Lighten Up

Doreen Le May Madden glows as she talks about her work. Or maybe she’s just sitting under good lighting. As principal of Belmont-based Lux Lighting Design for almost two decades, this petite brunette has the skills to make any room positively sparkle. She’s tackled hundreds of commercial and residential jobs and the fiftysomething bandies about terms like “low voltage,” “wall-washer,” and “control system.” She’s been on This Old House, supports energy conservation, and recently custom-lit a 19th-century Gloucester castle with iron and bronze chandeliers. Here, we ask Madden about cutting down glare, going eco-friendly, and why the cliché about candlelight holds true (answer: soft lighting equalizes our nooks and crannies).

When did you, er, see the light?
I started out as an interior designer, but found myself constantly correcting bad lighting on jobs. It always seemed to be the key ingredient—that one piece that made a good design great.

What can you provide that an architect or interior designer can’t?
There are thousands of light sources out there. Architects and interior designers understand them to a certain extent, but lighting experts focus specifically on lighting technology, psychology, and physiology. I’m up on the latest fixtures and am always training.

If a house is already built, can you still help?
Architects love good lighting because it flatters their work, so they’re happy to have us on board before the walls go up. As a team, we can create solutions that are fully integrated with the design. That said, about 35 percent of our jobs are renovations, sometimes just a lighting upgrade. Many clients say that when they sell their homes, it’s the lighting we designed that moved buyers the most. There’s so much bad lighting out there that when people see good work, they really notice it.

What is “bad lighting”?
Glare is the biggest problem in interior lighting. Even low glare conditions can make people subconsciously shift around. Glare comes primarily from poorly designed fixtures, but even a good light incorrectly placed, or too many reflective surfaces like shiny countertops, will make you squint. Another major interior problem is overly uniform lighting where there’s no focal point. Without contrast, we get restless. Well-lit rooms have light and dark areas to lead our eyes from space to space. A single reading lamp in a big room can set up a cozy area to sit and relax.