This project is a great example of technical ingenuity and understanding of light in collaboration with talented interior design creating a beautiful, homely and ecologically sound home. Which just goes to prove – the right team can build the perfect results in any environment.
Read moreThe Truth about your Home Lighting
One of the greatest challenges in lighting your home is deciphering the vast amount of conflicting lighting advice available online. In many cases, information portrayed as fact is simply not.
The 5 Fibs, Furphy's and Fakes below are unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg, however, with knowledge comes power, so read on to arm yourself against bad lighting in your home...
Read moreYour Musical Instruments 'Up in Lights'
We've been chasing inspiration this week for a musical client, and we've found the most amazing array of unique, musically inspired lighting - which just goes to show - anything you imagine can be created and improved upon with light!
Read moreBefore you get the "blues" with LED, read this.
A new report into negative health effects of LED "Blue Light" has been released, by the American Medical Association. It's a street lighting focused report, however it has some valuable information for everyone that lives with LED lighting - and is likely to spark some marketeers imaginations, so before they run with it - find out how simple it is to make the right choice about your LED lighting, without losing any sleep.
Read moreMelbourne Airport Forecourt Enhancement
Mint Lighting Design's Director, Adele Locke, designed for 12 individual sites, each of which had to be linked to the others both visually and via an incredibly complex programming system that runs a 24/7 show of dynamic lighting across the entire forecourt area. Special shows have been designed for important days in the multicultural calendar: Diwali, Remembrance Day, Christmas, ANZAC Day, Australia Day and Chinese New Year.
Read moreKitchen Transformation
This kitchen has been taken from 1840W of messy halogen misery to just 220W of strategic designed lighting bringing bright, cosy indirect light to the room and functional lighting to the task areas. Add in a coat of paint and you have an utterly transformed Kitchen in an old home.
Read moreGreat Lighting in under a month
In 3 short weeks from the day we first spoke, this couple has brought beautiful modern lighting into their home, and are already saving big on energy!
Read moreNew Year... New light!
After completing 28 home lighting designs in 2013 and developing our studio from a shabby old factory into an exploration of lighting effects, here we share with you a review of the unique tools Mint Lighting Design has on site to help you both understand lighting for your home and share in our joy of light by playing with it for yourself.
Read moreHome Renovation - saves $2,520, gains LIGHT!
A client looking to upgrade their halogen downlights to LED engaged Mint Lighting Design, and through a re-location of the lights to suit how the home is used, saved $2,500 in light fittings alone!
Read moreClient saves $2500 on light fittings alone
Using a professional can SAVE you money!
Mint Lighting Design recently saved a client $2500 in light fittings alone (not including reduced installation costs or the ongoing energy saving in power consumption).
This client has a standard four-bedroom, single-storey 250sqm home and wanted a simple lighting solution using a product they had researched and selected.
We took the information from them regarding their needs (the design brief), and then strategically located the light fittings throughout their home to create lighting effects that both serviced the needs of the home and provided visual interest.
Our client received a clear lighting plan indicating the locations of the different light fittings, information on the best lamps to select for each area and a few helpful hints to get the most out of their lighting.
All that information, advice and instant savings of $2500!
Impressed? Contact Mint Lighting Design to discuss what we can do for you.
Facts of light #3 - where did my colour go??
LED downlights trick #3
I’d swear I had a beautiful red shirt until I walked inside and it turned a brown maroon colour… so what happened?
Simple fact of Light that many people don’t realise… Light is a Rainbow. Every colour you have ever seen exists in light.
The problem we face is that some lamps (globes, light sources) don’t have the full rainbow – and that means we have gaps in the colours we can see.
There are so many ways to explore this lighting fact – at my workshops and seminars it’s always one of the first things we do, and it’s a lot of fun for everyone.
Which is all very interesting, but what does it mean to you – and why is it important in LED?
You can choose how well your colours will appear by selecting light sources which have high colour rendering
Good LEDs are in the high 80’s, and the best are in the 90’s – what you need to be careful of is anything below Ra84 (that is, colour rendering of 84). 84 is what we’ve become used to with fluorescent lamps, and anything less will change how you see the colours in your home.
The tricky part is – many LEDs don’t list this information BUT here’s the good news – all the good quality, reliable ones do…
So that makes it quite easy really.
Ask your lighting supplier – what colour rendering does this LED have? If they don’t know…and can’t find out… maybe you need to consider another light…
Facts of Light #2 - when green isn't good
LED downlights trick #2
If you’ve ever attended one of my lighting workshops, you’ll know that I spend a lot of time talking about colour in light. Understanding colour (K) has never been more important in the world of lighting. So what is it and why does it matter?
Light comes in a huge range of colour temperatures. You may have heard terms like warm white, cool white, daylight – these are all great descriptors for light temperature.
The problem starts when you buy something called cool white or warm white that isn’t – and once you’ve seen it, you’ll never be able to ignore it again.
When you look at LED – deciding where you should use them, and how good they are value for money wise – you have to think GREEN. Or PINK. Or BLUE as well as WARM or COOL. LED is notorious for producing light with a green tint, which tends to make everyone look ill, pink which can be OK, so long as it’s not combined in the same room with a blue white or green white, and of course the cold blue that everyone has seen in low quality LED.
So, when looking at LED, check that is says warm white, or cool white, or 3000K, 3500K, 4000K – anything in that region. If it lists 5000K or higher, chances are it’s going to look very blue, and most likely is not what you want in your home. Now here comes the important bit
YOU MUST TURN ON A REAL SAMPLE AND CHECK FOR YOURSELF!
All good lighting professionals do this. It’s vital to check that it is WHITE (not GREEN, PINK etc.) and that it is the warm or cool you want. Turning them on is a great time to check for glare too. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, check out a cool and warm CFL lamp – they show it clearly and reliably.
