hello welcome to a new edition of design for the times i'm your host richard christopher's could very very happy in studio to have someone who is a repeat guest actually my first repeat guest with a wealth of knowledge i often say that he's my lighting and his name is bruce brought back and he is with flemington fan and lighting welcome again bruce welcome back welcome back nice to be back one of the reasons that i wanted to have you back is i see something trending in a way i haven't seen trends in a long time and that is lighting is becoming really a focal point of design i think more so than it ever has now one of the things that i get is a wealth of knowledge from you because i have a little bit of space and your flemington fan and lighting and ring those new jersey so i know that recently a birdie told me that you went down to dallas and you went to the lighting show and what i did one of the things that happens when you go to a lighting show is right you see the best of everything you see what's trending you see what's going to be in style it's just coming out so i really wanted to rack your brain today to what you saw i know you brought back some gorgeous things or some gorgeous things in the store and thank you and then later in the broadcast we shot today connor came out connor my producer and he he shot some stuff and we're going to take a look at that so tell me when you went down to dallas like this this late in the show how often does that happen it's a lead in market and it's it's open to the world ok design no you don't you don't have to be in the trade to go should be in a trade to go right and you you need some affiliation with with the lottery or design sure and you need passes to get in and it's not open to the public s open to the trade i get it all at all levels and they do it twice a year in dallas they do it twice a year but there's also lighting shows and atlanta one of the biggest though is the dallas market really yes so where in dallas is it that is there sort of a design center down there the world trade center world trade center that big building huge building multi levels and adjoining buildings are also filled with design features and  companies and different layers of of the decorating industry how long of a time period is it two days three days three to four days reps and companies have means a couple of days prior to it and then the show the show goes there must be tremendous when for the saturday sunday i'm sorry no no there must be tremendous square footage of lighting in this place it was just be overwhelming it's an amazing array of lighting from all over the country all over the world most most manufacturers do show at that show they have show rooms ranging from fifteen to twenty thousand square feet apiece or how to smaller ones but  most are very very very large and packed with new product and that's where designers and decorators and buyers go and choose the lighting for their showrooms and they get inspiration i think it's very important both you own wonderful upscale lighting strong myself as a designer to be like three steps ahead right some people that people are paying us or you know giving us their their business because they want to know what's going to be the be the front end of things going to a show like that certainly does better and also makes it it's the leading edge of of design and it's it's ahead of the curve actually now how do you navigate a show that big do you have sort of sort of a set point do you say oh i know this company did well we'll talk about some of the companies that you like and you go to those booths first or how do you know if it navigated to sort of think this is the entry i want to walk around take notes do you start to just look for things how do you navigate a show that big but i do a combination of both rich i have companies that i deal with general relationships relationships that we utilize on a daily basis right there are companies that that we we know are our leading edge in design and quality  we're and what we do is we try to focus on them first however there's always trends in there's always new new companies and new products that are out there that we do want to look at be aware of and perhaps purchase sure if the design is correct and the and the quality of the product is such that that it warrants a purchase now do european companies participate in this and then i want to because of the difference of the electric is it do they have some sort of a conversion or an american version of something from europe or italy yes when when they're when they're imported they they are there one ten for the most part a lot of product today is illegal and they're coming through with with with drivers and the correct apparatus for the u s market so you have to do any sort of a conversion version however if you're overseas and you buy something there then it's going to be to twenty and then it has to be converted here which is really a painstaking procedure the reason i say that is you have some pieces of that moronic glass some of those beautiful italian pieces and i wonder how that you know transcends when you purchase things over there when they're purchased overseas there to twenty you either convert them there or here when i had my show my show room in london  everything was to twenty wow and when i brought fans over to the european marketplace they were all too twenty's your story has many layers you have a lot every time i think i know about you you're a pilot there in europe it just keeps keeps coming through new life experiences or life experiences that you're revealing to us so that's kind of the thank you so i want to just talk a little bit about trends and then we have wonderful footage connor shot beautiful footage in your story in the ring goes i want to take a look at some