Blog: A barn lighting case study
More details on the practicalities of the lighting design for our 15th century Hampshire barn project
Barn lighting
We’re lucky to have worked on many barn lighting projects all over the UK. Whether these are glorious old structures or more contemporary steel frame conversions they can really benefit from a sympathetic, bespoke lighting design.
Planning your lighting early is even more important
Barns can be tricky spaces to light. The structures themselves can be quite unforgiving in terms of cable routing and concealing control gear. Listed building restrictions may require innovative lighting solutions and buy-in from the wider project team. All this means it’s more important to plan early, test ideas and solutions and minimise change through the project.
Use fittings capable of dealing with the demands of the spaces
The huge vaulted ceilings in some barns challenge preconceptions about what is needed in a “domestic” light fitting. Appropriate light output, glare control, discretion, clever fixing methods, colour, colour rendering and dimming are always important, but particularly so in unusual and complex spaces.
Be creative with fixing locations
Early planning enables a cohesive approach, incorporating – as appropriate – the floor, walls, joinery etc. This requires meticulous attention to detail and creative use of a broad range of innovative light fittings, but the results can be spectacular.
Ground recessed uplights throw light upwards and the improved output of LED means that the floor is a great way to light features in barns. Conversely there are locations that are really difficult to light but call out to be lit. We’ve developed custom mounting options to allow us to use small, barely noticeable fittings to deliver just the right accent light to particular features.
Lighting control is hugely useful in large inter-connected spaces
A lighting control system massively simplifies using interesting lighting across large, multi-functional, multi-zone spaces. Simple lighting keypads control all the lights across the barn, lighting each zone as needed and making lighting scenes easy to call up. Unlike conventional switching, lighting control means you have the same level of control and dimming from any keypad location.
Lighting control systems can also control electric blinds & curtain tracks
Barn conversions frequently feature large windows, which can be challenging for manual control of blinds or curtains. Lutron’s electric blinds and curtain tracks are a joy to use, and can be pre-programmed to open/close at particular times of day, or to simulate occupancy. The QED motors are incredibly quiet.
Barns come in all shapes and sizes
While we light many "traditional" barns, we also get to work on different styles of barns. Modern agricultural buildings present some of the challenges associated with lighting barns: high ceilings, large open-plan spaces, huge windows, and throw additional complications like hard modern agricultural surfaces and materials into the mix. Samll barns can be equally challenging with a real shortage of fixing locations which means you really need to be flexible on fitting choices and how you mount them.
The Silos, a unique luxury country house developed around a large barn and an array of agricultural silos.
One of our smallest projects. A beautifully restored stone barn conversion in West Yorkshire.
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