Family Home Tour: The Lighting That Holds a House of Seven Together

A family home tour of the lighting that holds a house of seven together is a tour of dimmers, sconces and the three ceiling fixtures we got wrong before we got them right, room by room from the mudroom to the bedrooms, with what's in each, what it cost, and what I'd do again. We've lived in this house five years, moved in with three kids and now have five, and every room's lighting has been tested by full-time family life; the builder left thirteen ceiling fixtures on thirteen switches and no dimmers, and the house now has about forty light sources on twenty dimmers, and it's a different house. This is the tour: the mudroom and the drop zone, the kitchen's three circuits, the breakfast nook, the dining room's drum, the family room's weekend, the hallway's five sconces, the playroom, the three kids' rooms, our bedroom, the two bathrooms, the laundry and the pantry and the closets, the garage, the outside, what I'd change, what I'd replicate exactly, and the whole house's number.

The mudroom

A flush mount on a motion sensor at the door from the garage, 3000K, because it's the room where five kids come in with their hands full at 3:15; the mudroom post is the bench and the hooks, and the light's the thing that comes on before anyone's found a switch. It's the first light a kid sees coming home and it's the least considered fixture in the house, on purpose.

The kitchen

Three circuits on three dimmers: three pendants over the 8-foot island, LED strips under every upper cabinet, and the original flush mount overhead, which is still there, still too dim, and on the list. The pendants were the best decision in the house and the strips the second; the island post and the renovation post are the two. Full for lunches at 7 am, full for homework at 4:30, 25 percent for dinner at 6, and 10 percent for a glass of water at 9 pm.

The breakfast nook

A $90 pendant over the nook's table at 32 inches, on a dimmer, which is the fixture that changed the mornings by making the nook the breakfast room instead of the island; the breakfast nook post is the pendant and the bench Matt built. It's on at 6:30 at 40 percent and it's the first warm light of the day in the house.

The dining room

The drum chandelier, 24 inches over a 42-inch table at 32 inches up, on a dimmer used 365 days a year, and two plug-in sconces on the buffet wall added in year three; the single piece I'd keep in every future house. The dining room post is the whole of it. Sixty percent for weeknights, 30 for weekends, full for birthdays and projects.

The family room

A 20-inch semi-flush drum where the fan-light was, on a dimmer, two plug-in sconces beside the TV, a floor lamp behind the reading chair and a table lamp at the sectional's end; one weekend and about $400, and the makeover post. Four settings: cleanup, homework, evening, movie, and the kids know them by name.

The hallway

Five wall sconces every 8 feet along 40 feet, at 66 inches, on one smart dimmer: 60 percent at 6 am, full at 7, 30 for the day, 40 in the evening, 20 percent overnight. The hallway no longer feels like a corridor; it feels like part of the house, and at 20 percent it's the reason a 4-year-old gets to the bathroom without waking anyone. The hallway post is the spacing, and it's the project I'd do first in any family house.

The playroom

A flat LED flush mount with a plastic lens, after two semi-flush fixtures that a ball and a broom took down, on a dimmer, and a wall sconce at 54 inches in the reading corner with its own switch; the playroom post. The ceiling's dented and the fixture isn't, and that's the whole review.

The three kids' rooms

The same $52 frosted flush mount on a $22 dimmer in all three, and a sconce at each of the five beds with a switch on the fixture; the boys' room has two sconces for two bedtimes, the girls' room has a hardwired one for the 4-year-old and a plug-in behind the 12-year-old's headboard, and the 14-year-old's has a swing arm and a desk lamp. Classic over cute, and none of the three fixtures has been replaced in six years. The kids' room post is the rule at every age.

Our bedroom

Two swing-arm sconces at 24 inches over the mattress with switches on the fixtures, the builder's semi-flush with a better bulb and a dimmer, a motion strip in the closet and a puck under the dresser, and nothing on the nightstands but a phone and water; the bedroom post. An electrician's afternoon and a Saturday, five years after we moved in, and the room with the highest use per dollar in the house.

The two bathrooms

The kids' bathroom: a frosted bar above the mirror and two sconces beside it at 64 inches, a wet-rated light over the tub, the fan-light kept on a timer switch, a 2200K nightlight, all at 3000K and in brushed nickel because toothpaste; the bathroom post. Ours: the same sconce rule at 66 inches, 2700K, a 20 percent morning setting so the bedroom doesn't wake. Just brighter in the kids', and just warmer in ours.

The laundry, the pantry and the closets

The laundry's a 2,400-lumen 4000K flush mount and a strip under the shelf, after three years of sorting navy from black in the kitchen; the pantry's a motion strip inside the door that showed me eleven cans of beans; the linen closet and our closet have the same strip. The rooms nobody lights were the cheapest project in the house, about $130 for four rooms, and they're the ones that made the organizing systems visible. The laundry post and the pantry post are two of them.

