I know we all go to Lowe's on the weekend, and see lights that are affordable and inspire you to redo the dining room ... the fact of the matter is when you're building a new house, the lighting industry is controlled by the mafia, and they'll take you to the cleaners if you're not careful.
Typically in building a house, the general contractor gives you a lighting allowance of, say, $10K or $20K, which sounds like an incredible amount of money. They send you to the local lighting specialist, and they do a great job showing all these wonderful lights - unfortunately, you end up paying top dollar for them.
I didn't like the idea of someone telling me what lights I should have in my house, and then sell me those lights - it's a recipe for financial disaster. So instead I hired a lighting 'expert' to draft something out, ended up having my architect fix some issues and pick some things out, and then I went shopping on the internet myself ... it took me a really long time. But I really saved a fortune, and I was really happy with the results ... I figure if I went the full on retail route, I would have ended up with a bill at least 3X what I ended up paying.
Keeping in mind that my old house was about the same size as my new house ... my old house had about 15 lights ... the new house has 88.
So definitely hire a lighting designer ... or a really good architect that has some skills in the area. If an architect is adept at looking how you move through a space and balances form over function - a lighting designer does the same thing with just lights. It's always good to hire people that specialize and are passionate about a specific field ... the couple hundred bucks you pay them, pays you back for decades to come.
Also, find a great online source that you trust and has high quality material. If you buy something cheap, you won't keep it for long - ending up spending more money in the long run. The choices online are amazing, and I don't think it was hard to picture something in a space.
Finally, watch the budget. It's really easy to get out of control - so a little extra time running up to Restoration Hardware for a clearance item could end up saving you a lot of money.
The lights can be all found on Pinterest
The lights can be all found on Pinterest
