November 9, 2025 • 28 mins
We do not light rooms, we light things. Dean talks about setting the mood with sexy lighting for your home during the festive season.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Custom home Builder,
Custom Home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Whether home for you
is a castle, congratulations, or a cottage, it matters not
(00:22):
It really doesn't, you know why, because luxury does not
a great home make. It is design that matters most.
Good design makes all the difference. Every house deserves it,
every house should enjoy it. Because once good design is
at work, flowing in the right direction, every house has
(00:43):
a path forward toward becoming a great home. And I
mean that with all of my heart. Every house, castle
or cottage can become a great home. And on that note,
in that vein today on the show, we're gonna have
some fun. We're gonna have some fun looking forward to
the holidays, because we're in it now, aren't we. I mean,
(01:04):
we are well in it. We're a full week into November,
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, Christmas right after that.
All of the holidays are coming. We are in the
holiday season, congratulations, and it's time to talk about some
practical things that are going to make the house smarter
and sexier for the holidays. And so what I thought
(01:25):
I would do today is I thought I would talk
about kind of the big three zones or zones, zones, categories,
big three categories for the holidays. If we want to
make some changes to the house that functionally will affect
the way that we take in the holiday season, these
are pretty good categories to make those changes in. Number
(01:46):
One lighting lighting, because you know, the mood of the
holidays always always very important to set the mood. And
I'm not talking specifically today about Christmas or holiday decor lighting.
I'm just talking about improving the lighting general in your house.
So this is going to last far beyond just this
holiday season, but we're taking advantage of the idea of
(02:08):
changing some of the lighting up. And every suggestion today
when it comes to lighting has nothing to do with
calling out the electrician. These are all if you want
di wiable things. We're not going to tear into any walls,
We're not going to open up any wires. We're simply
going to make some really practical changes in lighting. Second
(02:28):
category home theater meaning you know, yeah the TV. What
can we do without you know, reinventing the wheel completely
to hush up and upgrade your home theater because you know,
the holidays, we got classic movies to watch, We've got
big games to watch. It's just the time when here
(02:49):
in the twentieth century, we're going to be focusing on
that screen a little bit more. So how do we
make that a more you know, exciting experience again without
breaking the bank and without into the house. And finally,
now this one, may you know, imply a little install effort,
but major appliances, because what are the holidays if not
(03:09):
the time that we are hovering around the kitchen doing
more cooking, doing more eating, and so on. So I'm
gonna do some review of some of the major appliance
moves that have happened in twenty twenty five, just in
case you're thinking about changing out the ovens or the
cook top. You're like, you know what I got time,
let's go and get a new you know, fill in
(03:30):
the blank here for the kitchen so that cooking and
serving and entertaining this holiday season is going to be
that much more exciting. So that's where we're going smart
and sexy upgrades for the holiday lighting, home theater, major appliances,
you don't want to miss a minute of it, so
don't go anywhere. Also, of course, we're going to be
taking your calls. And the number to reach me eight
(03:52):
three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three. The
numeral two ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean.
The phone lines are open. I'm not sure they're open
quite yet, but they will be shortly, and I'll let
you know as soon as they are. And then you
can give a call in, get in the queue, listen
to the show while you're waiting when it comes to
(04:15):
your calls. It's free. It is just completely free and open.
What the topic is. I've got my topic today, but
you can bring whichever one you want, design, construction, landscape,
DIY decor whatever has you scratch in your head about
your home. I got you. We're gonna put our heads together.
We will get it figured out, all right, sound good?
(04:35):
All right? Sitting across the table from me, Thank goodness,
my design partner, my better half, the co owner and
the co founder of House Whisper, and most importantly to me,
my best buddy in all the world, Tina is here.
Welcome home. Hey, Hi, how you doing good? What time
(04:57):
of year is it?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's fall, y'all, but it really is, and it's definitely
Southern California. We've got the heat and the wind. Yeah,
but it's fall. Let's cross our fingers.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Let's all cross our fingers right now and just say,
you know, a prayer that the heat and the wind
doesn't turn into any fires. Yes, But apart from that,
I'm totally down with you. It's a warm day, it's breezy,
it's blowing. This is fall weather classics, Southern California, fall weather,
just blowing through. It's got that whole vibe right, It's
(05:35):
easy to get into that mood. It's a sunny day
because wind right, no clouds in the sky today when
it's this windy, And wherever you are across our great nation,
I hope that the weather is treating you well. And
I hope that you're in the mindset that you can
enjoy it and embrace it and make the most of
your day. And I am grateful that you are spending
part of your day listening to us here on the program.
(05:59):
So keep looking over at the phone board. I don't
think they're opened up yet. So anyway, let's dive in.
Let's touch our toe in just if just for a
moment before we jump to a news break, and I'll
give you oh oh oh oh wait wait wait there's more.
