Great lighting design starts with understanding how light fittings behave.  One of the greatest challenges designers face in evaluating lights is that every manufacturer formats their data differently; and not all data provided is 100% true! Some of it is very glamorous marketing dressed up to look like facts.  To quickly see past the marketing and get to the most important data, I offer you 6 key measurements of light behaviour to effectively compare light fittings.   My advice can be used as a guide for residential lighting design, and as an extension or a starting place for h ..read more

Designing A Stylish, Yet Functional Lighting Plan For Your BATHROOM Your bathroom is a high functioning and important room in your home, it’s complex from all design and construction perspectives and requires a lot of thought to get right. Unfortunately, light is often overlooked in the design process, beyond the selection of decorative lights that enhance the interior design. The biggest complaint we hear - from nearly every client we see - is “I can’t see my face properly in the bathroom mirror we have now”. Why is that? It’s quite simple really - 99% of home bathrooms are lit from the cent ..read more

Lighting design is an often overlooked aspect of architecture, but it has the power to transform a space from ordinary to extraordinary. Everyone building and renovating a home should consider architectural lighting design as a vital part of their design process. Designing light into your architecture to support how you want to live in your home does not have to be expensive, but it does require consideration and thought about that light is needed for each room, and each function in your home. This doesn’t mean you HAVE to hire a lighting designer, (although we will make the process much easie ..read more

Directional lighting gets a bad rep as a result of the inappropriate use of downlights as general lighting in our homes. It creates shadowing, Makes some areas over bright and others too dull, Is glarey (sometimes horribly so) and Downlights making a mess of our ceilings. And the way it’s generally used? it certainly does all of these things. -HOWEVER - Directional light is a wonderfully diverse type of light, and it can be used to create a huge range of effects in the home. When used with consideration for what you want to see, a lighting design with well placed directional light can be magic ..read more

First, TYPES OF LIGHT… Each type of fitting radiates light differently and causes unique effects. The 3 basic shapes are point sources, line sources and area sources.  Point is highly directional, line is diffuse and controlled, area is diffuse and omnidirectional.  Selecting the type of light you want is the first step in your design process. Once you know what you want the light to do, you can select the right fitting to do it. With these 3 basic shapes, 5 different types of light can be created – so together providing us with over 15 essential effects, before we start blending the ..read more

September 4, 2020 There are thousands of choices when it comes to selecting pendants for your home - and distilling the right one for you can be a real challenge!  That's one of the reasons we created our Mint Folk Directory for our clients - so they can easily find a huge variety of options in one place, made by skilled craftspeople and built to be both stunning - and safe! We talk a lot at MINT about making choices for your home that are driven by your own emotional reactions.  We bring the light - you choose the look - and together, we craft the perfect light for your home.   ..read more

Be it a new build or a single room reno – getting your well-lit ducks in a row early is something often overlooked – a bit of pre-planning can save serious headaches and a lot of dollars along the way. Organising the supply chain for any kind of build can be a complex and mystifying process, especially if you are managing it yourself. Leaving purchasing of lighting or any other item to the last minute can have massive impacts on your on-site progress, often resulting in cost blow-outs as trades overlap and missing elements prevent final completion. Ultimately, you want the electrician to be ab ..read more

Glare would have to be one of the most uncomfortable feelings light can create, but it is also the cause of some of the most spectacular lighting effects we all enjoy in our decorative pendants. How can that be?  Well it’s important to understand what glare actually is before you start.   Glare is, at it’s essence, an uncomfortable visual sensation caused when a source of light is considerably brighter than it’s surrounding lit environment.  It’s a bright light vs dull background situation. (scientifically speaking there are 2 types of glare, but we’re going to focus on the glar ..read more

Just like with lights in your home, there are different lights for different areas outside.  Choosing the right light - and making sure it's safe - and safely installed - is the most important step in getting your lighting right. And remember - electricians are the first stop for any electrical installation. So, how do we assess what lighting is for indoors and what can go out doors? Well, we look at the IP rating. But I hear you ask “What is this IP rating and what does it tell me”? It stands for Ingress Protection – and it’s a rating that classifies light fittings (and lots of other thi ..read more

October 21, 2020 Light is science.  The correct application of light is art.  You really can't use light without fundamental understanding of both.  To that end, I have outlined the key fundamentals of light - on the science & maths side - because without first principles, light just doesn't make sense.   FUNdamental #1 Light is a physical medium.  Sure, you can't see it until it hits something, but it has physical properties that are non-negotiable.  Like gravity is non negotiable. You can't "stop" light.  It bounces around continuously until it has expe ..read more