How much are you willing to spend ? A good lighting designer can do wonders as layers of light is amazing. The real question is whether you are willing/able to afford one. It's not beyond the realm of imagination that most good lighting designers charge somewhere between 15-50K for most projects. . . Which is why a lot of people just use experienced lighting sales people as their lighting designer.

Oh goodness, I don't want them to install them or even purchase them. I just want someone to consult with to help me with placement.

Some lighting stores may have an in-house designer who would do a plan for you, I'm sure the cost would be less than what is quoted above.

Some interior designers have good lighting experience; mine did and was a big help. You might make a few calls to some ID's in your area.

That price doesn't include installation. That was just for a lighting designer. Which is why I said a lot of people choose to use the so-called lighting designer that works in a lighting/electrical supply store. But if you use one that is say part of the IALD, or interior designers that are part of the ASID, then generally those guys are a bit more than your run of the mill types. It's similar to architectural services. Some people are comfortable using a house designer, others prefer the services of an architect. There are expensive and less expensive ones for each category (and an house designer is not always cheaper than an architect).

I have worked with architects and IALD certified interior lighting designers and their fees have never even come close to what is quoted above. I worked with a lighting designer from a local lighting store that came to my house and completed a lighting plan with a selection of lighting fixtures. Quite a few of those fixtures were not carried by the store she worked at. She incorporated my request for very few lamps as they take up too much space and I have not seen many lamps that I like. The process took about 1 month to complete and came to about $1300.

Make some calls to a few interior designers or architects, they tend to work with independent lighting designer.

Good luck!

maybe you need to step into the big time. I just worked on a plan build where the lighting design (residential project) came in right around 40K. Depends on the amount of work. For a 12K sq ft house, this wasn't out of the norm. If your serious about lighting, it'll easily get up in the 15-50K range for design only. Most of these designers are in the $100-$200/hr range, with CAD services charged in the $50-85/hr. If you don't think it'll take 100-200 hrs easy on some of these projects with the CAD work to do as well, you haven't really worked on some serious lighting projects. Like I said, it can range all over the board for lighting. Most people can't or wont spend the amount of money to really design it correctly but working with various architects/ID/LD's, I've seen several this week already.

Anthem, I would assume that those would be classed as luxury homes? I am not knocking the right to charge $100-$200 an hour. But just as there are interior designers who specialize in more modest jobs, aren't there also IALDs who work on comparatively more modest homes--in the 2500-3500 square foot range?

I'd want someone to walk with us through the various rooms in a framed house, ask what is important to us, tell us what we didn't think of :-) and help us plan what type of lights we want where (and at least some whys so that I could take notes and figure out what to do with the lights)

I wouldn't want CAD services afterwards. I'm thinking that I'd want 3-5 hours of someone's services. If a person had 3 or customers a week who were willing to pay $500-750 for a half day consultation, that would be a pretty good-paying part-time job.

I want to hire someone who has figured that out.

--Beth
p.s. The idea makes *me* want to do it, except that it is so totally my area of incompetence.

I would believe there are IALD's that may be cheaper than that. While you can't say you would get a better product with the higher level/price of designers, you would figure that the better ones would be more quite busy and charge appropriately.

My comment above was that someone said they had worked with several architects and ligthing designers and said it has never come close to what I quoted above. I know several lighting designers and all of them are in the $100-$200/hr range. If you throw in CAD's, the price will /easily/ reach between 15-50K for a project.

I should also add, IALD is not a stamp of certification that any lighting designer will do a good job. There are non-iald lighting designers that can (and frequently will) do a better job than a IALD one. Just as in architects, there are good ones and bad ones.

You might also try looking into architectural engineers who specialize in lighting.

Heck, you might want to even consider conferring with a lighting engineering student, at least to get some bearings. I'm only a 3rd year student (out of 5 years), but the indoctrination into lighting has had a profound impact into the way I view lighting in residences. I now hate almost all the pre-existing lights in my home. Getting a basic understanding of lighting will help you effectively interview and communicated with the lighting designer.

I see the fees for lighting design often in the $1 to $2 per square foot range but it can go higher. At $1 per square foot you seem to get hand drawn fixtures and notes on your plans. As the price gets higher you get CAD drawings of the design. At higher prices there may be onsite consultations during rough and finish included to go over any difficulties and changes required.

Some lighting stores offer design for a fee and credit it back or part of it back if you purchase the fixtures from them.

I've worked with dozens of lighting designers and they are artists with different visions. I've seen jobs where the owner hires and fires several designers and the plans change with the person. You should hire someone where you have seen their work and like their style or you may not know what you are getting. They all have favorite brands and techniques.

The cheapest but very effective route to take requires you to be a bit computer savy. I would recommend buying a home design suite that includes a lighting module, like say Punch Software products do. This will give you placement in a 3D model of your rooms fully furnished, with realtime walk through at any elevation. Not the best available perhaps, but very impressive for most needs, since you get so many different tools to build the entire home inside and outdoors. Then for the tightened layout I would buy Lighcalc for windows, and use it to fine tune say the kitchen placement in regard to cone spread per can by wattage, bulb type vs. height of counters and your ceiling height, pendant drops, can sizes and any other variable one can think of. Between these two programs you can achieve a very calculated layout with exact measurements that would rival what many designers could ever do for ya for under $250.

JMHO

Thanks for all the ideas. I really do appreciate it.

brutuses:

Our lighting designer was $450 for 3 visits and 3 rooms. One "room" is actually the kitchen/livingroom/dining room, the other is a small bedroom off a huge terrace, the third "room" was the terrace itself. She was amazing at listening (I wanted "modern" but not boxy and she knew what I meant). She showed me the difference in Ikea lighting (which I like) and really great lighting, she listened when I wanted something really great for the kitchen but much less expensive for the halls and when I wanted a cool fixture she found something similar for 1/10 (!!) the price AND, with the discounts she gets we saved close to 1000. I know she makes $$ off the sales too. The best is our lighting (and ceiling fans) creates layers and layers of lights. Everything can be dimmed too.

Any suggestions for a person/place to help with lighting design in the Baltimore/DC area that is good and won't charge and arm and a leg? We really could use some help. The person will need to work from blueprints as our home is being build out of state. Thanks.

I contacted Randall Whitehead of Lighting Solutions and someone returend my call today. They are the nicest people you ever want to talk to. They are very helpful and it looks like we'll be working together on my lighting for my new house. Even after I explained to the lady that I wasn't building a "mcmansion" and didn't have a lot of money, she still was gracious enough to offer their services at a price I can afford. I'll keep you posted on how it progresses. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and comments.

Randall Whitehead has an awesome website and a few books out there. We found them helpful. But certainly getting a good designer would be much better than playing amateur.

I would love to have Randall Whitehead design my lighting! I have two of his books; The Art of Lighting and The Art of Outdoor Lighting and I think he is fabulous! I am working with an interior designer and she has come up with a lighting plan but I would love to have a separate lighting designer, especially Randall. I think you are going to be very happy, Brutuses.