Here's I totally forgot about this and this is a
(06:21):
bad thing for me to forget about. You know what's
coming up on Sunday, November twenty third. This is what
I needed to do. I need to give you this announcement. Sunday,
November twenty third. Just what couple three sundays from us
right now, right in La at iHeart Studios, Los Angeles,
(06:42):
the Home of Home. Okay, we are having, yes, yet again,
our annual House Whisper Holiday Home Show. It's a live
audience event, and of course the show is always live,
but we will be doing it in front of a
live audience, which I hope will be that you will
be a part of. We're gonna be giving tickets away
(07:04):
to the Holiday Home Show throughout the show. Today, you
can visit the Home of Home at iHeart Studios. You
can hang out with me and the team and Tina.
Of course, last year she was there via video because
she had just gone through a surgery. This year, she's
gonna be fully live and you know and present. There
are gonna be refreshments, there may be some special guests.
(07:25):
You're gonna get expert advice from the decor pros at
Aldick Holme who are sponsoring the whole thing. You're gonna
watch them decorate an Ah gold Al Dick seven and
a half foot Christmas tree. And then before the end
of the show, one lucky audience member who is there
with us in studio, we'll get to take it home,
the whole thing, the whole thing, tree and decorations and everything.
(07:49):
And of course you don't have to bring a truck
to take it. We will get it to you. But
the point is you're gonna win that tree, all right.
We got tickets to give out. We will start to
do that just a little little bit later in the show.
That's what I needed to tell you before we went
to the news. When we come back, let's start talking
about jushin up. Let's talk about lighting. Let's talk about
things that may change your lighting outlook for your home
(08:13):
for years to come. We'll do that when we return
your Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Thanks for joining us on the program. Today, we're looking
forward to the holidays and we are talking about some
practical artsy, juji sexy changes for your home before the
holidays arrive in time. And we're looking at the big
three categories here that really kind of affect things in
(08:45):
regards to the holidays specifically. But these changes that I'm
suggesting today, they're going to go forward. They're not just
decor things. They're going to move forward, you know, from
from now on, and you're going to appreciate them. I
believe something at home during the holidays are more important
than others like setting the mood, watching sports and movies,
eating right. So today we're kind of tackling all of
(09:08):
those categories. So I want to dive into the world
of lighting without rewiring. How can we change up and
jush up our lighting situation at home? Okay, So I
cannot start this without starting at the very top and
talking about the number one rule. So if you're listening
(09:30):
and tune in, listen carefully to me, because I'm about
to hand you one of the most important things in
regards to lighting your home that you will ever hear.
And it's simply this. In the world of lighting, design.
There is a general rule. It is almost a universal law,
(09:50):
almost not quite, but pretty much. If you can remember
this one rule when it comes to your house and
apply religiously, you will radically change the lighting quality inside
your home in a big way. And it is simply this.
(10:11):
In the world of lighting design, we do not light rooms.
We light things. We do not light rooms. We light things.
That is things furniture, not the sofa per se, because
people are sitting on it and you don't want them
to look up and get that glare of light into
(10:31):
their eyes, but things, especially things on the walls of space, art,
family photos, the fireplace mantle, and so on and so forth.
We do not light rooms. We light things. And if
you apply that now, and you're staring up at the
ceiling of your home, and you've got a ceiling like
(10:55):
so many people full of recess can lights that were
laid out kind of uniformly all across the ceiling of
you whatever given room we're talking about. You turn on
those lights and you realize these lights are not lighting things,
they're just lighting the room. Who did this, well, an
electrician did it, or a general contractor or the builder
(11:17):
did it, and those individuals unfortunately, are not lighting designers.
They are just people who and I don't mean to
minimize their role, by the way, I don't mean just people,
but in terms of design, these are people who are
trained to do the installation and execute the designs of others,
not to create the designs themselves. And I don't mean
(11:39):
that again to say that there aren't electricians who aren't,
you know, savvy at lighting design, or general contractors or
builders who aren't savvy at this kind of thing. I
am simply telling you this, though it has no requirements
on their training to acquire the license that they hold.
An electrician does not have to have one iota of
(12:00):
lighting design sense. In order to have an electrical contractor's license,
they have to be masters at the installation and the
wiring and the calculations and all of the things that
go involved in laying out and executing an electrical system
in a house, not making decisions about where lighting looks best.
(12:24):
That is a completely different category relegated to the design world.
So that's what I'm trying to express. Plumbers same way
when it comes to plumbing, laying out bathrooms, designing bathrooms.
