Okay, I confess. I hate dimmers. I love the "idea" of dimmers, but in reality dim lights are stressful to me because I hate having to strain to see things. I'm one of those lights on or lights off people. I see that at least right now, there are 4 people like me. :)

One of the first things I did when I moved in was to have dimmers installed for all the lighting in the great room and kitchen. I have an 'upgraded lighting package' which means there are eight six-inch recessed cans in the great room on one switch, plus 5 cans and three island lights on another. All on -- it's like being on stage!

Emily, I think if we didn't have dimmers our teenage son would never agree to get up in the morning. He insists on eating breakfast in the semi-darkness, slowly upping the dimmer as he wakes up.

Just don't have them, but had them growing up. Loved them and only have one on our 1 Casablanca fan. I have yet to feel the need to have them but could seen the usefulness. Not sure why someone would hate them.

Check out Legrand....It will change your mind about switches..Seriously
http://blog.yaleappliance.com/bid/88495/Legrand-Adorne-Electric-Switches-Dimmers-Prices-Reviews-Ratings

@feeny that makes perfect sense since mine gets SO BITTER when I turn the lights on full blast in his room every morning. :)

I just upgraded the lighting in my kitchen. ALL LIGHTS are on dimmers: can lights, cabinet lights, pendants, chandelier and wall sconce. It's wonderful to adjust the lighting for parties or for cooking. Plus, my 16 year old son is like Feeny's. Lol.

Dimmers are also a simple and great energy saving choice!

Emily, maybe you need to give your son a bedroom light dimmer for his birthday. ;-)

haha! He's actually got one - I just rudely turn it all the way up. Poor kid. ;)

Clearly you need some behavior modification training! ;-)

I have dimmers on every light in the house!! Luv them.

I love the versatility in every room, including the bathroom. Hate to turn on a bright light in the middle of the night. I have dimmers everywhere.

Hi,
A quick note about our experience: Brigitte and I consistently design between 70-90 kitchens/year (for over 34 years) and have designed thousands of kitchens.....We also design full structural including below-grade foundation plans.....We have 2 Chicagoland locations and a Michigan location which cover the Wisconsin to Indiana borders, N.W. Indiana and S.W. Michigan.....Anyway, we use dimmers in every kitchen design we build.....We put one for ceiling cans, one for any pendant fixtures (over island or peninsula), interior cabinet lighting (glass doors) and one (or more) for undercabinet lighting.....Lighting is one of the MAJOR factors in all of our designs.....We have a Pinterest board devoted to some kitchen lighting effects we've done.....Take a peek here- http://www.pinterest.com/windycityjohn/kitchen-lighting/.....Hope this gives you some ideas and direction.....John & Brigitte

Love my dimmer switches. I like a bright kitchen when I'm cooking and then a nice dim kitchen when I have company (the party always ends up in the kitchen...) Everyone looks a bit better in the dim lighting and it makes the atmosphere a little more relaxing.

If you could afford only ONE dimmer switch, what light would you put it on?

Hi nasmati--if I could only do one dimmer switch--I would attached to the light fixture that is brightest in the kitchen--for example--overhead recessed lights.

@historichouse55. Thank you. :)

Love the look needs just one pop of color in yellow on counter.

Last big party I had an emergency dimmer call to my handyman, who'd just installed a light post that week to illuminate the path for our guests, and I found that from the great room, it was so bright outside it was ruining the view beyond. Emergency dimmer did the trick, except doing it at the last minute meant installing a white switch on a black plate in the foyer and using Sharpie to camouflage, which now I have to keep re-doing every month until I remember to pick up a black switch...

My electrician already knows to use dimmers on almost everything we remodel for our clients.

The best thing we did was put dimmers in the nursery when my girls were newborns!

They are a must! When we moved in, we replaced most of our switches with dimmers and installed the screwless covers! Love them!! I can have light without being blinded. We keep our house relatively dark unless cleaning or cooking.

I've never designed a kitchen without dimmers...no matter what the budget is. My experience is, that everyone wants them!

If budget allows, put em wherever u can, especially living and dining rooms and bedrooms

Love them

I used to like dimmers, but now my husband wants to install them on our kitchen island chandelier and I don't agree. As an older person who now has vision problems, I want everything bright and well lit ( including me, in stressful times).

I love dimmers. It's good to be able to control the light intensity. Highly recommended it.

