Specialty Store Upgrades to LED Lighting

The Brass Bed has become a Denver mainstay since opening its doors in 1978. This popular specialty bath and bedding shop provides customers with fine linens, furnishings and accessories from around the world. Owner Rosella Louis’ relationships with several of Europe’s top designers and textile manufacturers allows her to offer the ultimate in comfort made with the highest quality products available today. Visitors to the shop in Cherry Creek North will find luxurious fabrics and furnishings in a myriad of rich and colorful patterns and designs.

The Brass Bed provides customers with fine linens, furnishings and accessories from around the world.

In 2011, Louis called on friend and colleague Henry Beer and his design team at Stantec ViBE to assist her with a store remodel that would address her need for more efficient use of space, new product shelving and display space, new office space, some new finishes and, of course, lighting.

Prior to the renovation, the store was fairly under-lit using an obsolete incandescent track system with screw-in-type CFLs. There were also recessed MR-16 downlights being used in the display windows and low-voltage cable-mount MR-16 display lights that provided spotty coverage. By this time, many were no longer working and the time to upgrade was obvious.

“There were a number of goals associated with the new lighting design for the store,” says Joshua Brewinski, LEED AP, and project designer at Stantec ViBE. “First and foremost was to showcase the beautiful array of luxury linens, bedding and furniture for which the Brass Bed is known. Color, pattern and texture are at the heart of the merchandise on display so it was critical that any new lighting provide the best color rendering and most appropriate color temperature for the products and store. Secondly, there was a real need for flexibility. With store displays changing multiple times per season, we needed a system that would easily permit staff to adjust the lighting scheme as necessary and have multiple beam spreads to work with. Finally, we needed a system that was energy efficient, low-maintenance and would not create overheating issues as some of the previous incandescent fixtures had. We opted for LED across the board and by doing so we immediately took care of those concerns.”

Prior to the renovation, the store was under-lit with an obsolete incandescent track
system with screw-in-type CFLs.

Brewinski explains that Chris Davis, a local lighting rep and specialist from The Lighting Agency, Denver, introduced them to Intense Lighting’s MB-LED track product line. “After sharing our goals and outcomes for the project, we looked at several manufacturer options in a variety of value ranges,” Brewinski says. “But after many mock-ups, side-by-side comparisons and analysis of the light characteristics with products in the store, it was clear that Intense Lighting’s MB1600 was a perfect match for our retail environment.”

Davis says the choice to use LED lighting became even more apparent once the client learned of Intense Lighting’s new 10-year product warranty. “Most companies offer a two-year warranty and when you look at the quality of Intense Lighting’s fixtures combined with the versatility and color quality one sees with the MB1600 LED series, we knew we found the right product for this project.”

Challenges

One of the challenges the design team faced was how to contend with rather low ceilings given the existing space (9 foot, 1 inch at its highest point) so a system was needed that, even with a high fixture count, would create little-to-no-visual clutter or noise. With the lower ceiling height and proximity of fixtures to merchandise, it was also imperative to minimize glare. The MB1600 track lights are utilized throughout the store primarily distributing light evenly across the store’s grid ceiling and soffits on a single circuit track. They are spaced anywhere from 24 to 72 inches.

Brewinski says they also located smaller groupings of fixtures in the store display windows where they needed to provide a lot of extra “pop” for the merchandise vignettes.

The design team had to contend with rather low ceilings while avoiding glare from the lighting.

Manny Pacheco of 3D Identity, Denver, was responsible for the execution, installation, and delivery for signage and lighting on this project. Pacheco notes: “The project has also qualified for a custom rebate from the Energy Star program offered through Xcel Energy, Denver’s electricity provider. Obtaining a rebate was icing on the cake to an already terrific project. Everything went so smoothly. The team created one of the most well thought-out plans I’ve seen from the design, all the way through installation. It was a pleasure to work with everyone on this team.”

“The lighting has made a HUGE difference in our store,” Louis adds. “Everything is so much brighter and clearer and the textile colors are true now instead of how things appeared with the compact fluorescent lights we used to have. Upgrading to LED lights has increased sales for sure.”