Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Any old light fixture will do if you’re just worried about brightening up the yard at night, but if you want decorative outdoor lighting that makes a statement, check out Ivalo Lighting’s unique Aliante exterior sconce. This 5-foot steel shell with an elongated double-tapered shape is made from .060″ thick steel with a polycarbonate shield. It uses an 80 watt fluorescent light to create a glow emanating from the shell. These decorative outdoor lights are available in silver, bronze, and custom colors. The fixtures are UL approved.

http://www.ivalolighting.com

Paper lanterns can add a unique look to a room. They have a long history, but Isamu Noguchi is the one credited with redefining the lanterns and bringing them to Western awareness. Noguchi was a Japanese American designer who enjoyed fusing Eastern craftsmanship with Western modern design. In 1951, he was asked to help revive Japan’s paper lantern industry, and he created his first Akari Lamp (“Akari” is Japanese for “light”), more of a light sculpture than a lamp. The Akari paper lanterns’ delicate shapes seem to float above their thin wire legs. The bodies are made from a collapsible spiral bamboo frame and strips of mulberry bark paper. Of the original 100 paper lantern designs Noguchi came up with, over 70 designs are still in production. They cost between $80 and $850 today.

The Noguchi Museum of Light

Lighting control is one of the most popular home automation choices. Lutron’s RadioRA wireless home-dimming system allows for one-button control of all the lights in your home via wall-mounted keypads or portable remotes. If you hate the idea of coming home to a dark house, you can keep a remote in you car and flip on your lights as your turn into the driveway.

Lutron RadioRA

Glass blocks aren’t anything new and have long been used in home design, but what about glass blocks that double as lights? One of the newer home lighting trends is Fiberoptics. These glass blocks from Glass Block Innovations, Inc. come in a variety of colors and can be used anywhere from the bathroom to the bar to the front porch, anywhere you’d like to add a wall or column with a unique twist.

http://www.glassblockinnovations.com
http://www.arclighting.com

My blogging buddy over at lightupthenet.com says pendant lamps are all the rage right now. I browsed through a couple of online stores to see what was out there. This “Ice Cube Pendant Lamp” caught my eye. I’m sure if I like it or not, but it is interesting.

20 Watt Ice Cube Pendant Lamp

Ever wanted lights that turn on automatically when you enter the room and turn off when you leave? For those times when you just can’t be bothered to flip a switch? Novitas puts out something called the SuperSwitch 2, a light switch that uses PIR (passive infrared technology) to detect someone in the room. It’s not supposed to be any more complicated to install than a regular light switch. Don’t worry, you can still flip the lights off when you feel like sitting in the dark.

SuperSwitch 2