You Should Shop at Local Lighting Stores Instead of a Big Box. Here's Why
It Would Be Best If You Shopped at Local Lighting Stores Instead of a Big Box - Here's Why
It’s tempting to shop for lamps and lighting fixtures at big-box retailers, but you shouldn’t. Read on to learn why.
National brands and big-box chains entice shoppers with their low-prices and flashy names, but the overall shopping experience comes at a cost. Before you jump at a national chain’s “good deal” on lighting, find out what they provide to customers – and what they take away.
With expansive online options and a growing number of large-scale national brands offering too good to be true pricing, it’s increasingly difficult to determine the real value of retail experience (either brick and mortar or online). Is it the product and its price tag, or is it the purchasing experience and customer service that creates value? When it comes to lighting, we’ve seen too many customers fall victim to a low price tag from a national retailer. To us, an outstanding purchasing experience with a focus on customer service creates real value.
We’re a locally-owned Colorado business with over thirty years of experience in connecting customers with lighting that completes their homes. And we offer a level of customer service, knowledge, and first-hand insight that only comes after more than two decades in the home lighting industry.
Our sales associates often help Colorado lighting customers reeling from a poor big-box experience – either online or in-person. But we’d prefer to help you avoid a potentially expensive and frustrating experience while shopping for lighting to complete your home – from the start.
Keep reading to learn five reasons you should avoid national retail brands when seeking out
the lighting for your Colorado home.
You get personalized (and exceptional) customer service.
The core of retail is customer service, and while it’s entirely possible to have a decent experience shopping with a big box lighting chain, you won’t get the same kind of passion, expertise, and attention to detail that you’ll get from a local lighting retailer.
Our team is passionate about lighting and interior design, and they enjoy helping Colorado customers create beautiful (and functional) homes. The combination of in-depth lighting knowledge and a commitment to providing an outstanding experience is what separates a local Colorado lighting store from a big box.
Shop a highly curated selection of lighting products.
Local lighting stores offer a hand-selected assortment of high-quality fixtures, lamps, bulbs, and accessories. It’s similar to a sommelier selecting beautiful wines for a fine dining restaurant.
We don’t sell anything that we wouldn’t consider for our own homes, and our assortment isn’t guided by price or vendor relationships. When you visit either of our two Denver-metro lighting showrooms (Greenwood Village and Denver), you have the opportunity to shop a lighting selection that is curated based on the unique tastes of Colorado homeowners.
Big box brands can’t say the same. Strict corporate and vendor rules guide their assortments. You’re not buying the best solution for you; you’re purchasing the best solution for the national retailer.
Fair prices from the start.
National retail lighting chains are notorious for setting high daily prices and offering occasional discounts that deceive customers. You think you’re getting an exceptional deal.
Believe us; you’re not.
Independent lighting retailers are transparent in their pricing. Daily prices are set fairly from the start, and when there is a sale, it’s a real value – not smoke and mirrors. And again, there’s value in working with passionate lighting experts trained in providing outstanding customer service.
Peace of mind.
Local Colorado lighting retailers (like us) offer customers peace of mind. There’s comfort in knowing that if there is a product issue either before or, more importantly, after the sale, you’ll be covered. We don’t sell without compromise; our team is in the lighting business because it’s their passion, and helping customers complete their Colorado homes is immensely gratifying. It’s what we love.
Support for the local community.
Local businesses create jobs – it’s that simple. A study conducted by the U.S Chamber of Commerce shows that local retailers create 75 % more jobs than big box brands. When you shop with local Colorado lighting stores, you’re supporting the community, not a corporation.
Where you shop is entirely up to you, but we think you’re better off shopping with a local Colorado lighting store instead of a national chain – you’re more than a monthly sales quota.
Please support your local lighting experts by shopping at one of our two convenient locations:
Galleria Lighting Denver
https://gallerialighting.net/denver-lighting/
Galleria Lighting – Greenwood Village
https://gallerialighting.net/galleria-lighting-showroom-greenwood-village/
10 Ways to Use Lighting to Create a More Inviting Living Room
Lighting is the key to creating a functional, inviting, and cozy living space. Here are ten ways to do it.
Living rooms are the focal point of Colorado homes. It’s where we relax after a long workday, and where families gather to watch movies and entertain friends. That’s why it’s essential to create an inviting and comfortable living room!
Not to mention that a cozy living room enhances the richness and quality of daily life, making you and your family feel happier and safer as you rest and unwind in your sanctuary.
We encourage customers to use lighting in ways to create inspiring and comfortable homes, homes that fulfill your vision of what’s beautiful. Because, adding personality, style, and function to your living room with layers of elegant lighting enhances your experience of home and improves your quality of life.
Here are ten ways to use lighting to make your living room more inviting and serene.
1. Create a feeling of warmth with ambient lighting.
Ambient lighting ricochets indirect light off the ceiling, giving your living room subtle warmth that makes people feel comfortable and relaxed.
