Lighting Report: Lighting news from New York

Just 27% of NKBA (National Kitchen & Bath Association) designers and specifiers feel their lighting knowledge is at a good or expert level, according to Angela Rath, director, NKBA, at its Manhattan Chapter’s third-annual Education and Membership Day this week. In a CEU presentation called “Harness the Power of Light as an Evolving Luxury,” Rath discussed the findings in the NKBA’s recent lighting report, as well as provided three suggestions on how designers can sell lighting: Demonstrate its value, as the category is one of the first to get cut back in a project; partner with lighting experts, because they know the category well if you don’t; and build your lighting skills, through education, experimenting with your own kitchen and bathroom, or examining old projects and seeing how the lighting could have been better.

“Lighting is too important to a project’s success to be left to the architect, the builder, the general contractor, the electrician or homeowner,” Rath said, “And most of the designers that we interviewed all agreed that the designer just needs to own it.” —Andrea Lillo

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Also this week in New York, French crystal company Saint-Louis, which was exhibiting in its showroom at the D&D Building during the New York Tabletop Show, unveiled a lighting collection called Torsade that was designed by Stefania di Petrillo as an homage to chandelier arms.

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Today, Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum, aka The Brownstone Boys — influencers (with 300k Instagram followers) as well as renovators, designers and DIYers — are launching their first-ever product collaboration with New York-based Blueprint Lighting. The Boroughs collection tells the story of New York through the rich history, local architecture and community essence of each of the five boroughs (which, for non-New Yorkers, are Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island).