How (Even on a Budget) Lighting Can Transform Your Home - Kelly Kirkland of Bend Lighting
House Talk Episode 12 – Transforming Your Home with Lighting
A conversation with Kelly Kirkland of Bend Lighting
https://nestbendrealestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kelly-Kirland-Bend-Lighting_Edited.mp3
Karen Malanga: Hi, this is Karen Malanga with House Talk. I’m so excited to have Kelly Kirkland from Bend Lighting here today with me. Thanks for joining us, Kelly.
Kelly Kirkland: Thank you for the invitation.
Karen: You’re welcome. When I met you, I was not really remodeling a home. I thought I was going to remodel a home. It ended up being an entire new home. You helped me with the lighting. It was a wonderful experience.
But since then, I’ve thought, “I go into many homes as a realtor. People say, ‘Oh, we’re going to remodel or we’re going to update.’” I sat back and I realized that lighting would be a really good place to begin, and it might even help them save money in the long run.
Do you often do like an in-home consultation when someone needs some updating?
Kelly: Yes, I do a lot of that. We do not charge for that. We come out as a courtesy and try to help create and get inside the client’s head and try to help put the designs together that’s going to fit that client. Especially in a remodel, they’ll buy a house that had someone else’s stamp on the house. And when they move in with their furnishings, the lighting from the previous owner just doesn’t fit with them.
Karen: Yeah, we see that all the time. They want the lot. They’d love the backyard. They like the house, but they don’t love it. And then, maybe having new lighting could add some warmth and sparkle to their interior.
Kelly: Yes, and perhaps even increase the light output in a room that was inappropriately lit to begin with. Many of the clients today want to convert to LED as well and save energy. And today, this is a market that has so progressed. It’s unbelievable. I could take a 50-year old chandelier with candelabra sockets and convert it into an LED lightbulb that is decorative.
Karen: You did that for me in my own residence. My house was built in 1929. And I remember you mentioned LED. I thought that was, “Ooh, I think of that bright, bluish light.” But you put those lightbulbs in that looked like—for lack of a better word—the original Thomas Edison lightbulb or something, I don’t know. Those were amazing.
Kelly: Those are commonly known to us as a Nostalgia. And Nostalgias were originally a carbon filament incandescent bulb. However, advances in technology, you can know get a Nostalgia filament in an LED. And so they’ll produce more light than the old carbon filament, and you use very little electricity.
What’s really key today is many of these bulbs have dimming fluorescent. As you know, if you’ve ever tried a dimming fluorescent, it never dimmed well. And even today, the technology in dimming fluorescent is inadequate. There’s usually a drop-off at 25% or 30%. LED, you get a fuller range.
So, now you can have a very decorative bulb with energy-saving and a dimming capability.
Karen: That’s fantastic!
I also realize that you’re not just Bend Lighting. You’re really three different companies. And so, you can do the full service between the electrical that’s necessary to maybe update a home. Maybe someone has a painting above their mantel, and they’ve never been able to have it highlighted by the proper light. And so you also have—is it Quality Electric?
Kelly: Quality Builders Electric, commonly known as QBE. They can often come in and [fish] wire where there’s no wire. But on those occasions where it’s impossible, there are battery-operated picture lights that could help enhance that picture without the expense of electrician and tearing sheet rock or whatever it’s going to take.
Karen: I didn’t even realize that. That’s very cool. And then, what’s the third company at Bend Lighting.
Kelly: That would be Central Oregon Audio Digital. They will go in and help put sound systems in, security systems, theatre rooms. He’s very talented in the low-voltage area.
Karen: That’s fantastic! You’re really a full-service trio of companies.
Kelly: Yes, we certainly do our best to try and help someone out make the shopping simple.
Karen: Sure! So, if someone wanted to see those Nostalgia lightbulbs and things like that, do you have a display at Bend Lighting where they can look at these different new bulbs?
Kelly: Yes, we do. We have a lightbulb text box that we can screw one in. We also have many, many display fixtures that we have put decorative bulbs in, so that you can actually see them in a fixture.
Karen: That’s fantastic! So Kelly, tell us how to get to Bend Lighting and how they can contact you directly.
Kelly: Well, thank you. It is 615 Southeast Glenwood, Suite 100. We are right next to Bend Highschool.
Karen: Okay, great. And what’s a phone number or a website?
Kelly: Our phone number is 541-318-1940. Our website is www.Bend-Lighting.com.
Karen: Thank you so much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it.
Kelly: You’re welcome. Thanks for the invitation.
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