I got a call from a new client saying that her living room was “too dark.” The next evening I paid a visit and when I arrived I observed two things. The first thing I noticed was that she had many recessed cans. As a matter of fact, for a 20’x15’ room she had 10 cans! She also had 2 table lamps and 1 floor lamp.

I said to my client: “You certainly have enough lighting fixtures here, but the problem is you don’t have the RIGHT LIGHT in the RIGHT PLACE. My client responded “I am not sure I follow.”

I then asked her if she has a supply of light bulbs. She responded “ yes” and that she had 2 boxes in the garage. I said,“Go get them…. I want to show you something.” In a couple of minutes we had a step stool, a pair of gloves, and a huge supply of light bulbs. I proceeded to change out all the 75watt incandescent R30 flood light bulbs with 50watt halogen PAR 20 spotlights.(Please note that we used a flash camera on the “before” pictures because the room was so dark.)


By exchanging the incandescent floods with halogen spots I was able to get more “intense light” where I needed it as well as creating a more dramatic space by having more contrast in the room. I also exchanged the art light flood with a spotlight, creating a perfect “focus” for the art, as well as moving the floor lamp to just over the corner of the sofa..a great place for reading.

Here is another before and after set of pictures:
I took light off the wall and put a halogen spotlight on the tree.


In the end my client was amazed at the transformation we made,
just by changing the light bulbs and putting floor and table lamps WHERE you need them. Her living room went from Dull and dark to Dramatic and Dynamic.