The garage

Two 4-foot LED shop lights over the two bays at 4000K, and a motion fixture at the door into the house; hung after the shelving and the bike track, and they should have been hung first, because half of the organizing was done in the dark. The garage post is the zones; the lights are the thing that made the zones findable.

Outside

A wall light at each of four doors on a photocell, two motion floods on the garage's corners, path lights every 6 feet to the back door and the play area, string lights over the patio on a switch; nobody carrying a kid needs a hand for a light, and the outdoor post is the four doors. The yard's corners are dark on purpose, for the fireflies.

The dimmers, which are the house

Twenty dimmers, most of them the $22 slide and four of them smart ones on schedules, and they're the thing that turned thirteen fixtures on thirteen switches into a house with settings: morning, homework, dinner, evening, movie, night. Every room should have a dimmer, and every room in this house does; the fixtures are what you see and the dimmers are what you feel, and if the budget's $100 it's four dimmers before one fixture.

The order I'd do it in, for a new house

Month one: dimmers on every switch, $22 each, and every bulb to 2700K, with 3000K in the kitchen and bathrooms and 4000K in the laundry and garage. Month two: the hallway sconces, because they change the house's spine. Month three: a sconce at every bed with a switch on the fixture. Then the kitchen's circuits when the kitchen's open, the family room's weekend, the closets' strips, the outside's photocells. The fixtures that took me five years to get to are in that order because that's the order of how much they changed daily life, and the first month's $300 of dimmers and bulbs is more than half of it.

What the kids notice

The 4-year-old knows the hall's for the bathroom at night. The 7-year-old knows "movie lights." The 9-year-old flips his sconce for reading and off for sleep. The 12-year-old checks the bedtime board under its sconce. The 14-year-old has a lamp she chose. None of them has ever said a word about a fixture, and all of them use the light as the house's clock, which is the thing I wanted and the thing a house of seven needs: a schedule nobody has to announce, in the walls.

The three fixtures we got wrong first

The playroom's glass bowl, then its fabric drum, then the right one. The family room's fan-light for three years. The kitchen's overhead, still. Three rooms, five wrong fixtures, about $400 of lessons, and the rule they taught: plastic where things fly, a drum where people sit, and a bright plain fixture where the work is. Every other room got it right the first time because those three didn't.

Guests, and what they say

Guests say the house feels calm, and it's a house with five kids and a golden retriever, so it isn't; what they're reading is the light, which is at 40 percent in every room they're in and comes from the walls and the tables instead of the ceiling. A family house that's lit low from the sides reads as calm whatever's happening in it, and the dimmers are the reason a visitor at 7 pm sees a home and not a school. The compliment's always about the house and never about a fixture, which is how I know the fixtures are right.

What I'd change

The kitchen overhead, too dim, to a 2,500-lumen semi-flush. The laundry room, which should have gone brighter in year one. The playroom's first fixture, which should have been the plastic-lens flush mount from the start instead of on the third try. The polished chrome kitchen faucet under brushed nickel pendants. And the order: the hallway sconces and the dimmers first, in the first month, instead of in year three.

What I'd replicate exactly

Everything else. The island pendants and the strips on their own circuits. The drum chandelier on its dimmer. The five hallway sconces at 20 percent overnight. The sconce at every bed with the switch on the fixture. The plastic-lens flush mount in the playroom. The photocells on the four doors. The motion strips in the closets. The four settings in the family room. A house of seven runs on its light, and this is the light I'd carry to the next one, fixture by fixture.

The finishes, in one line

Brushed nickel on every fixture inside on the main floor, because it handles daily family life better than polished chrome or painted finishes and never looks dated; black on everything outside for the weather; and one exception, the kitchen faucet, which is the mistake. A house with one finish per floor is a house that reads as decided, and it's the cheapest design rule there is, because it's mostly about not buying the brass thing.

The whole house's number

About $6,800 over five years for every fixture, dimmer, strip, bulb and electrician's hour in this post, on a house of about 2,600 square feet, which is under $3 a square foot and less than the kitchen's countertop; the hallway's $1,060 and the kitchen's $800 of circuits are the two biggest lines, and the $130 of closet strips is the best value. Lighting is one of the highest-return projects in a family house because it's the one that affects every hour you're in it, and this house is the proof I'd point to.

In one paragraph

Motion light in the mudroom. Three circuits in the kitchen. A pendant over the nook. A drum over the table. A semi-flush and two sconces in the family room. Five sconces in the hall at 20 percent overnight. A plastic-lens flush mount in the playroom. A sconce at every bed. Two swing arms in ours. Side light at every mirror. Strips in every closet. Shop lights in the garage. Photocells on four doors. Twenty dimmers. Five years, seven people, and a house that's held together by where the light is.