Right now, a lot of contractors over the years have
picked up a lot of good tips, and they've got
a lot of good advice to give. I just don't
want you utterly dependent on them. Okay, So again, this
(12:46):
one rule taken an entire segment here to draw a
circle around this truth. And when we come back, we're
going to talk about practically how to get the lights
that you've got to start doing what it is I'm suggesting,
and there's a relatively simple step to make that happen. Okay,
But the rule is we light things, not rooms. Things
(13:10):
not rooms. So how does that recess can downlight that's
just pointing down at the floor. How do we get
it to start lighting things? We'll talk about that when
we return your Home with Dean Shark, the House Whisperer.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's what we're here to help you with every single week. Hey,
I'm about to just blow your mind with something you
can do to radically change the lighting in your home.
But before that, why don't we give away some tickets
to our holiday home show How does that sound? Coming
up on Sunday, November twenty third, and the Helpful Honda
Lounge at iHeart Studios in Burbank. You can visit the
(13:54):
Home of Home at iHeart in La hang out with
me and the team, enjoy refreshments. I want you to
join us for a live audience event, a live audience
broadcast of our holiday home show, which happens every year
the Sunday before Thanksgiving, So coming up Sunday, November twenty third,
(14:14):
I want to give away let's see, Nikki, We're gonna
give away four winners. Four. We're gonna have four winners
right now, okay, And by four winners, I mean you
and your plus one. Okay, So eight people are gonna
win tickets right now. Here is the number wait for it,
eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
(14:37):
numeral two. Ask Dean if you want to win a
ticket to be with us for that live audience event.
Are you ready? Eight three three to ask Dean. Go,
We're gonna give four tickets or eight tickets away four winners,
you and your plus one. Okay. While that's happening, let's
(14:57):
talk about changing your lighting in your house. So you've
got recess can lights. They have more than likely, you know,
unless you had an actual lighting designer come through the
house and lay those cans out. They are very very
likely just random. Well it shouldn't be. They're sort of
just like organized in a grid across the room. And
(15:19):
there down lights, meaning they just you know, they shoot
down from the ceiling. You may have the occasional directional
trim on there, but the by and large, the most
of you have down lights. So how do we change
those lights without digging into the drywall or moving them?
(15:39):
How do we change those lights to conform to the
number one rule of lighting design that they should have
been laid out by in the first place. And what
is that rule? That's right? We light things, not rooms. Okay,
so how do we get that done? Well, we got
to get those lights turned so that they're facing the
(16:00):
things that they could reach and light up on the
walls or in the room that are interesting and that
we want to highlight. Essentially, we want to turn your
recess can lighting into a gallery kind of lighting scenario
for each and every room including yeah, the hallway. Yeah,
we'll talk about that in a second. So how do
(16:20):
we do this? We change out the trim. Now to
do this, I've got to explain to you what this
means some of you already know. But a recessed can light, Okay,
a recess light is essentially two components. One is the
housing that is built up into the ceiling. It's attached
to the framing. It's flush with the dry wall, and
(16:43):
that's where the wires for the house have run power
to it. That's the housing. The part that you see
when you're in the room is not the housing. It's
what we call the trim and that piece, that round
white piece with the bulb or the lens or whatever
that is in the middle. That is trims consist of
(17:05):
a trim ring. There's what we call a baffle, which
is the little stairstep little ridges, and then the lens
or the light source itself. That trim. If you were
to hop up on a ladder and get your fingers
around the outside edge and just gently pull down that
trim is sitting up inside that housing. Usually two different ways.
(17:28):
There's either some kind of some spring loaded wires that
have engaged the housing on a little clip up in there,
or it's just up there with little pressure tabs. But
you can pull the trim down. You can pull it
down and you can pull it out of the housing, right, No,
you're not going to electrocute yourself. Yes, it's completely safe
(17:51):
to do this. No, you're not going to break anything.
You can pull that trim down and then you're gonna
find out how that trim is attached to the housing.
There is a couple of wires and those wires either
lead to a screw in plug, which you know looks
like the you know, the the screw in end of
a light bulb, or in newer housings, there's probably a
(18:14):
little blue or an orange clip and that clip comes apart.
There's a little just a little snapping socket clip. So
you can undo that clip or unscrew that that little insert,
and you can just take the trim down and bring
it down to the ground with you. Okay. The point
is the trims on a recessed housing can are exchangeable.
(18:40):
They're interchangeable, they're replaceable, and they generally speaking, don't break
the bank. Now there's a little bit of an investment here.
The trim that I would like you to replace that
down light trim with, that's that static down trim that
can't be aimed, is what we call a gimbal. A
(19:02):
gimbal g I M B a l A gimbal trim
simply is a trim that can aim the bulb. The bulb,
the lens can spin, and it can shift and tilt
and aim. It's an aimable trim. Okay. And if you
were to go online right now, don't walk away from
(19:22):
the show to do this, But if you were to
go on light right now and you were to pop
in the search window recessed light gimbal trim, you would
see a bevy of images that pop up that would
illustrate exactly what I'm talking about. A an aimable trim.
