The lighting design of this New Jersey beach home creates a rich, seamless experience, uniting the vacation residence with its expansive natural environment. The refined, subtle design defines a series of connections and processions through the home, its mahogany-clad screened porch and to the terraced decks and pool. Designed and constructed on a tight budget, the project still provides many custom elements and a sophisticated lighting control system which blur the experience between interior and exterior, connecting the home to its natural context and the bay beyond.
As guests enter from the courtyard below, infloor uplighting highlights the texture of the woven bamboo window treatments and the linear entry hall. These fixtures serve to mark the hallway without perforating the ceiling.
In-floor fixtures were modified to meet the unique requirements of the project, including wood floor heat ratings, bronze trims to match the walnut floors, and walk over temperatures to accommodate bare feet.
The design’s overall simplicity is the result of carefully considered detailing: clusters of accent lights with flangeless beveled trims and lensed apertures with custom I.C. housing integrated seamlessly into the ceiling between existing trusses to provide lighting for specific tasks, art and furniture groupings, as well as providing a gentle glow along the line of the ceiling.
At the residence's center, lamps in 20 degree and 40 degree beam patterns illuminate artwork and objects, while table lamps provide an accompanying soft glow.
In the kitchen, a closely-spaced row of accent lighting accentuates surface textures and creates a dramatic interplay of light and shadow on the Tansu-style cabinetry.
A decorative pendant with warm incandescent uplight and task-appropriate downlight components visually defines the kitchen and dining spaces while providing a balance between an overall ambiance and functionality. Multiple scenes can be recalled through the central home lighting control system via tabletop or wall-mounted controls.
One other exceptional environment within the house is the guest bathroom, illuminated with vertical frosted Pyrex tubes, providing vertical illumination at the vanity.
A glowing niche integrated into the existing architecture provides soft uplight while a square downlight provides general illumination, creating a balanced environment.
Outside, in the mahogany-clad screened porch, recessed adjustable accent lights highlight an antique Thai wood carving over the bar while recessed step lights under the Nakashima shelf provide task lighting. An uplight sconce fills the vaulted cavity with light, creating a zone which is both inside and outside.
Finally, the view over the bay is framed by a row of incandescent deck-mounted marker lights while quartz floodlights concealed directly below the deck illuminate a line of nearby reeds. This lighting strategy defines the yard’s visual boundary in lieu of a fence, leaving the view between the house and the bay beyond uninterrupted. A series of step lights assist in this transition between the deck and the pool level below, creating a simple, pure set of relationships between the house and its environment.
