Updated lights turn up the intensity

Purchasing a lighting fixture for your home can be similar to purchasing a piece of artwork, said Jennifer Gibson, lighting designer at Littman Bros. Lighting in Schaumburg.

Lights ornament your home by hanging from the ceiling or wall or by sitting on the floor or a table. Light fixtures and lamps should not be chosen without due care.

"Over the past five years, fixtures and lamps have gotten much lighter and brighter. People are choosing cleaner lines and a more open feeling in their lighting fixtures," Gibson said. "They are trending toward lighter, transitional pieces to go along with their gray walls and heavy white molding.

"For instance, vintage looking orbs and lanterns are now popular for foyers and stairwells, as well as over tables and kitchen islands," she said. "Schoolhouse lights, fixtures in the golden hues and vintage-looking crystal fixtures, are also making a huge comeback.

"Add to that, industrial fixtures with exposed parts and orangey-colored, exposed-filament bulbs offer an edgy vibe that people love, as well as a warm, comfortable light," Gibson added.

When it comes to the types of bulbs you put in those state-of-the-art fixtures, LED has taken over the world. They are now totally mainstream because the price has come down, the color has improved and LED bulbs are now dimmable, Gibson said.

While LED bulbs are now being made that can screw into any existing socket, the incredibly long-lasting, environmentally friendly light-emitting diodes (which illuminate with the aid of a low voltage transformer) also allow lighting designers to create fixtures that are more like pieces of art that hang from the ceiling.

"Fashion lighting designers can now build fixtures without worrying about fitting light bulbs in. Virtually no space is taken up by the LEDs. They last forever and use very little energy but offer the same brightness as a conventional bulb," Gibson said.

The fact that LEDs burn, on average, for between 20 and 34 years if lit eight hours a day is a huge benefit, especially in difficult-to-change places like rooftop lighting, recessed indoor lighting, two-story foyer chandeliers and under-the-cabinet applications, she added.

Littman Bros., located at 845 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg, has been in business since 1979. It is owned by brothers Dan and Benson Littman.

They were in their early 20s when they started the business, which originally sold ceiling fans exclusively.

At that time, everyone perceived ceiling fans as something to be used only in warm weather locations. The Littmans were the first to recognize that fans could also be efficiently used to reclaim heat from the ceiling in colder climates. If a fan were run slowly enough, it could bring heat that had collected near the ceiling, back down into the room.

Within seven or eight years, the ceiling fan market had taken off and the Littmans had about 20 stores around the Chicago area, as well as in Milwaukee and St. Louis.

"But then the home centers got into the ceiling fan category and took the low end of the market away from us. We eventually closed a bunch of our stores and expanded more in the direction of lighting," Benson Littman recalled.

Today the company has morphed into that single location, a 10,000-square-foot, full-service Schaumburg store. They sell residential and commercial lighting fixtures and lamps and they also have a massive e-commerce site (www.littmanbros.com), selling online to customers around the world.

Littman Bros. is unique in the business because of the range of services it offers to homeowners and contractors, alike. The website allows people to shop before they visit the store or even to order completely online.

"We offer design services to homeowners from the start of their project all the way through to fruition," Gibson said. "We can even work off plans before anything is ever built, making sure that a homeowner has the right size fixtures and the appropriate type of lighting to create a great look for their space. Our designers will also visit a client's existing home to help them choose new fixtures for only a small fee that is applied toward the purchase. Installation is also offered so clients don't need to locate and hire a separate electrician."

Finally, Littman Bros. offers contractor pricing.

For more information, call (847) 895-5155.