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...where the mistakes are dangerous...
It is, I believe, undeniable that inadequate or inappropriate lighting is the most ... sure way of degrading any space in our home. It will eliminate important details, change the colors of carpets, tables and fabrics, create unwanted shadows, annoying shimmering and shades, etc ... in a nutshell, it will make everything that we spend on construction, furniture, equipment and decoration go!
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n contrast, of course, with a well-designed and carefully designed lighting that highlights upgrades and makes our spaces attractive, ensuring a comfortable and pleasant "atmosphere".
But there are two spaces in each house where the impact of a wrong lighting has not only aesthetic consequences.
In KITCHEN and CHILDREN'S ROOM lighting has the primary role in the safety of ours and our children!
I want to believe that there is no man who puts his needs for security to a second degree and under his aesthetic preferences...
I want to believe that there is no man who puts his needs for security to a second degree and under his aesthetic preferences...
In the first part of the article we soon analyzed the correct approach to kitchen lighting. In the second part we will analyze the needs of a children's room and the most common mistakes we make in lighting it.
CHILDREN'S ROOM
Safety is the primary criterion in lighting a child's room.
Of course, other home lights should be safe, but we can not expect a child to handle electrical appliances like an adult, so special care and special precautions are needed.
Here the greatest danger comes from childhood curiosity. Young children, in their quest to explore and learn their surroundings, can make even improvised stairs (chair and top box and top stool ...) in order to arrive and try something. They also very often scrape unscrew and disassemble everything in order to see what it has inside...and the lamps are not excluded...
Therefore lighting should be done with lights where children's curiosity can hardly be reached. And that also concerns the type of luminaires and the quality of their construction and their placement in the space.
On the other hand, the children's room is the most evolving space of a home. After security, the second criterion is the prospect.
The children's room changes in the way it is used much faster than any other room in the house, as its "living" grows has new needs to cover and develop new interests and abilities.
Simple game becomes more complex, begins to paint, read, write, study, dress more carefully, beautifully...
In the process of baby-toddler-child-teen the lighting needs change rapidly. Therefore, lighting design should be done with the future needs in mind.
Finally all the things in a children's room are ... tough tests with unavoidable damage. The third criterion is resistance.
Only the rigidity of the structure and the possibility of repairing possible damage can guarantee a long life in the luminaires. The choice of luminaires must therefore be based on the quality of their fittings and on the availability of service and spare parts.
The types of lighting required in a children's room are basically general lighting at a level of 150-200 lux, preferably indirect and dimmer-controlled.
Indirect illumination is necessary in the baby's vein because the baby is changed and fed back and a direct illumination will irritate its sensitive eyes with a natural consequence that it ... will then teach us to sleep! The best solutions are ceiling lights and special lighting fixtures for indirect lighting or uplighters, which in any case cover both the first criteria (safety-perspective).
Then local lighting is required in the office (if it exists (300-500 lux)) and on the bedside table (70-120 lux). Better solutions here are flexible office luminaires and small metal or plastic bedside lamps which are screwed to the furniture or fixed to the wall (avoiding overturning) and preferably with low fluorescent or led lamps that have a low temperature (avoiding possible burns of small children).
Night lighting (with small lights in the socket) in addition to the additional security it provides when the child gets up from bed and half-sleeping tries to find its orientation has a positive psychological impact on many young children who are normally afraid the absolute darkness and have many problems sleeping from him and only the reason.
The theater lighting (although many children want it because it is like a discotheque ...) should be avoided as inappropriate, irritating and unhealthy (brightness differences, glare, etc.) and atmospheric lighting does not make sense in the children's room.
It is also understandable that ground lamps and fragile crystal lamps of any kind have no place in this space. But if there is something to avoid, it is the use of prefabricated veneer constructions. It makes me a terrible impression that some parents are looking for and risk a "cheap" solution in their children's room!
As with any product, a cheap luminaire inevitably means cheap materials or insufficient insulation or inappropriate wires and plug or careless and hasty assembly or total lack of safety specifications or ... all together !!
It well known that "good and cheap" things only exist in fairytales! The best precaution is the choice of quality lamps, branded products that meet international safety and quality standards and bear the manufacturer's name and at least one International Institute (SEV, TUV, IMQ, KEMA, EUR, UL etc).
I want to believe that the safety of our children deserves infinitely more than "something more" that we will have to spend on such a quality ... It is at least strange to want safety sockets and to put them on ... unsafe luminaires !!!
If it's one thing that you have to remember from this article, I prefer to remember how the lamps are electrical appliances and they can easily convert a DURABLE PURCHASE PRICE TO TRAGIC COST...
The main idea of the article was first published in 1997 by Costas Mathios in the KATOIKIA magazine.
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