of the pieces what you see treating this year what's strong strong statement in your in your environment least expensive of your your environmental purchases sure and did it what what i've what i found was fixtures are coming through that are that are larger than usual or that what we think of as a light fixture for example pendants and fixtures over an island or tending to be a little more in the beginning correct but they're becoming more of the design and i think one of the reason that is that things are are becoming very clean less success stories less color less everything was kitchens now or new kitchens are white and gray bathrooms are white and gre simple open spaces not a lot of clutter so you need some sort of a driver for design correct and that's why i think the lighting is becoming the driver right right right and i think that's why lighting is so critical yes that's correct le heaviness more geometric shape lots of geometric here squares rectangles stars as a matter of fact the moravian star that once was is now wow popular again either with glass or without i find a lot of fixtures are coming without glasses so less maintenance more more whimsical if you will and industrial write a lot of  oh yes yes yes yeah in various finishes sure lots of different colors so we do contrast in we also do like finishes so why you could use grays you could use grids you could use piece was was utilized with with a brush nickel offset they also make that with a with a new classic brass offset right so it really highlights both finishes you know it's funny i'm going to go because we have a lot of footage to take a look at but i try to talk people into couple up in lebanon new jersey and it was a large large piece and it was the centerpiece of their their living room sure and it was it was the new classic brass and black love and the contrast was amazing or let's take a look at some footage so you're going to you're going to look this way you're going to look you can look this way and i'm just i'm not going to look at you at this point as i look at the monitor and i don't move it with your hand yeah because your center if you look at your screen right now your face is centered in the shop by where the if i move right in what i don't use gone ok so we're going to take a look at them footage conner shot some footage earlier this afternoon at your store so let's put up some images and take a look at some of the things that are in your store some of the things that i think are trending and really great if you're looking to make a change in your home again i think lighting can be transformative and really make a space like a new or you know a little bit of paint and a light fixture and you've transform the space you can keep the furniture you have to simplify and create something that the statement reflection there's a lot of reflective like a lot of reflective light now tell me about this that's that mean that is one of the most beautiful pieces that crystal that i found in dallas at the latest show these crystals there are l e d s both above and chrome and then it's mixed with a different sheen on the girls again there's a ribbon again right with the crystals that's akin to dye a contemporary dining room i see definitely that and i think the piece little formality to that and you could see the crystal crystal beautiful spheres those beautiful round pieces which i really love for for you don't you think that that sort of round image what basically is a home it's a series of rectangular boxes and in something that's round to the mix i really think makes a big difference and i see those beautiful sp there's another wonderful look it's a it's a cage it's a geometric shape look at the square candle covers you know i like the school here makes it kind of modern but there's still softness to it because i know those are  and you know what's funny about it the different color shows more of the depth of the piece i think as well there's another open fixture open fisher and when you go miles the glass where they don't open because often these pictures are very high in the new construction so it's just easier to maintain or  but the issue with the dust i think it just so much easier to maintain again we have a lot of lot of these pieces are bigger so probably they're higher ceilings right and bigger volume is right in new construction but we've also found again and we talked about it earlier ago just to get the just to get the the overall look and the appearance of the piece a little more into the environment let's talk a little bit about oh there's the drum fixture now you know me the one love junction look how many very inexpensive roms are a great way to make your traditional dining room transitional without doing anything else you can take a ninety's dining room that's burgundy and gold and change out that brass fixture to one of those drum gorgeous drum fixture change out the paint and you have a transitional space right lighting down a definite yes transformative and a lot of varieties on the classic drum don't you think you are correct there they can be shade oriented they could be metal there's a metal piece right there that we just went by there is your piece that that you that you love with the down light they could be multi levels and they seem to be one that looks like it's a drum but it's actually a pendant yes yeah they come in all different sizes so  and there's that little cage over the drum which is go that's really pretty that that that all is reclaimed metal beautiful beautiful piece the piece is from a company called vera lowe's which does a lot of product all of them actually are sustainable use the bottom piece on these drum fixtures is that look at the fuse or what is that that that that piece does that spread the lathe out or is it just because it's finished