Lighting Knowledge Centre - Lunares Blog

There’s an evening at the turn of November and December when the street splits into two camps: houses that sink into darkness, and those that suddenly look like a postcard. The difference is usually a few hours of work and a well-thought-out set: LED icicles on the eaves, a light curtain on the terrace, a string of lights around a tree trunk and glowing spheres in the garden. In this post we turn outdoor Christmas lights into a plan – from choosing a colour theme, through decorations for the façade, trees and garden, to power safety and mounting that leaves no scars on the house.

Christmas lights can do more for the festive mood than all the baubles put together – as long as there are enough of them, the colour temperature is right and they don’t give up halfway through the evening. Here’s how many lights a tree of a given height really needs, what separates warm white from cool white, how to safely join several strings into one installation and what to watch out for when the lights are going outdoors.

When the sun starts setting before five in late October, and by December it is dark around half past three, your home takes over the role the sky played all summer – it becomes the main source of light in your life. The good news: you don’t need a renovation to get through the season of short days in good spirits. A few well-planned points of light – floor lamps in dead corners, table lamps on windowsills and sideboards, warm decorative bulbs – and the same room that felt grey and cramped in November starts looking like a magazine cover after dusk. In this post we show how to brighten your home in autumn and winter: layer by layer, room by room.

The living room is the only room in the house that has to be four different rooms in a single evening: somewhere to talk, somewhere to read, somewhere to watch a film and somewhere to receive guests. One lamp on the ceiling cannot do all of that, and that is exactly why so many living rooms are badly lit. So we took ten lamps from ten manufacturers, each for a different job: a pendant over the seating area, a chandelier, a flush ceiling light, a reading floor lamp, a table lamp, a wall light, an LED strip, a panel, a recessed downlight and a track system. For each one we give the things that really decide how the room looks after dark: light output, colour temperature, CRI, how it dims and how long the warranty runs. Every number comes from the product record, not from a brochure. In a hurry? The table is enough. Want to know why your one lamp will never be enough — keep reading.

Most garden lighting advice stops at “light the path and the plants”. Then you are standing in a shop in front of forty lamps and every one of them looks like it can take rain. So we did it the other way round. Ten lamps from ten manufacturers, each for a different job: a ball light on the lawn, a lantern by the door, a bollard along the path, a spike spot in the border, a drive-over fitting in the driveway. For each one we give the things that really decide whether it survives its second winter: IP rating, impact rating, the bulb and the warranty. Almost every one of them has siblings in other sizes and finishes, so we say what else is in the range too. In a hurry? The table is enough. Want to know why the cheaper lamp is sometimes the better one — keep reading.

The LED floodlight is the most pragmatic lamp around the house: its job is to light the driveway, the gate, the yard or the façade – brightly, cheaply and reliably, for years and in any weather. The trouble is that you buy one about once a decade, while manufacturers speak the language of watts, lumens, beam angles and IP codes. This guide translates it all, step by step: how a floodlight differs from a spotlight and the old “halogen”, how much power a driveway needs versus the pitch behind the barn, how a motion sensor works and where not to point it, which colour temperature keeps the yard from looking like a supermarket car park – and how many floodlights a typical plot really needs.

The kitchen island has dethroned the table as the heart of the open-plan home – it is where we chop, stir, eat breakfast and hold the evening conversations over a glass of wine. It has just one problem: it comes with no light above it. Kitchen island lighting is now one of the most common questions in kitchen design, closely followed by the next ones: how many pendants – one, two or three? At what height? What spacing? And how do you tie it all together with the dining room lamp hanging three metres away, over the table? In this guide we answer all of those questions with numbers – from island length, through hanging height, to loft, boho and glamour styles.

The bathroom is the hardest room in the house to light: little space, plenty of moisture, a low ceiling, and jobs as different as precise make-up in the morning and a relaxing bath at night. No wonder the flush-mounted bathroom ceiling light has been the most popular choice for years – it hugs the ceiling, stays out of the way of the shower, and its sealed construction copes with steam. In this guide we explain everything worth knowing before you buy: what IP44 really means and when you need IP65, where a ceiling light may sit relative to the shower and the bath, how many lumens a bathroom needs, which colour temperature won’t lie about your make-up, and how round fittings differ from square ones.

The hallway is the only room everyone passes through – household members, guests and couriers alike – and at the same time the one whose lighting gets thought about last. We all know the result: a dark tube with a single bulb in the middle, where the mirror lies and the keys go missing. Yet narrow, low spaces have their proven tricks: the right flush ceiling light or a rhythm of points instead of a single lamp, wall lights bouncing light off the walls, a motion sensor that greets you in the dark and a mirror multiplying every lumen. In this guide we walk through hallway and corridor lighting decision by decision – from the fitting’s form, through low ceilings, to automation.