Stairway to Heaven?
The sole purpose of every stairway is to help you move up or down in any given place. But what if the same stairway lands you at the hospital with an injury?
Surely stairs do add up to the design statement of your place, but what does it add to your health statement? According to statistics by the National Safety Council, the injuries caused by stairway accidents is listed second to that of motor vehicle accidents. Several stairway falls have resulted in over 1 million injuries and around 12,000 deaths every year. Several studies have also shown improper or inferior lighting to be one of the major causes of such stairway accidents.
These statistics are enough to show that your beautifully designed stairways could easily become a Stairway to Heaven to someone else or even you!
One way to ensure user safety would be to keep your stairway brightly lit at all times… But then again, we understand that everyone wants their stairways to look stylish at the same time and too much lighting would take away the style element. With modern lighting solutions, you now have multiple lighting options for your stairways that would make it look effortlessly elegant while maintaining visibility for safety at the same time. To put it in simple terms, your stairway lighting can now be dramatic, subtle and functional.
Research shows that people view only the first and last three steps while using any stairs and ignore the rest. Therefore, the lighting design of the top three and bottom three steps is very important. There are 4 possible lighting positions that you could use for your stairways:
1. Walls
2. Ceiling
3. Handrail and Tread.
Tips:
· Plan the lighting such that shadows are not cast on the stairs and glare doesn’t disrupt the vision of the stairway users.
· Avoid lights that clash with your interior decor; instead, select lighting that complements the surroundings.
· Ensure the colors of the lighting fixtures are uniform.
· For stairs, 100 lux (lumen) light level is sufficient.
If you want your stairway lighting to be dramatic, subtle and functional, then get in touch with Rousing Designs and they will help you set up the right kind of lighting for your space.
(P.s. The more you delay the higher the chances of someone falling off your beautiful stairway.)