And this, my friend, this this one thing changing out
(19:43):
a trim. You're also, by the way, you're going to
find out that those gimbal trims are roughly in the
area for most recess Can lights in about they're about
thirty five dollars. That's it, okay, led dimmable soft white
gimbal trims thirty five dollars per recess can light, all right.
(20:08):
So now, yeah, if you've got ten or you know,
recess can lights, that's three hundred and fifty dollars, okay,
And that's not cheap, but it is a radical transformation
of all the lighting in that space. For three hundred
and fifty dollars, and you don't call out an electrician.
And you could run down to a place like a
(20:29):
big box store like Low's or home Depot this afternoon
and pick up those trims because they're sitting on the shelf,
yes they are, or your local lighting store because they're
sitting on the shelf, yes they are, and bring them
back home and by sunset today have those new trims
plugged in and aimed and change all the lighting in
your house. It's all doable for about three hundred and
(20:51):
fifty dollars for ten recess can lights. Now, there's a
couple of things you need to know in order to
get it right so you're not waste your time at
the store. And I should explain that to you if
I was a good house whisper, and I will. I'm
just going to walk you through very quickly what it
is that you need to know once you get that
(21:14):
trim pulled out. There's basically three things you need to
know about that trim before you can either order new
ones online on Amazon or on a lighting website, or
head on down to the hardware store the big box
store and look for the new trims themselves. Three things
you need to know. We'll talk about it right on
(21:35):
the other side. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty and.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Every home deserves great design, and I am here to
help you get it done. Every weekend we're here handing
out advice, design advice, construction advice DIY counsel. That sounds
that sounds fancy than it actually is, but that's what
I'm here for, to help you transform your ordinary house
(22:05):
into an extraordinary home. Great response, We've got winners. I'm
going to be announcing our winners shortly of the tickets
that we just gave away to the House Whisper Holiday Show.
And we've got more of those coming in the show,
so don't miss out coming up soon. Next thing that's happening,
by the way, after our next break, we're going to
(22:26):
be going to the phones talking about your home. Whatever
has got you scratching your head about your home. So
you called in before about tickets for the House Whisper
Holiday Show, Now call in and talk to me about
your home design, construction DIY, Inside, Outside, Hardscape landscape. I
got you. We'll put our heads together, we'll get it
figured out. Here's the number eight three three two. Ask
(22:49):
dean eight three to three the numeral two. Ask dean
eight three three two ask dean. Phone lines are open now,
and we'll go to that right right on the other side.
Next break. Yeah, okay, okay, let's get back to the
things you need to know to transform the lighting in
your home. We were talking about recess can lighting. We're
(23:10):
talking about taking out the trim part, that's the removable
part of your recess can light, which you can do
removing that replacing that simple down light trim with a
movable trim which is called a gimbal trim. Okay, And
this will enable you to aim your recess can lights
(23:32):
away from the floor, which is where they shouldn't be aimed.
Two walls and things. Because what is the rule, the
one number one rule of lighting designed for a home.
We do not light rooms. We light things in rooms.
And by the way, the reason for that is very
very simple one. The things are more interesting than the room.
(23:54):
Two straight down light in a room, worst kind of
lighting ever. Okay, no photographer will let ever tell you.
Oh yeah, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
hang a light directly over your head and then take
a picture of you. No, no, no. The third reason
that we don't just light the room that we light
things is that when we light things, we get the
(24:15):
room anyway. Because you know, these things are not lasers.
They're not so precise that they're only hitting one spot.
It's light, so it bounces off the wall, it bounces
off the piece of art that you're highlighting. And guess what,
the light makes it into the room anyway, and yet
it makes it at a soft reflected angle. More shadows.
(24:35):
Shadows are good. You don't want to get rid of
shadows because shadows are what gives a room texture and
romance and mood and depth and so on and so forth.
So yeah, that's why we light things and not just
the room itself, because you get the room anyway. But
if you only light the room, you don't get the things. Eh,
(24:55):
So we want two for one. Okay, all right, here
are the three things you need to know in order
to accurately replace the trim that you are going to
pull out of your ceiling. The three things are have
a little tape measure with you you need to measure,
not the trim, don't worry about that. But once you've
(25:15):
pulled the trim out, I want you to measure the
size of the housing, the hole that's left up there.
Chances are, for ninety nine point nine percent of you
you're going to measure across the diameter of that housing.
You're gonna find out it's a six inch housing, or
it's a five inch housing, or it's a four inch housing.
That's the thing you need to know. Okay, six, five
(25:38):
or four inch, how whatever the diameter of the housing is.
