Wolfers Lighting Blog

Spring is the perfect time to spruce up your home's exterior lighting so that it enhances all of your outdoor activities. Think family BBQs, fun nights around the fire pits, and relaxing evenings on the porch.

One of the best designer lighting brands for the job? Hinkley Lighting.

Since 1922, Hinkley Lighting has been producing high quality indoor, outdoor, and landscape lighting fixtures. Today, this fourth generation family-owned business boasts three different lighting brands:

• Hinkley Lighting
• Fredrick Raymond
• Hinkley Landscape Lighting

All are excellent, producing stylish, yet timeless lighting fixtures that you can use throughout your home.

Below, we're focusing on some showroom favorites for the outdoors.

 

1. Wall Lanterns for the Win. Nothing says “Welcome” like sparkling lanterns and post lights outside your front entrance. A well-lit entrance is also important from a safety perspective. Lighting near the front door shows guests where to go and illuminates any potential obstacles, such as steps and planters. Wall lanterns on the deck can also help the person in charge of the grill. 

 

Earth Day 2017 is a little over a month away! To get in the spirit, we're discussing smart energy systems with Gerard Lynch, president of System 7 and The Boston Shade Company. In January, Wolfers Lighting announced its merger with both companies.

What are smart energy systems?

GERARD LYNCH: Think of all the energy "systems" in your home—lighting, climate, pool controllers, irrigation systems, and so forth. All of these systems use energy (some use water) and they all cost money to operate.

Smart energy systems involve automation. An automated system gives the end user a simple app approach for a graphical user interface (or in the case of Alexa, a voice-user interface). These apps provide a simple and streamlined way to interact with the different technologies in your home, and in doing so, you can save energy and money. To create a fully integrated home, we often add other systems to these energy systems, such as security, video cameras, access control, and more.

For example, instead of returning home at night to discover you left your thermostat up all day (and, thus, wasting energy and dollars), you can quickly log in from work, see what's going on, set things on a schedule, measure historical behaviors, etcetera.

Spring is right around the corner, and you know what that means: Boston Design Week 2017 is almost here as well. 

We hope you join us for this 12-day citywide festival that "seeks to increase public awareness and appreciation of all aspects of design, foster recognition of the vital role design plays in our lives, and bring new audiences to a wide array of design industries and organizations."

From March 30 through April 9, designers, businesses, and education spaces open their doors and curate a diverse conversation about the many aspects of design.

Wolfers Lighting is proud to be a Bronze Sponsor of Boston Design Week 2017. We're thrilled to be offering three lighting seminars as well.

 

Because we're in our lighting showrooms day in and day out, we often take for granted all the awesome things we can offer customers.

So we thought we'd do a roundup of some of the (possibly) lesser-known features that are sure to wow and inspire.

We turned to three of our knowledgeable lighting consultants—Joyce Gravel, Susan Arnold, and Marty Whitney—for their insights.

What's your favorite feature about our lighting showrooms?  

Susan: The lighting labs. But keep in mind that the labs alone aren't what make them so special—it's the time and detail that each salesperson gives to each client who is using the labs. We make it a priority to give them an enjoyable experience. We all work as a team, so if one person doesn't know the answer, it truly becomes a team effort to find the correct one.

Marty: My favorite feature? The incredible variety of fixtures that we have on display. It's hard to visualize from dimensions and a photo alone what a fixture will look like and how it will provide light for a space. Even if the fixture that a customer is interested in isn't on display, we're often able to look at something similar in the showroom so they can get a feel for how the fixture will look and function in terms of style, size, and brightness.

 

Joyce: Definitely our displays. I hear it from customers all the time. Our displays are not overcrowded, and customers can turn on one or two fixtures at a time. There's plenty of room to stand back and appreciate and compare lights. Customers are better able to imagine what it will be like in their own space.

Is there a particular lab or item that you see customers really engage with?

Susan: The recessed lighting lab! Clients are always surprised at the price range of recessed lighting. In the lab, they can truly see why a light might cost $600 versus $200. While it's not always possible to implement the top-of-the-line fixtures, they can see and appreciate the difference. From there, they might decide to use the higher-end recessed lights in a few areas where they spend more time and where they'll truly appreciate the quality of the light. For example, they might use higher-end fixtures in the kitchen as opposed to the hallway or bedroom.