because you're looking up at the bottom on those  that those i've dug and we you and i did those on a project together in northern new jersey goes in to reflect you know it's got a really nice industrial look but again not so modern kind of transitional right yes there's a cage with an early electric look love you can see the spiral of again early electric with a cage and just an interesting interesting touch to decorating again you have presence of a of a piece it doesn't disappear exist pieces today are not disappearing know so it's important to get a good look exactly on the featured piece and that's a nice piece of shaded piece again doesn't look like a shaded piece so you know what's nice about what you're showing here you could have a traditional house a farm house a modern house an apartment a townhouse these pieces are updated but they still work well in different environments i would say which the pictures are in is because it's very transitional they are exactly that but if you have a traditional home as many of us do one hundred and mercer county you could take some of says slightly update your look but still be appropriate they're not so modern that they're just out of sight you know correct some of the pieces were statement pieces but a lot of them were very much transitional and i think a good opportunity to really  your home but just doing one piece that's correct right it's the least expensive way to make a make a major change in your home and a major major impact on a room setting sure let's talk like them a lot part of the always say they're they're wonderful think fixtures they were very well made and they're well priced richard and click sort of a classic look and that goes back to the the linear pieces again a lot of linear right a lot of spears but then also committee or linear in series or very popular and random random random shapes were going to be diamonds or whether they be orbs or whether they be blocks do you find that using more and one finish on a piece just changes the look of the piece as opposed to just being one i think it gives it a lot of depth and i think it gives it the contrast and the and just a different look just an elegance that  e that is a company called frederick raman and they have a lot of brand new very very elegant will design pieces beautiful actually now what are the actual say like the flo themselves are they met all or are they what are they oh that's a different piece that's also very nice that's right next to it with the the filament bulbs but that first piece that showed were sort of segmented is that metal the piece that you just saw right is is in really just designed and so it's called infinity really nice because in fact it almost looks like you're looking into a mirror right because this is actually the look that she was after so if you look at that on the edge it looks like you're looking at at multiple mirrors beautiful beautiful  how that affects the light does it have sort of a dappled appearance of the light do you see how it's sort of reflecting upon to itself it defuses the light a bit also generates a different very warm look to the room and again all of those that goes through you pick up sort of like an amber glow on some of these things right depend upon the pending upon the the bowl oh not necessarily to some of these bulbs that reveal that we have a big reveal that they not go that way color wise they stay pure white know the the intensity increases and decreases the color wasn't the same but i didn't realize that of the color stayed the same how is that all l e d s like that it's all lighting now no but some of it sort of you know how sometimes as they get dimmer the because we're just about three minutes left i want to for those are going to be watching the show and say you know what let's change our lighting we're going to get that williamsburg brass piece out into something if you were to sort of go out and take a look and you're going to do a dining room piece what appeals to you right now which is say something when you're because at the dining room would you say maybe it's a drum fixture because it has that sort of a room that's probably a rectangle it's nice to have a different shape or maybe something that's geometric what would you go for let's say you're  going to redo your you daryn let's change out the lighting to something a little bit more updated what would you what would you go to you have good taste you see everything what do you think you go to rich i would take a look at the the overall look of the room what kind of furniture they have true  what type of table is it round is it rectangular part of it yeah the size is very important so dimensionally i would go with with something that would conform with the table in the room size i also take into consideration there the look for something clean something a little different from from the norm and something that that meets the needs the needs in the static of the customer themselves i try the multiple lines of  looks that are similar but as you said open and kind of today as opposed to something that's that's very dated to exactly so in about a minute that we have left you know you're a lighting store let's thriving we're lighting and thirty one right one seventy seven one seventy six route two or two thirty one right next to beans toyota sure across the street a lot of people know where this is the inspection station exactly and that phone number  at some of the video that conner shot today your stuff is really innovative now there are more traditional pieces still in there we focused on some of the new stuff so if you're looking to do something very traditional it is all there it's a six thousand square foot showroom full of unbelievable wonderful details thank you for being my cast thank you for having me richard