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Lighting 101 Dining Room

Lighting is essential to our lives. In today's homes, it serves many needs. These include lighting for performing activities, enhancing décor, creating mood and ensuring safety and security. Good lighting also contributes to health and a sense of well being.
Dining Room
Dining room lighting should be both beautiful and functional. This requires a mix of general, task, and accent lighting that can set the mood for a number of functions, including a formal dinner, a family get-together, and other activities such as homework, hobbies, or family bookkeeping. Dimming controls will enable you to vary the light for different occasions.
A chandelier is the focal point of the dining room. Suspended over the dining table, it serves as a decorative style element that enhances the beauty of your fine furnishings. When the light is dimmed, a soft, glowing atmosphere similar to candlelight is created. Downlights can be used to complement the light from a chandelier. If you have a rectangular or oval table, center a downlight over each end, on either side of the chandelier, dimming it for greater beauty and warmth. The downlights provide the additional illumination needed for dining and conversation.
Sizing Your Chandelier For the Dining Room
To determine the proper size chandelier for a dining table, choose a chandelier with a diameter 12" less than width of table. This assumes the table is sized appropriate for room. It should be hung with the bottom of the fixture 30” above the tabletop for an 8’ ceiling. Go up 3” for each additional foot of ceiling. For ceilings nine feet or higher, consider a two-tier style chandelier to fill the space from the fixture's top to the ceiling. To size a chandelier for your dining room, or to be the focal point of your space, measure the length and width of the room and add those figures together. The sum, converted to inches, will equal the diameter of the correct-sized chandelier.
To size a chandelier for your dining room, or to be the focal point of your space, measure the length and width of the room and add those figures together. The sum, converted to inches, will equal the diameter of the correct-sized chandelier.
provides general lighting, while enabling you to highlight prized possessions through out the room. A ring of four recessed downlights around the dining table supplements the light from the chandelier, while providing accent lighting for your tableware. The pure white light of low-voltage fixtures with tungsten-halogen bulbs will make your crystal and silverware sparkle. To install two downlights, center the recessed fixtures on the chandelier's mounting plate, spaced two feet from center in a straight line over the table. If four lights are desired, each one will be 24" from the chandelier's center mounting, at 90-degree angles, forming a cross. In this case, floodlights work best to produce a softer light over the entire table.
A buffet or sideboard can be flanked with buffet lamps on either side. Choose fixtures that complement the style of your chandelier. Displayed objects can be accented with recessed downlights installed in the ceiling above.
 
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Dear Norm: Please accept my sincere thanks for your input and consistent support on the design and implementation of the Laroche Residence. As anyone familiar with the project knows, it was a complex and demanding design on a difficult and unusual site. The design process involved a great deal of detailed preparation and the input of numerous participants. Your assistance on the overall lighting design, both interior and exterior, was consistently valuable, as were your many fixture recommendations. The construction of the home, which has taken upwards of two years to complete, required the full commitment of the builder and his team, as well as dozens of sub-trades and suppliers. Needless to say, coordinating all of this was at times both difficult and frustrating. However, I can say without hesitation that working with you and your team at Norburn was a pleasure. You quickly earned our confidence with your professional approach and maintained that trust with timely support and follow-up. As corny as it might sound, if every key supplier had a Norm Brown, my life would be a lot easier. Thanks again for the help and I look forward to working with you again in the future. Yours truly,
David Mailing
Architect


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Greg and Whitney Chad


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Over the years I have used many lighting suppliers through different organizations in my architecture, design and project management career. What I believe in and expect for a lighting supplier is customer service, knowledge, and leadership. This I got from Norburn Lighting in the past fourteen years. The best part of it is that many of the people that I deal other than the manager at Norburn Lighting have been working there for many years. This tells you something about how the business operates. The size of the lighting store is not a mega lighting store but do provide a great selection of interior and exterior lighting. It helps if you are dealing with knowledgeable people and a great leader. This leader I am referring to is Norm Brown who manages a few of the Norburn locations. What I like about this guys is his knowledge on lighting. He is a Certified Lighting Consultant and is part of the American Lighting Association. He provides lighting designs and has taught my staff about lighting designs. I have been fortunate enough to know Norm for over twenty years since the Guillevin International Co formally Gough Electric. He provided me the service and the straight goods time and time again and have saved a lot of money on lighting that I followed him. Not that I listen to him all the time.....certainly we have difference of opinions on lighting but that is half the fun in debates. Sincerely,
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Dear Norm, Please accept my sincere thanks for your input and consistent support on the design and implementation of the Laroche Residence.As anyone familiar with the project knows, it was a complex and demanding design on a difficult and unusual site. The design process involved a great deal of detailed preparation and the input of numerous participants. Your assistance on the overall lighting design, both interior and exterior, was consistently valuable, as were your many fixture recommendations. The construction of the home, which has taken upwards of two years to complete, required the full commitment of the builder and his team, as well as dozens of sub-trades and suppliers. Needless to say, coordinating all of this was at times both difficult and frustrating. However, I can say without hesitation that working with you and your team at Norburn was a pleasure. You quickly earned our confidence with your professional approach and maintained that trust with timely support and follow-up. As corny as it might sound, if every key supplier had a Norm Brown, my life would be a lot easier. Thanks again for the help and I look forward to working with you again in the future.
David Mailing
Architect


Dear Sirs, We have been dealing with Norburn Lighting for as long as I have been in business as it is the one trusted lighting store I can fully rely on to assist my clients with their needs, whether it be new construction, renovations, purchase of new lighting or just information on current lighting trends. In particular over the past 2 years we refer clients and associates to Elizabeth Zunti. Her customer service skills, combined with excellent knowledge of all areas in lighting more than exceeds customer expectations and assists in taking the anxiety out of the process. We have no hesitation in recommending Elizabeth and the staff at Norburn to our existing and future clients.
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