Interior Design Blog by Jil Sonia McDonald of Jil Sonia Interior Designs

Predictions: The Hottest Bedroom Design Trends in 2018

1/24/2018

Can you predict the future? We think we can! We’ve looked at recent trends, at popular searches and more to come up with these bedroom design trends for 2018. Looking to update your bedroom this year? Try implementing some of these ideas for a comfy, trendy bedroom you will love.

Buying Online

For years, consumers have looked online for inspiration when it comes to their bedroom decor. As more and more furniture and mattress companies become online-only, we predict that consumers will begin to search there for actual pieces, rather than just for ideas.

When people find something that’s perfect, they tend to buy it, no matter the method of purchase. If they see the same mattress or piece of furniture recommended over and over again, they’ll be ready to buy when they find it online. This is especially true now that many sites are policing their reviews to make sure they’re coming from actual customers. When buyers know they can trust what they’re hearing, they’ll buy online more and more often.

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Master bedroom

Cooler Color Palettes

Many of the bedrooms featured in popular magazines, on TV, and in the movies demonstrate the extensive use of whites, grays, and light blues. All of these combine to form a cooler color palette for the bedroom than we’ve seen.

These colors go well with the minimalist look. If that appeals to you, this may be a trend you want to follow. Painting your walls is one easy way to change the tone of your room, but you can make your existing palette cooler by adding drapes, blankets, a bedspread, and more in your chosen cool colors.

A Relaxing Backdrop

We predict that empty minimalist walls are slowly going the way of the dinosaur. Not completely, of course! However, more and more featured bedrooms have one or two walls given over to some sort of nature scene. These can be painted on, printed on fabric and then hung, or brought in in the form of vinyl wall decals. No matter the method, bringing the outdoors into the bedroom is becoming more and more popular.

Interior Design by Jil Sonia McDonald of Jil Sonia Interiors

Four Poster Beds

These have been in the magazines and on popular blogs for a while now, but many people have been unable or unwilling to implement them because they take up a lot of space. They also make a room look smaller. With so many people buying brand new homes, though, we predict that they will make sure their bedroom has plenty of space for the beds they’ve loved for so long.

Four poster bed frames are also changing. They used to be heavy and awkward, but now are becoming lighter and minimalist. In their new form, they don’t seem to take up as much space as they used to, making them more practical for the folks who have always loved them.

If any of these trends appeal to you, implement them soon to beat the rush. Be the trendsetter among your group of friends, not the follower!

Myra Campbell is a researcher for the sleep science and health organization Tuck.com. Her passion for art and design brought her into the field. She began by researching how to create a relaxing bedroom and learned that great design can help improve our health and well-being. Myra lives in southern California and shares her queen-sized bed with two rescue dogs.

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Recessed lighting spacing - How many recessed can lights do I need? How far apart do I place my can lights?

6/9/2017

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how far apart do I place my recessed lights? Jil Sonia Interiors

Recessed Lighting plan Placement guide. Jil Sonia Interior Designs

I've been an interior designer for over 16 years now and I've realize good lighting placement is key for any space, especially so for recessed lighting - (we call them pot lights in Canada - no - not those sort of lights!). I've written this handy post to show you how it's done!
(We'll talk about bathroom lighting in another post!).

Note: Lumens measure the total light sent out by the light bulb.
Watts measure the amount of power used by the bulb.
So watts do not tell you how bright the bulb is - but Lumens do.

However, since we are all use to discussing wattage, often people use 'wattage' as their term denoting the brightness of a bulb, rather than 'lumens'. For this article we'll use the term "wattage" as most people are more familiar with that term.

recessed lighting Interior design by Jil Sonia Interiors Maple Ridge

Interior design by Jil Sonia Interiors, Photos by Tracey Ayton-Edwards.

Recessed can lighting design layout:

Part A: How many pot / recessed / can lights do I need?

Step 1: Measure the length x width of the room. Now you have the area or total square footage of your room. ie. 12' x 20' = 240' square feet.