And if you have these little puck lights that have
just been cut as holes in the drywall, measure the
hole of the drywall. You got to know what that is,
Probably four inch hole left in the drywall. Measure the hole.
You need to have that bit of information. Number two
because trim's come in different sizes. Okay, So number two,
(26:01):
While you're up there on the ladder looking at that
canlight housing, see if you can't identify the manufacture of
the housing. See if you don't see a label up
inside that says you know, HALO or l K or
you know, whatever the case may be. Any information possible,
and if you see any tag with any information or
(26:22):
serial numbers or anything like that. Stick your phone up
in there and take a picture of it so that
you can look online and find out who the manufacture
of that housing was. Because there's different brands and they
have different sometimes there are subtle differences. Okay, Because for instance,
I was talking about how the trims actually attach in
that housing. It's not the end of the world if
(26:43):
you have an off brand trim that goes into a housing.
The little clips are fairly universal, okay, So you got
a lot of options here. You have a lot of options.
But the point is you need to know the manufacture
if at all possible. Okay. And once we've got that
going on, the third and final thing is we need
(27:05):
to make sure that the new trim is going to
clip in to the existing housing so that power gets
into the trim. And like I said, they are either
these small clips that snap together or it is as
an older recessed housing, it's got like a light bulb
socket up in there, okay, and the trim itself has
(27:27):
a little adapter that screws in like a light bulb.
Either way, you're gonna take your existing trim with you
when you go to the big box store or the
hardware store or the lighting store, and you're like, here's
what plugs in to my lighthousing. And you're gonna make
sure that the new trim that you get has the
same clip or attachment to it. Once you've got those
(27:51):
three things taken care of, you know that, for instance, Oh,
it's a four inch can housing, so I'm looking for
a four inch trim and it's this brand, So I
need something that's either that brand or that brand compatible.
And here's the clip, and I need to make sure
that the new one has a clip just like this.
(28:11):
That's all you need to know. And you can pick
up those gimbal aimable housing trims and radically, radically change
the way lighting is looking inside the house. All Right,
we're going to return to this conversation. I've got so
much more to tell you. But when we come back,
we're gonna take a couple of calls find out what's
going on with your house today. You are Home with
(28:34):
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Custom home Builder,
Custom Home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Whether home for you
is a castle, congratulations, or a cottage, it matters not
(00:22):
It really doesn't, you know why, because luxury does not
a great home make. It is design that matters most.
Good design makes all the difference. Every house deserves it,
every house should enjoy it. Because once good design is
at work, flowing in the right direction, every house has
(00:43):
a path forward toward becoming a great home. And I
mean that with all of my heart. Every house, castle
or cottage can become a great home. And on that note,
in that vein today on the show, we're gonna have
some fun. We're gonna have some fun looking forward to
the holidays, because we're in it now, aren't we. I mean,
(01:04):
we are well in it. We're a full week into November,
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, Christmas right after that.
All of the holidays are coming. We are in the
holiday season, congratulations, and it's time to talk about some
practical things that are going to make the house smarter
and sexier for the holidays. And so what I thought
(01:25):
I would do today is I thought I would talk
about kind of the big three zones or zones, zones, categories,
big three categories for the holidays. If we want to
make some changes to the house that functionally will affect
the way that we take in the holiday season, these
are pretty good categories to make those changes in. Number
(01:46):
One lighting lighting, because you know, the mood of the
holidays always always very important to set the mood. And
I'm not talking specifically today about Christmas or holiday decor lighting.
I'm just talking about improving the lighting general in your house.
So this is going to last far beyond just this
holiday season, but we're taking advantage of the idea of
(02:08):
changing some of the lighting up. And every suggestion today
when it comes to lighting has nothing to do with
calling out the electrician. These are all if you want
di wiable things. We're not going to tear into any walls,
We're not going to open up any wires. We're simply
going to make some really practical changes in lighting. Second
(02:28):
category home theater meaning you know, yeah the TV. What
can we do without you know, reinventing the wheel completely
to hush up and upgrade your home theater because you know,
the holidays, we got classic movies to watch, We've got
big games to watch. It's just the time when here
(02:49):
in the twentieth century, we're going to be focusing on
that screen a little bit more. So how do we
make that a more you know, exciting experience again without
breaking the bank and without into the house. And finally,
now this one, may you know, imply a little install effort,
but major appliances, because what are the holidays if not
(03:09):
the time that we are hovering around the kitchen doing
more cooking, doing more eating, and so on. So I'm
gonna do some review of some of the major appliance
moves that have happened in twenty twenty five, just in
case you're thinking about changing out the ovens or the
cook top. You're like, you know what I got time,
let's go and get a new you know, fill in
(03:30):
the blank here for the kitchen so that cooking and
serving and entertaining this holiday season is going to be
that much more exciting. So that's where we're going smart
and sexy upgrades for the holiday lighting, home theater, major appliances,
you don't want to miss a minute of it, so
don't go anywhere. Also, of course, we're going to be
taking your calls. And the number to reach me eight
(03:52):
three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three. The
numeral two ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean.
