How To Remove Covers From Ceiling Lighting Fixtures

There may be a number of reasons that you want to remove the covers from your ceiling lighting – perhaps you are remodeling, or you need to complete some maintenance, or you want to clean the cover itself. Luckily, removing the cover of ceiling mounted lighting is a fairly simple process that you can easily do yourself.

Place a ladder beneath the lighting fixture, ensuring that it will be high enough to get you up as close to the ceiling as possible. You should also ensure that you can get up high without you having to completely stretch your arms above your head, as this is a safety hazard.

Take the cover of your ceiling lighting in one hand and use the other to loosen all of the screws that are holding it in place. Fortunately, most covers will have only a single metal fastener holding it in place, and this can easily be removed with your fingers (negating the need for a screwdriver). If you are one of the unfortunate homeowners with a more solidly secured lighting cover, you will need a Phillips-head or flat-head screwdriver to remove it.

Slowly remove the cover from over the ceiling fixture, bringing it down to be level with your torso. Be wary of moving too fast, as this may cause you to slip or to knock the globe (which could break it).

Finally, you can climb back down the ladder, ensuring that you are holding onto the cover tightly. If you can, pass the ceiling lighting cover off to a second person before you begin your descent, as this will lessen the chance of any accidents

How To Clean Exterior Lighting

Unfortunately, our exterior lighting doesn’t get the tender loving care as frequently (if ever) as it would like. Being exposed to the elements often ends up with the lighting being coated with dirt and dust. Cleaning up your exterior fixtures, however, can make your entire outdoor area look much nicer (even newer), and can increase the brightness of your lights at night by up to 20% - why wouldn’t you want to achieve this?

Begin by turning off all exterior lighting in your yard and allowing the globes to cool down completely. Often, it is best to begin cleaning in the morning or early afternoon, when your globes have had a number of hours to cool down.

Next, you can dampen an old rag with some clean water. Remove each globe from its socket and wipe them down with the rag; this will remove all of the dust that has gathered over time. Once you’re finished, replace the globe back into the exterior lighting fixture. Spray some glass cleaner (such as Windex) onto the same rag, and use it to wipe down any glass that you happen to notice in your fixtures, such as the panels in a lantern, for example.

Take a new cloth and dampen it with water. Use it to wipe away all of the dirt and dust that has gathered on the metal parts of your exterior lighting. If you find that the metal has grown dull, you can apply a teaspoon of metal polish to each fixture and polish it gently with the cloth.

Whilst cleaning your exterior lighting is not a chore that you can complete every day or even every weekend, it is something that should be done around twice to year to ensure that they look much nicer and illuminate your yard as best as they can. It doesn’t take long – an hour or two, at the most, is all you need.

How Outdoor Lights Can Enhance Beauty of Your House

So far you have known lights as means of brightening home interior or exterior of your house, but now time has changed. Today lighting has evolved also as a means of decorating home exterior. With lights you can draw the attention of viewer to any particular place. This is what can be utilized to beautify your home exterior.

For instance, you have placed a beautiful clay pot just outside your house that catches the attention of guests or passers by in the day, but what about night? Should this expensive art piece be lost in the dark? Of course not, simply install a downlight or pendent light over it hanging with the ceiling. Also, you can highlight that special plant you bought from exclusive plant exhibition in the same way or different.

Pillars just outside your door are common places to hang wall light, but you can do it in different way from the usual one by opting for some more fashionable exterior lights. You can also highlight some of your garden areas with outdoor lights. Take your fountain for example. Apart from fitting light inside the fountain, place light around it or on the ground surrounding in such a way that it draw attention all as a whole not just the water part. Your bonfire area in the lawn can be another perfect place of being experimental with lights. By lighting your bonfire area you will be having a perfect place to enjoy chat and a fabulous moment even when you are not using it for fire.

Similarly, you can install outdoor lights in your patio or pergola and make your garden the most sought after corner of your house to spend time or through a party. So, with exterior lights you can decorate your house in as many ways as you can, it’s just how far your imagination works.

How To Space External Wall Lights

These days, wall lights are not only a popular addition for the interiors of our homes – they can be used to make a statement or illuminate a safe walkway on the exterior of our homes, too. As these lights tend to be focused in a downward direction, however, how should they be spaced on the wall to ensure that they provide adequate illumination?

First, you will need to determine where you intend to install wall fixtures around the outside of your home – do you want to illuminate a driveway or pathway; do you want to showcase a feature of your yard; or do you want to create a soft ambience to relax outdoors to?

