Recently the selection of lighting fixtures for the interior and exterior of a custom house has become easier, and possibly more economical. In the past the modern looking fixture tended to be priced as a hand made art piece rather than a mass produced consumer good. It was tough even to find a fixture that didnt look like a brass gas lantern from the 19th century that didnt cost a huge sum or needed to be handmade in Europe.
While it remains very possible to spend the entire project lighting allowance on a single piece, it is also more viable to select all the bathroom and pendant lighting (most other lights these days are pot lights) and stay on budget while sourcing clean lined contemporary looking pieces.
Competition among the manufacturers has created a huge task for the builder in just narrowing down the type of fixture to buy from all the options. Lately the big chain hardware stores have become involved with bigger and far nicer lighting departments. Ordering from those stores from the comfort of your home computer is even an option.
Despite the various options and suppliers, I prefer to source my lights from a store called Dhillon lighting in the NE part of town. They have a great catalogue to choose from and are good at making sure the builder gets his quantities delivered on time.
It is just about that time that I need to have the finishing items organized for my current project. Given the nature of the project is a so called 'spec-custom', I like to preselect my finishes according to a contemporary but neutral palette, and aloow my buyers to make some alterations provided they arrive early enough in the process. Having one person in charge of finishing selection is a time saving approach, and lends itself to having the end product show well (and the show home is the all-important tool used to sell homes in Calgary).
Lots of options at the lighting shop. In a few years everything will be LED but until then we can still find some really nice contemporary fixtures for reasonable cost.