The phone lines are open. I'm not sure they're open
quite yet, but they will be shortly, and I'll let
you know as soon as they are. And then you
can give a call in, get in the queue, listen
to the show while you're waiting when it comes to
(04:15):
your calls. It's free. It is just completely free and open.
What the topic is. I've got my topic today, but
you can bring whichever one you want, design, construction, landscape,
DIY decor whatever has you scratch in your head about
your home. I got you. We're gonna put our heads together.
We will get it figured out, all right, sound good?
(04:35):
All right? Sitting across the table from me, Thank goodness,
my design partner, my better half, the co owner and
the co founder of House Whisper, and most importantly to me,
my best buddy in all the world, Tina is here.
Welcome home. Hey, Hi, how you doing good? What time
(04:57):
of year is it?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's fall, y'all, but it really is, and it's definitely
Southern California. We've got the heat and the wind. Yeah,
but it's fall. Let's cross our fingers.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Let's all cross our fingers right now and just say,
you know, a prayer that the heat and the wind
doesn't turn into any fires. Yes, But apart from that,
I'm totally down with you. It's a warm day, it's breezy,
it's blowing. This is fall weather classics, Southern California, fall weather,
just blowing through. It's got that whole vibe right, It's
(05:35):
easy to get into that mood. It's a sunny day
because wind right, no clouds in the sky today when
it's this windy, And wherever you are across our great nation,
I hope that the weather is treating you well. And
I hope that you're in the mindset that you can
enjoy it and embrace it and make the most of
your day. And I am grateful that you are spending
part of your day listening to us here on the program.
(05:59):
So keep looking over at the phone board. I don't
think they're opened up yet. So anyway, let's dive in.
Let's touch our toe in just if just for a
moment before we jump to a news break, and I'll
give you oh oh oh oh wait wait wait there's more.
Here's I totally forgot about this and this is a
(06:21):
bad thing for me to forget about. You know what's
coming up on Sunday, November twenty third. This is what
I needed to do. I need to give you this announcement. Sunday,
November twenty third. Just what couple three sundays from us
right now, right in La at iHeart Studios, Los Angeles,
(06:42):
the Home of Home. Okay, we are having, yes, yet again,
our annual House Whisper Holiday Home Show. It's a live
audience event, and of course the show is always live,
but we will be doing it in front of a
live audience, which I hope will be that you will
be a part of. We're gonna be giving tickets away
(07:04):
to the Holiday Home Show throughout the show. Today, you
can visit the Home of Home at iHeart Studios. You
can hang out with me and the team and Tina.
Of course, last year she was there via video because
she had just gone through a surgery. This year, she's
gonna be fully live and you know and present. There
are gonna be refreshments, there may be some special guests.
(07:25):
You're gonna get expert advice from the decor pros at
Aldick Holme who are sponsoring the whole thing. You're gonna
watch them decorate an Ah gold Al Dick seven and
a half foot Christmas tree. And then before the end
of the show, one lucky audience member who is there
with us in studio, we'll get to take it home,
the whole thing, the whole thing, tree and decorations and everything.
(07:49):
And of course you don't have to bring a truck
to take it. We will get it to you. But
the point is you're gonna win that tree, all right.
We got tickets to give out. We will start to
do that just a little little bit later in the show.
That's what I needed to tell you before we went
to the news. When we come back, let's start talking
about jushin up. Let's talk about lighting. Let's talk about
things that may change your lighting outlook for your home
(08:13):
for years to come. We'll do that when we return
your Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Thanks for joining us on the program. Today, we're looking
forward to the holidays and we are talking about some
practical artsy, juji sexy changes for your home before the
holidays arrive in time. And we're looking at the big
three categories here that really kind of affect things in
(08:45):
regards to the holidays specifically. But these changes that I'm
suggesting today, they're going to go forward. They're not just
decor things. They're going to move forward, you know, from
from now on, and you're going to appreciate them. I
believe something at home during the holidays are more important
than others like setting the mood, watching sports and movies,
eating right. So today we're kind of tackling all of
(09:08):
those categories. So I want to dive into the world
of lighting without rewiring. How can we change up and
jush up our lighting situation at home? Okay, So I
cannot start this without starting at the very top and
talking about the number one rule. So if you're listening
(09:30):
and tune in, listen carefully to me, because I'm about
to hand you one of the most important things in
regards to lighting your home that you will ever hear.
And it's simply this. In the world of lighting, design.