Safety

If you are hanging wall lights outside in order to provide safety (such as illuminating a pathway), they should be mounted very close to the roof, as this will allow them to light up a much larger area. In these scenarios, you should also use floodlight globes over the softer ones that wall fixtures are normally fitted with.

Decorative

If you are hanging wall fixtures outside to showcase a feature of your yard (such as a swimming pool or sculpture) or to create a peaceful outdoor ambience, they should be mounted much lower to the ground. The general rule of thumb is that the fixtures should be hung at about one-third of the height of the nearest door.

As you can see, wall lights no longer just have a place inside our homes – they can be used outside, too, if you want to create a safe or ambient atmosphere for your family and visitors to your home. By hanging the lights at appropriate spacing’s, you can ensure the best effect possible.

How to Make Your House Aesthetically Beautiful with Modern Pendent Lights

If you check out market of light fixtures you will be surprise to see the range of modern lights offered on your way. These days, modern pendent lights are ruling houses decorated by professional interior decorators. Reasons, they add a level of sophistication to a house in an aesthetic way. They beautify a home interior in a different way, not just when they are lightened, but also when they are not lighted and are just hanging from the ceiling in day time. 

Varieties of pendent lights are available in the market; some are made of steel, aluminium, plastic, cloth and even paper and thermocol. Each of them exhibits a perfect balance between chic and affordability. While choosing them, it is important to know that which one will go better with your home, because they are designed with extreme artistic thought, so it is not necessary that the one that catch your eyes will suit your home interior too. Basically, modern pendent lights are designed keeping modern houses in mind, so they might not go well with traditional interior, or even if you are choosing do it carefully. Of course, you will not like to ruin your home interior with your wrong selection of light. 

 

After design part, color of the light is another part which plays a significant part in enhancing the beauty of your home décor. For a suggestion, if a room has a minimalist feel with a fewer pieces of furniture having neutral colors, choosing drop lights with a full-size splash of color can be a fantastic idea. Modern pendent lights not only illuminate your home, but also provide an artistic piece that you will be proud to display.

How Far Down Should Your Modern Chandelier Hang?

These days, in the realm of the modern chandelier, it is no longer a lighting fixture that is suspended directly from the ceiling. The chandelier is more commonly hung at an attractive height for the room, throwing its illumination wherever needed. But how far down should your fixture hang? How low is too low?

Dining Room

• The bottom of a modern chandelier should sit at about 30 to 34 inches from the top of the dining table in a room that has a ceiling of 8 feet high. If your dining room is taller, hang the chandelier 3 inches higher than this for every extra foot of ceiling height (so it doesn’t look too low).

Foyers

• The bottom of a modern chandelier should sit at least 7 feet from the floor in foyers, and even rooms, where people will need to walk underneath them. If you have a two-storey foyer, hang the chandelier about one-third of the way between ceiling and floor.

Kitchens, Bedrooms and Living Rooms

• The bottom of a modern chandelier should sit no less than 30 inches above a table or other surface, as this leaves you ample room to place items on the surface. Hang chandeliers higher in rooms with overly high ceilings.

At the end of the day, you should use your own discretion when it comes to hanging a modern chandelier in your home – if you feel it is hanging too high or too low and then adjust it until you are happy. The rule of thumb, however, is that chandeliers should sit no lower than 30 inches above a table and no lowers than 7 feet when people need to walk underneath it.

Where to Use Modern Pendant Lights

Modern pendant lights are just an amazing way to illuminate any space of your house. These lights are basically fixtures that hang from the ceiling and are suspended by a chain, cord or metal rod. The most attractive feature of these lights is that they focus beam on particular area, emphasizing on a specific zone to highlight its beauty. 

If you start looking for modern pendent lights, you will find plethora of choices and all one better than another. Each of them is designed keeping modern house interior in mind. Now, the choice depends on where you want them to place, their function and design. 

You can hang it in straight line over kitchen countertops or at the center counter in kitchen. Placing the light in this location will allow you to work with this light alone, eliminating the need to light-up other lights and will of course lift up the beauty. Another location where you can effectively place them is your bathroom. Yes, it can be a wonderful idea if employed in a proper way. Hang one of them over wash basin or over bathtub, light up while using them and enjoy the beauty.

Another fantastic way to enhance the beauty of your house is using modern pendant lights over your dining table. Just install a single large downlights pendent over your dining table and see how it changes look of your house. In a similar fashion you can also improve the look of your living area by focusing on a specific corner. Pick any corner of your living room, place an attractive show piece over a wooden carve stool and accompany it with a hanging light, you will be praised for your creative idea.