It’s like you can’t understand true happiness unless you also experience sadness. The best design comes when there’… more

Randall-Whitehead-Lighting-Doctor-Lighting-and-Decor — Wall colors, wood finishes and fabrics change in appearance under day and night lighting at very different color temperatures.

How Can You Transform Lighting From Day to Night

TIP 1: Day tripping Color temperature tells you the hue of illumination that a particular light source emits. The two color temperatures that we are most easily able to identify are incandescent (… more

Randall Whitehead, Lighting Doctor, LED, Color Rendering Index, CRI, Martha Stewart

Boyd-Lighting-Cascade-Chandelier — When working out the lighting design for a room, take a moment to look upward. There is a vast canvas available that could benefit from your inspiration.

Ceilings: The Fifth Wall Offers Great Possibilities

Ceiling lighting can enhance the architectural details of a space.

Boyd Lighting, Beachside Lighting

Whether your entry is small and personal or one of a more grand scale, it sets the tone for the rest of the house. The tall lamp with the clear glass base gives a sculptural element to this more intimate entry, while a cascading chandelier can help to visually connect the first and second floors of a spacious entry.

How Can Lighting Make a Difference in an Entryway?

TIP 1: Create a sense of welcome When people walk in your front door you want to give them a good first impression. You want them to feel invited in. People are naturally drawn to light, so it’s… more

Randall Whitehead

You can create additional ambient light for a bedroom if closet doors are translucent, such as these shoji panels. (Photo: Dennis Anderson Photography)

The Most Effective Closet Lighting

Discover what the most effective closet lighting methods are to get a true reading for the colors of your clothing.

A kitchen with a matte finish countertop with LED lighting above it — A matte finish countertop diffuses the linear task lighting that’s mounted below the upper cabinets. High-CRI LEDs enrich the colors of the food.

How Does Lighting Design Affect Finish Selections?

TIP 1: True blue light The mistake that architects, interior designers and homeowners often make is that they don’t consider how finishes will be altered under artificial light sources at night. It’… more

LED, Kitchen Lighting

Outside of a home with landscape lights on. Photo: Jeff Zaruba — Landscape lighting should be subtle. The goal is to draw attention to what is being illuminated as opposed to the light source itself. Photo: Jeff Zaruba

What’s the Best Way to Light the Exterior of My Home?

TIP 1: Be street smart As you’ve heard many times before, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” From the street, the way a house looks at night says a lot about the people inside.… more

exterior lighting, Randall Whitehead

Room with recessed lighting and bright artwork on the walls — Existing recessed fixtures can be retrimmed to make them adjustable, then just replace the existing bulbs with LED versions.

How Can I Update My Lighting Without Replacing Everything?

TIP 1: The old switcheroo The quick and easy thing to do is to replace the existing incandescent or CFL bulbs with LEDs. Most bulbs these days have an LED equivalent. There are now shelves and… more

LED

Kitchen with yellow walls and a pendant fixture

In an Open Layout, How Can You Light a Kitchen Effectively?

TIP 1: Go with the flow It used to be that kitchens were separated from the rest of the house by doors or a pass-through to the dining room. Because the kitchen was set apart, lighting didn’t… more

Randall Whitehead, Kitchen Lighting, Undercabinet Lighting

how high to hang chandelier over dining table

How High to Hang a Dining Room Chandelier

Q: What is the correct mounting height for a fixture or chandelier over a dining room table? A: First off, I’ll provide a guideline: The bottom of the fixture should be 32 to 36 inches above the… more

chandelier, dining room lighting

Mounting Wall Sconces

Q: I am currently working on a new construction residence and I have a difference of opinion with the electrical engineer regarding placement of junction boxes for wall sconces. At what height do we… more

junction box, wall sconce

Trace sputnik swing arm lamp with Chrome accents and a Matte Black finish from Quoizel — Quoizel's Trace chandelier has adjustable arms, so how do you determine how high to hang it? Lighting Doctor Randall Whitehead has the answer.

Best Mounting Height for Swing-Arm Lamps

Getting the correct height for these bedside fixtures is crucial, says our expert. See what advice Lighting Doctor Randall Whitehead has to offer curious readers in this blog. Q.: Randall, what is… more

Bedroom, swing-arm chandelier, adjustable chandelier

bathroom mirror vanity lighting — Photo by Zac Gudakov on Unsplash

Sizing and Lighting a Mirror Around a Vanity

The Lighting Doctor explains where to hang a bathroom mirror and sconces above a vanity.

Two hanging pendants, one centered and one off center junction box — Photo: Pexels

How to Deal With an Off-Center Junction Box

Q: I can’t find lighting for over my oval dining table. The junction box is 16 inches off the side of the table and can’t be moved because the ceiling is concrete. A: Yes, you do have a bit of the… more

dining room lighting

Light Output and 130V Bulbs

The Lighting Doctor outlines the pros and cons of using 130V light bulbs.

LED

Concrete ceiling lighting ideas for a work space with concrete ceilings and hanging pendants — Photo by Marc Mueller from Pexels

How to Deal With Concrete Ceilings

Q: We have moved into a fantastic high-rise condominium, but we have a problem: The ceilings are concrete and we just have one junction box in the main room. How do we do anything beyond track? A:… more

junction box, recessed lighting

Reading Lights and Bedside Reading Lights — Bedside recessed lighting (like these Halos from Eaton) takes thought and calculation.

Tips on Bedside Reading Lights

Our lighting expert, Randall Whitehead, the Lighting Doctor, tells a cozy bedtime story about perfectly positioning reading lights. Inspired by airplane lighting, he recommends installing recessed… more

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