There are different ways to create ambient light in your living room. You can install cove lighting or a cantilever detail with LED lighting inconspicuously tucked inside, or, you can place linear LED lighting atop lofty furniture pieces, like bookcases or cabinets. Many designers also install wall sconces to project upward light to achieve a comforting, warm, inviting, and serene living room.
2. Set the mood with three levels of lighting: high, medium, and low.
It’s essential to have three levels of lighting: high, particularly if your living room has unique materials like plaster or wood, or if the ceiling is vaulted; medium, which includes wall lighting; and low, including floor and table lamps.
We like to use living room up-lights to create an overall glow that acts as mood lighting. Our team also often uses recessed lights to illuminate table surfaces, art, and fireplaces.
In the mid-level area, wall sconces add a jewelry-like effect to living rooms and are your opportunity to introduce another material, like glass, metal, or fabric.
*Pro-tip: designers also frequently use wall-mounted lights in bronze or brass to create a glamorous sparkle.
3. Use table lamps and floor lamps for form and function.
Floor lamps and table lamps create layers of illumination around seating areas, like little islands of serene light in your living room. They add form and function to the room, and, from a design perspective, floor lamps and table lamps enhance visual character by allowing you to play with scale, contrast, materials, and color.
4. Create a central focal point with a sculptural pendant lamp or chandelier.
Attention-grabbing pendants and chandeliers are a perfect launching point for your comfortable and well-designed living room. Place either fixture style in the center of your space to establish a central focal point from which to design the rest of the room.
Why? Because starting with statement pieces like a chandelier or pendant lamp makes it easy to select the rest of the rooms’ lighting and furnishings. Designers use a similar approach when they pick a statement rug as the foundation of the overall room design.
5. Take control with dimmers.
Dimmers are a worthwhile investment. They allow you to set the mood for entertaining and daily life, and you can adjust light levels as day turns to night. If you are using LED’s (and you should), it’s crucial to select dimmers compatible with your selected light sources (don’t worry, we can help). Most lighting manufacturers list compatible dimmers on spec sheets and websites. And with the proliferation of smart technologies, in many instances, you can control light levels with your phone.
6. Get strategic with lamp and fixture placement.
You don’t want to blast the top of someone’s head with light, or worse, blind comfortably seated visitors with an errant bulb. Light the coffee table instead of sofas and chairs, and place sconces in areas outside of natural traffic patterns. For example, flanking the fireplace mantel or on walls where people have plenty of room to move around them.
Also, lighting should trace the perimeter of your living room. Use sconces or a continuous light strip at the ceiling’s edge to trace and anchor the room with inviting illumination.
7. Your living room lighting mantra is texture, scale, color, and shape.
Like all things interior design-related, when it comes to living room lighting, you’ll want to play around with texture, color, scale, and shape.
As we mentioned in point four, a large and dramatic pendant lamp or chandelier is the jumping-off point for the rest of the room’s lamps and fixtures. Use a large and dramatic fixture as the foundation for the remaining layers (more on layered lighting below), and play with various sizes, contrasting materials like metal, fabric, wood, and glass, and don’t overlook the importance of color.
8. It’s all about layers.
Layers of light are crucial for creating an inviting, comfortable, and functional living room, and there’s no single lamp or fixture that’s going to give you everything that’s needed to get the job done. The proper layers of ambient, accent, and task lighting brings your room to life.
Layered lighting is the key to making your living room more inviting. But getting it right isn’t as easy as placing a lamp in each corner of the room. We could write a book covering the details of layered lighting, but you’d be better of dropping by and working with our expert lighting consultants.
9. Use light to accentuate architectural features and art
Framed photos, art, and interesting architectural details add visual character to your living room and make the space uniquely yours. You should accentuate them!
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to lighting architectural features and art, but there are a few things to consider. Do you want to illuminate the art or feature directly, or have pieces live in a well-lit room? Whatever route you choose, it’s best to avoid natural light. Direct sunlight exposes paintings and photographs to UV and infrared light and causes them to fade. Position pieces away from sources of bright natural light to avoid damage.
10. More lighting isn’t’ always better.
Over-lighting is one of the most common lighting mistakes customers make in their living rooms. People gravitate toward bright spaces like moths to a flame, but in living rooms, where you want family and guests to feel comfortable and at ease, too much light is a mood killer. Be intentional in lighting your living room, and rely on a central chandelier or pendant, a few sconces, and table and floor lamps to illuminate the room.
*Pro-tip: a pendant or chandelier in the middle of a room makes a big impression; start with a remarkable fixture to design the living room around.
Colorado homeowners spend hours agonizing over the perfect seating, and days pondering the ideal shade of paint, but often overlook proper lighting. And in a room where you relax, watch television, entertain guests, and read, light serves a crucial purpose in both the style and function of the space.
Whether you realize it or not, lighting is the subtle element that changes your experience of home. The ten tips in this blog will set you on the path to creating a comfortable, beautiful, and serene living room.