An inspirational reno project, with lighting at the heart of the design concept
Innovative and creative electrician and automation specialist, Davey Boyes from Inception Electrical, welcomed our Switch Lighting team into his home as he proudly showcased an extraordinary renovation project – like none we’ve ever seen before.
The concept for the project was to create an additional living and entertainment area on the property, as the main house did not have adequate space to cater to the family’s sociable lifestyle. Davey explained, “we wanted an area where we could invite people round, entertain, watch movies, listen to music. A great space for our teenage son to comfortably have friends round. A free-flowing space back into the garden, and into the house.”
Davey and his partner wanted something different with this project, a room that was not the traditional white, four-walled space. It needed to be a space that complimented their different needs and styles. They wanted an environment that is rich in colour and texture, that both exudes comfort and creates an atmosphere in itself. With dark wood timbers throughout, the lighting is critical in creating a space that was both beautifully ambient and functional.
Figure 1: The newly enclosed garage, with an outdoor entertainment area that leads into the spectacular conversion project.
Product: Switch Lighting Spot-LIGHTZ SL224
Photography credit: Inception Electrical
When Davey did the lighting design, his vision was to create an experience for people visiting, creating interesting scenes and zones throughout, while highlighting certain sections in the room. With Davey’s passion for old school music, soul and jazz, he wanted to use lighting to highlight his Focal speakers and the Rega turntable. Another important feature is the gorgeous Macrocarpa timber used for the bar countertop as well as the two-tiered bar inset into the back wall with the automated electronic roller blind.
Soon the endless possibilities of lighting and automation took hold and Davey had commissioned a scene in every corner of the room, creating a wonderland in this garage conversion project.
One of the most innovative lighting applications came about when working on how to install the lighting for the bar. One of Davey’s self-proclaimed indulgences is that he collects whiskeys from around the world, and part of the renovation project was the task of how he would incorporate his collection into the space. They tried lighting from above, the side, the back, but he felt that none of these traditional variations highlighted the various bottles in a satisfactory way. Davey, and his business partner Lenny, came up with the ingenious idea to place the Switch Lighting Mini-LIGHTZ Deep Fixed fittings under the bottles with the light shining straight through from below. The small, but powerful 1-watt Mini-LIGHTZ were embedded along the bar shelves and the result was just spectacular, beautifully emphasising his highly collectable oldest and most elegant whiskies. Davey said, “It gives a great effect visually, but also practically as well. It works as an additional light source in the bar area. This decision was a winner!”
Davey talked through his product wish list, which included the Dali controls with our premium Switch Lighting luminaires. On this project Davey installed the Dali lighting control system, as it provides a smooth dimming curve for LED lighting, as well as being integrable with a variety of other home automation components, such as switching devices, colour controllers, sensors, etc., all integrated into the wall mounted touch screen panel in the bar.
For the remainder of the space Davey selected Switch Lighting’s colour tunable lighting range to achieve a multi layered, three-dimensional lighting effect – creating depth and warmth. Davey chose multiple Switch Lighting products with the copper inserts as it adds an additional lustrous warm glow. Above the bar the ZELA décor Surface Mount with the Honeycomb lens is installed, these fixtures are recessed for low glare and with a narrow 30-degree beam angle to control the even spread of light across the stunning Macrocarpa countertop. The ZELA décor Fixed were installed in a row of four fixtures above the entertainment centre, again with the beautiful copper inserts. The ZELA Deep Tilt fittings were installed in the remainder of the room to achieve the desired dimmable, moody effect.
Figure 3: ZELA décor Surface Mount with the Honeycomb lens installed above the bar beautifully highlights the rich textures in the Macrocarpa timber countertop.
Product: Switch Lighting ZELA décor Surface Mount SLSM106F
Photography credit: Alister Winter Photography
Davey has been a long-standing brand advocate of Switch Lighting, a New Zealand-owned and operated company that specialises in locally designed and manufactured LED lighting solutions. He envisioned this project with a plethora of his favourite Switch Lighting products, and successfully achieved what he set out to create when he embarked on this renovation. On deciding which lighting products to choose, Davey said, “Choosing Switch Lighting products for this project was a no-brainer. Having worked with Switch for the last 10 years, it’s been an amazing company to work along side and see them grow. The fact that we can offer our clients a New Zealand brand, based locally up in Nelson, they absolutely adore that! With a range from standard downlights through to the more architectural range, gives us the tools to achieve amazing results with lighting.”
Figure 4: Directional lighting commissioned to create multiple zones of comfort and warmth in this living space.
Product: Switch Lighting ZELA décor Surface Mount SLSM106F; ZELA Deep Tilt SLDL221T; ZELA décor Fixed SLDL284F and Multi-LIGHTZ Eyelid SL41-EL
Photography credit: Alister Winter Photography
Watch the video interview on our Switch Lighting social media channels and have a look at more photographs from this amazing project under the Showcase tab on our website.
To contact our team of Lighting Consultants to discuss lighting for your next project, call the Nelson office on 03 9700 755 or email info@switch-lighting.co.nz