5 Best Brands to Light Your Home With

Lighting fixtures are probably the single most effective aspect of any given room in your house to give it its character and theme, and is probably the most functional type of furnishing as well. But with the vast number of lighting design companies both here and abroad, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are five household names (get it?) you can’t go wrong with.

Sonneman Lighting

Robert Sonneman is solely credited for pioneering modern, sleek functionalist design way back in the 60’s, laying the groundwork for a whole new segment of the industry and leading the way to present times. Ever on his toes and still in touch with the pulse of modern lighting, current collections from Sonneman boast energy efficiency and durability, while staying true to the artistry of design in making use of different materials, such as with the Dichroic lamp shade, which casts different colors of light in different directions.

Maxim Lighting

Definitely one of the crowd favorites, this SoCal lighting company has a wide range of choices for any area of your home. The sheer diversity of their selection is hard to beat, and many come in “families”, making for a trouble-free matching of lighting fixtures for each location. They will not be found wanting for innovation, either, using materials like vivex, a material stronger than resin so ideal for outdoor lighting that they come with a 3-year guarantee, as well as other materials developed for much sought-out properties such as being lightweight.

Kichler

A four-time winner of the prestigious Arts Award for Lighting Manufacturer of the Year, Kichler is another popular brand that’s hard to beat. Kichler enjoys such a high reputation for several reasons, not the least of which is also their diverse selection of lighting fixtures for any theme in any area of any home. Not content with just superior product quality and inspiring aesthetics, and in tune with modern society’s demand for ethics in business, Kichler is also known for being a family-run and –operated business and what is said to be “the finest customer service in the industry.” This is also readily apparent in that their website’s “About” page talks more about their “internal and external constituents (customers, employees, sales representatives, vendors and end users)” than their products per se.

Minka Lavery

Any list of the best lighting brands would be incomplete without mentioning The Minka Group, which includes such brand names as George Kovacs, possibly the single most well-known lighting designer. Minka Lavery in particular is known for expertise in a wide selection of materials such as metals like solid brass, wrought iron, and aluminium, as well as more natural materials like wood. They are also well-loved for their competitive pricing that makes their top-quality design and manufacturing within the reach of many.

Metropolitan Lighting Fixture Co.

In line with our earlier statement, Metropolitan Lighting is another name under the Minka Group that deserves to be listed as one of the best in the industry. Metropolitan Lighting Fixture Co. Has been around since 1939, starting primarily as an importer of antique European lighting, and continues to be the foremost importer of the same in the US today. Their long familiarity with timeless European design has helped the company turn more into reproductions of the exquisite artistry of a century ago, while updating them in style for modern times. Metropolitan Lighting is well versed in the use of materials that exude elegance, such as alabaster, brass, bronze, and mouth-blown Murano glass. As their website states: “Although we look forward to the future with great anticipation, we are ever mindful of our heritage in the past.”

Conclusion

Deciding what lighting will best translate your vision into reality is of course highly subjective, with due consideration to the particular room of a particular home, and of course your own personal taste. Whether you want to give a nod to the more classic designs offered by Metropolitan Lighting for one room and the clean, precise modernity of Sonneman for the next, or you want your whole home to follow the same theme as can be made possible with the variety offered by the likes of Maxim, these 5 brands should be more than enough to turn the vision in your mind into visual reality.

Michele Duchet is an Interior designer at 1800lighting.com in NJ, USA and she works with schools and homeowners to help create a safe an elegant home decor, that feature lighting with a variety of lights and lamps.