There is a general rule. It is almost a universal law,
(09:50):
almost not quite, but pretty much. If you can remember
this one rule when it comes to your house and
apply religiously, you will radically change the lighting quality inside
your home in a big way. And it is simply this.
(10:11):
In the world of lighting design, we do not light rooms.
We light things. We do not light rooms. We light things.
That is things furniture, not the sofa per se, because
people are sitting on it and you don't want them
to look up and get that glare of light into
(10:31):
their eyes, but things, especially things on the walls of space, art,
family photos, the fireplace mantle, and so on and so forth.
We do not light rooms. We light things. And if
you apply that now, and you're staring up at the
ceiling of your home, and you've got a ceiling like
(10:55):
so many people full of recess can lights that were
laid out kind of uniformly all across the ceiling of
you whatever given room we're talking about. You turn on
those lights and you realize these lights are not lighting things,
they're just lighting the room. Who did this, well, an
electrician did it, or a general contractor or the builder
(11:17):
did it, and those individuals unfortunately, are not lighting designers.
They are just people who and I don't mean to
minimize their role, by the way, I don't mean just people,
but in terms of design, these are people who are
trained to do the installation and execute the designs of others,
not to create the designs themselves. And I don't mean
(11:39):
that again to say that there aren't electricians who aren't,
you know, savvy at lighting design, or general contractors or
builders who aren't savvy at this kind of thing. I
am simply telling you this, though it has no requirements
on their training to acquire the license that they hold.
An electrician does not have to have one iota of
(12:00):
lighting design sense. In order to have an electrical contractor's license,
they have to be masters at the installation and the
wiring and the calculations and all of the things that
go involved in laying out and executing an electrical system
in a house, not making decisions about where lighting looks best.
(12:24):
That is a completely different category relegated to the design world.
So that's what I'm trying to express. Plumbers same way
when it comes to plumbing, laying out bathrooms, designing bathrooms.
Right now, a lot of contractors over the years have
picked up a lot of good tips, and they've got
a lot of good advice to give. I just don't
want you utterly dependent on them. Okay, So again, this
(12:46):
one rule taken an entire segment here to draw a
circle around this truth. And when we come back, we're
going to talk about practically how to get the lights
that you've got to start doing what it is I'm suggesting,
and there's a relatively simple step to make that happen. Okay,
But the rule is we light things, not rooms. Things
(13:10):
not rooms. So how does that recess can downlight that's
just pointing down at the floor. How do we get
it to start lighting things? We'll talk about that when
we return your Home with Dean Shark, the House Whisperer.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's what we're here to help you with every single week. Hey,
I'm about to just blow your mind with something you
can do to radically change the lighting in your home.
But before that, why don't we give away some tickets
to our holiday home show How does that sound? Coming
up on Sunday, November twenty third, and the Helpful Honda
Lounge at iHeart Studios in Burbank. You can visit the
(13:54):
Home of Home at iHeart in La hang out with
me and the team, enjoy refreshments. I want you to
join us for a live audience event, a live audience
broadcast of our holiday home show, which happens every year
the Sunday before Thanksgiving, So coming up Sunday, November twenty third,
(14:14):
I want to give away let's see, Nikki, We're gonna
give away four winners. Four. We're gonna have four winners
right now, okay, And by four winners, I mean you
and your plus one. Okay, So eight people are gonna
win tickets right now. Here is the number wait for it,
eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the
(14:37):
numeral two. Ask Dean if you want to win a
ticket to be with us for that live audience event.
Are you ready? Eight three three to ask Dean. Go,
We're gonna give four tickets or eight tickets away four winners,
you and your plus one. Okay. While that's happening, let's
(14:57):
talk about changing your lighting in your house. So you've
got recess can lights. They have more than likely, you know,
unless you had an actual lighting designer come through the
house and lay those cans out. They are very very
likely just random. Well it shouldn't be. They're sort of
just like organized in a grid across the room. And
(15:19):
there down lights, meaning they just you know, they shoot
down from the ceiling. You may have the occasional directional
trim on there, but the by and large, the most
of you have down lights. So how do we change
those lights without digging into the drywall or moving them?
(15:39):
How do we change those lights to conform to the
number one rule of lighting design that they should have
been laid out by in the first place. And what
is that rule? That's right? We light things, not rooms. Okay,
so how do we get that done? Well, we got
to get those lights turned so that they're facing the
(16:00):
things that they could reach and light up on the
walls or in the room that are interesting and that
we want to highlight. Essentially, we want to turn your
recess can lighting into a gallery kind of lighting scenario
for each and every room including yeah, the hallway. Yeah,
we'll talk about that in a second. So how do
(16:20):
we do this? We change out the trim. Now to
do this, I've got to explain to you what this
means some of you already know. But a recessed can light, Okay,
a recess light is essentially two components. One is the
housing that is built up into the ceiling. It's attached
to the framing. It's flush with the dry wall, and
(16:43):
that's where the wires for the house have run power
to it. That's the housing. The part that you see
when you're in the room is not the housing. It's
what we call the trim and that piece, that round
white piece with the bulb or the lens or whatever
that is in the middle. That is trims consist of
(17:05):
a trim ring. There's what we call a baffle, which
is the little stairstep little ridges, and then the lens
or the light source itself. That trim. If you were
to hop up on a ladder and get your fingers
around the outside edge and just gently pull down that
trim is sitting up inside that housing. Usually two different ways.
