HOMES

Lake Home

Interior Lighting

by Courtney Rawlinson photos by Kelley Graber + Sue Pais With help from a few LAKElife friends, we’ve gathered great tips + tricks for keeping your lake home stylish and functional when it comes to home lighting. Gone are the days of few cookie-cutter options. Today, variety shines to offer a clean and stylish look.

“We treat our lake homes just like other homes,” said Julie Reimer, lighting specialist at Kendall Electric. “We ask similar questions about ceiling height, room size, the use of the space, color of the walls, and floors. After taking all these things into consideration now we can look at – what is your style?”

Kitchens

Starting with the heart of the home, yes, the kitchen, Reimer shared that lighter colors have been in style, along with an open-concept feel. And the right lighting has a great effect on your open concept kitchen. But what style of lighting is suggested for the popular areas within the kitchen?

“We use multiple pendants to spread across the kitchen island and also a single fixture using up to 3, 4, or 5 lights,” Reimer said. “The lighting market has several open cages that are nice without glass, too, for easy clean up in the kitchen and this makes the space seem more open as well.”

Other trends for kitchens?

» It’s popular to see a seedy glass, clear, or hammered glass. » Hammered glass is commonly seen in linear lights, chandeliers, individual pendants and sconces. » Linear lights can have a nice appeal with clean straight lines. Be sure to leave approximately 6” or more on each side from the outside of the counter top.

Great Room

In many homes it’s the busiest gathering room, second only to the kitchen. It exudes comfort, style and encourages conversation and family laughs. And the right lighting only adds to the room’s ambiance. Interior designer Kelley Graber with Kelley J. Interiors says this is where we can make a statement. “In the great room it is popular to hang a statement chandelier,” she said, “or if your humble lake cottage doesn’t have an air conditioner, you may want to consider a ceiling fan,” to add comfort and style all at once. The lake-oriented options for ceiling fans are plentiful.

Dining Table

Carrying the open concept through to the dining table, options abound. “It is fun to switch it up,” Reimer said. “If you had pendants over the kitchen island and a chandelier over the (dining) table, maybe it’s time to reverse and use pendants over the dining table and one light over the island.”

Get Nautical, even at the dinner table

As many lake home owners also have a separate, permanent residence, their lake home can offer a canvas on which to create a very lake-oriented, fun, nautical feel. “I have gone with a nautical theme in a few of the lake homes I have designed,” Graber said. “It makes it fun and a nice, different pace from your (year-round) home.”

And when integrating the nautical feel, consider having a designer provide a custom light, specific for you and your family. “I think one of the coolest lights I’ve made for a client, was a canoe turned upside-down, with lighting within the hull,” Graber said. “We then hung it over the dining table.”

Bathrooms

Looking to give the bathrooms a cleaner and brighter feel? If so, the experts say it’s all about placement. “In terms of bathrooms, more and more we are using wafers and wall sconces on each side of the mirrors, or two to three lights above the mirrors,” Reimer said. “The best lighting for the bath is top and side, giving you lighting at your eye level and above lighting the space.”

Bedrooms

Comfort is king when it comes to bedrooms, so Graber suggests a lighted ceiling fan is a must to help keep the air moving on humid summer nights. Again, available designs are as expansive as is your creativity.

Outdoor Lighting

Where better to install dimmer lighting than a 3-season room or lakeside patio and porch area? “On the outdoors you want to put a dimmer on your porch lights to dim the lighting,” she said. “This will help people feel more comfortable and keep the conversation going into the night.”

As you decorate your lake home get creative on how to use lighting that best ‘fits’ the areas of your home. Doing so balances aesthetics with function; we think it’s a very bright idea.