I love dimmers. They can be finicky from time to time if you don't match the type of dimmer to your fixture or lamp type but come on....everyone wants to control the light!

How do I find out where to get the island lights? Luv them

Especially in the bathroom.

I take a dim view of houses without them.

I have the dimmers. I don't use them. I have led in all my lights and I love my cheap electric bill. So I will pass on the using the dimmers. You can get the bulbs that you can use the dimmers with them buy they cost more than I want to spend. I bought my led's on clearance for 5.00 a piece they are four years old and I love them. I would like the glow they give when you want to sit and watch a movie but the rest of the time I like my rooms bright. My exhusband and my husband and son are about to put five more can lights in my living room. ( yes we all get along that well.) Great for my kids and all of us.

I love my dimmers, all through the house. It actually cost me 250.00 just for the dimmer switch on our dining room chandelier "gasp"...My fave, though is in the master bedroom ensuite bath...I start the morning get ready ( bath in jet tub with music) on looow light, bit brighter to dry hair etc...start my makeup on medium, and by the time its natural light, I am almost fully conscious and presentable! If I see too many crows feet I just turn down the switch and then..voila! 5 years younger!

Dimmers are excellent for creating different atmosphere in any space.

What's not to love?

Does anyone NOT like to have a dimmer option?

I'm a fan of dimmers. The lighting in a room is the most important feature in it's function and it's mood. If you can't see your work you can't do it. But to change the mood for entertaining, a gentle midnight snack visit to the kitchen and to gently illuminate your space while highlighting it's design accents it's hard to beat the ability to raise and lower the intensity of the general, task and accent lighting. And if you don't like them...you don't have to touch them.

We always have dimmer lights, I like that I can lower or increase the brightness of the room, however, I have learnt recently if you don't not have the right wall switch for some reason, that switch (or make of it) can affect its performance.

I love them as a homeowner, also makes a huge difference for interior photography, too.

Who doesn't like dimmers?!?

love dimmers - where needed

I just rewired the entire house as part of remodel. I love dimmers as a concept, and use them; in reality, they have a few downsides. First, they frequently make your lights hum. Our recessed LEDs hummed, softly, but still, even on a $90 Electronic low voltage dimmer designed especially for LEDs. For incandecents and halogens, they reduce the top light output. We had our incandecent bathroom lights on occupancy switch, which we replaced with a dimmer switch; even at full brightness, the light output is noticeably less. Both are very unfortunate side-effects.

Dimmers are amazing! You can make the space as bright or as intimate as you want it to be. Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the light, went into the kitchen or bathroom, and were attacked by the brightness of the light? What if you could control the amount of light coming out so that it is dimmer and a lot more easy on the eyes immediately after waking up.

How about a lighting dimming control system? Just touch one button and several zones of fixtures start softly and ramp up to preset levels. There are scenes for entertaining, cleaning and dining. AND - All from your smart device app.

A must have in most rooms

The great thing about having dimmer switches is, 'you can have whatever degree of light you want', place it on bright when lots of light is needed, your perfect place for reading etc. People who don't like dimmer switches must not adjust them for their own convenience. I Love them!

How could you muster the energy to hate dimmer switches? Those who don't like them, can just leave them permanently at a setting they prefer.

That said.... as we age, there are few friends as good as low lighting!

Yes! Especially with recessed lighting. They're perfect for a room with a TV, to dim the room while watching a movie without it being completely dark.

@Emily H, my mom used to do something similar on Saturdays to wake us. Saturday was her housekeeping day, so linens were to be changed on her schedule, not ours. We had room darkening shades and curtains and she'd come straight in and open those curtains and flick open those shades -- the incoming light was painful (as if we were vampires)! Gosh, I hated that!

I can definitely appreciate dimmers in most living, kitchen and bedrooms... really even for late night bathroom trips! I'm probably a little more light sensitive than others. I keep my cell phone on a dimmer screen setting. When my BF hands me his phone on normal brightness (at night) it is shocking to me.

I once owned a home that had lights with an auto-dim feature. When you first turned on an overhead light, it started at about 50-60% brightness and got to 100% gradually over the next 3-5 minutes. It was something I had never thought about before living there, but it was really a nice feature. If you got up in the night for a drink, etc. The light was typically turned back off before it ever got to full brightness, thus not so jarring!