Step 2: Multiply the area x 1.5 to get your total wattage needed. (Note in some areas where you need a lot of light, or have a very high ceiling multiply by 3). If the lights will be installed in a ceiling taller than 16-feet, you may also want to use PAR type light bulbs. They have a tighter beam control which will get more of the light down from the ceiling to the surface plane. ie. 240 s.f. x 1.5 = 360.
Step 3: Total wattage, divided by the bulb wattage you plan to use, ie. ( 40 watt, 60 watt, 75 watt, 100 watt etc.) = amount of total recessed lights you will need. ie. 360 divided by 60 = 6

Formula: total sq. footage x 1.5 = total wattage needed. Total wattage divided by 60 watts (or whichever wattage you select) = total amount of recessed can lights.
Example: 240 square foot room x 1.5 = 360 divided by 60 (the bulb wattage I'd like to use) = 6 recessed lights needed.

Part B: Draw up a ceiling diagram (reflected ceiling plan) showing the amount of can lights you need (Part A formula). The cans / pots / recessed lights should be evenly distributed around the room, usually they are in rows with an equal number of cans in each row. Here's a great example of a kitchen lighting layout, the yellow dots show the recessed lights, the red dots show the pendant lights:

Recessed can lighting spacing - How many recessed lights do I need? How far apart do I place my lights?

Recessed Lighting Spacing

Now we will calculate the spacing between each recessed light.

Part C: Light spacing in a row:

Step 1: Pick a starting point, where do you want your most important can light placed? Then arrange all the lights an equal distance from that light.
Or, if you want general lighting, start in the middle and work outwards.
Step 2: Measure the length of the room in feet.
Step 3: Room length divided by # of lights in that row = distance between light units in that row. Example: 20' long room divided by 3 cans = 7'6" between each light, note see step 4.
Step 4: Calculating distance of lights from walls: (Note: The can lights near the wall are 1/2 the measurement between the other can lights distance. Keep each light close to 3 feet away from the walls or corners - we don't want to cast shadows!) Don't install recessed lighting with equal spacing between the lights and the walls. If you do, you end up with bright spots between the lights and dark edges.

Step 5: Now do the same for the width of the room.

Electrical can recessed plan layout Jil Sonia interior designs, Abbotsford, BC lighting calculation

Recessed Electrical plan layout example - Jil Sonia Interior Designs

Part D: Task Lighting Layout:
Task lighting is extra lighting used to highlight spaces where you need either extra light, or specialized lighting throughout the home. You may want to add under cabinet lighting, or pendant lights over the island in the kitchen, to bring the lighting closer to the work area.

How to calculate the distance and spacing for task lighting:

Step 1: Determine the distance from the ceiling down to the surface you wish to light, i.e.. the floor or a countertop.
Step 2: Divide this distance by 4 to obtain the distance from the wall to the first light unit. I.e.. 8' ceiling lights should be placed two feet away from the wall.

Part E: Wall washers recessed lighting layout: (lighting that shines down onto a wall in order to highlight art or a wall feature)

Step 1: The rule for installing wall wash recessed fixtures is approx. 1.5' to 3' away from the wall.
Step 2: Fixed lights can be placed closer to the wall.
Step 3: Place adjustable lights farther away from the wall. The optimal aiming angle to minimize glare is 30-degrees from the ceiling, that way we avoid glare.
Step 4: Space wall wash fixtures the same distance from each other.
Step 5: A good rule of thumb is that your accent lighting should be 3 times brighter than the ambient light in the room. This is useful for living rooms, hallways and dens/offices.

Part F: Beam Spread
There are generally 2 types of recessed lights - Spot lights and Flood lights.
Spot lights have a narrow beam of light casting light to a focused area, usually these are used to highlighting art or important design elements in the room. They cast beams 45 degrees or less.
Flood lights case a wider beam on the floor area and are used for lighting larger, more general areas. They cast beams up to 120 degrees.

Lighting Beam calculation: Angle of beam x 0.18 x ceiling height = Beam spread in inches.
Example: 60 degrees x 0.18 x 10' ceiling height = 108" divided by 12 = 9' wide beam spread.
To create overlapping beams of light for ambience, make sure that your beam spread diameter is equal to or greater than the distance between light sources fixtures.

Recessed lighting design & installation:
Now that the recessed lighting placement locations are determined, we need to find out if they can be installed in these locations. Use a stud finder to determine where the ceiling joist are located. You might have to adjust placement locations to avoid hitting a ceiling joist. It's always best to pre plan the lighting design before your renovation or new build in your home.

Please remember to contact your electrician before making any electrical decisions.