(17:28):
There's either some kind of some spring loaded wires that
have engaged the housing on a little clip up in there,
or it's just up there with little pressure tabs. But
you can pull the trim down. You can pull it
down and you can pull it out of the housing, right, No,
you're not going to electrocute yourself. Yes, it's completely safe
(17:51):
to do this. No, you're not going to break anything.
You can pull that trim down and then you're gonna
find out how that trim is attached to the housing.
There is a couple of wires and those wires either
lead to a screw in plug, which you know looks
like the you know, the the screw in end of
a light bulb, or in newer housings, there's probably a
(18:14):
little blue or an orange clip and that clip comes apart.
There's a little just a little snapping socket clip. So
you can undo that clip or unscrew that that little insert,
and you can just take the trim down and bring
it down to the ground with you. Okay. The point
is the trims on a recessed housing can are exchangeable.
(18:40):
They're interchangeable, they're replaceable, and they generally speaking, don't break
the bank. Now there's a little bit of an investment here.
The trim that I would like you to replace that
down light trim with, that's that static down trim that
can't be aimed, is what we call a gimbal. A
(19:02):
gimbal g I M B a l A gimbal trim
simply is a trim that can aim the bulb. The bulb,
the lens can spin, and it can shift and tilt
and aim. It's an aimable trim. Okay. And if you
were to go online right now, don't walk away from
(19:22):
the show to do this, But if you were to
go on light right now and you were to pop
in the search window recessed light gimbal trim, you would
see a bevy of images that pop up that would
illustrate exactly what I'm talking about. A an aimable trim.
And this, my friend, this this one thing changing out
(19:43):
a trim. You're also, by the way, you're going to
find out that those gimbal trims are roughly in the
area for most recess Can lights in about they're about
thirty five dollars. That's it, okay, led dimmable soft white
gimbal trims thirty five dollars per recess can light, all right.
(20:08):
So now, yeah, if you've got ten or you know,
recess can lights, that's three hundred and fifty dollars, okay,
And that's not cheap, but it is a radical transformation
of all the lighting in that space. For three hundred
and fifty dollars, and you don't call out an electrician.
And you could run down to a place like a
(20:29):
big box store like Low's or home Depot this afternoon
and pick up those trims because they're sitting on the shelf,
yes they are, or your local lighting store because they're
sitting on the shelf, yes they are, and bring them
back home and by sunset today have those new trims
plugged in and aimed and change all the lighting in
your house. It's all doable for about three hundred and
(20:51):
fifty dollars for ten recess can lights. Now, there's a
couple of things you need to know in order to
get it right so you're not waste your time at
the store. And I should explain that to you if
I was a good house whisper, and I will. I'm
just going to walk you through very quickly what it
is that you need to know once you get that
(21:14):
trim pulled out. There's basically three things you need to
know about that trim before you can either order new
ones online on Amazon or on a lighting website, or
head on down to the hardware store the big box
store and look for the new trims themselves. Three things
you need to know. We'll talk about it right on
(21:35):
the other side. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty and.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Every home deserves great design, and I am here to
help you get it done. Every weekend we're here handing
out advice, design advice, construction advice DIY counsel. That sounds
that sounds fancy than it actually is, but that's what
I'm here for, to help you transform your ordinary house
(22:05):
into an extraordinary home. Great response, We've got winners. I'm
going to be announcing our winners shortly of the tickets
that we just gave away to the House Whisper Holiday Show.
And we've got more of those coming in the show,
so don't miss out coming up soon. Next thing that's happening,
by the way, after our next break, we're going to
(22:26):
be going to the phones talking about your home. Whatever
has got you scratching your head about your home. So
you called in before about tickets for the House Whisper
Holiday Show, Now call in and talk to me about
your home design, construction DIY, Inside, Outside, Hardscape landscape. I
got you. We'll put our heads together, we'll get it
figured out. Here's the number eight three three two. Ask
(22:49):
dean eight three to three the numeral two. Ask dean
eight three three two ask dean. Phone lines are open now,
and we'll go to that right right on the other side.
Next break. Yeah, okay, okay, let's get back to the
things you need to know to transform the lighting in
your home. We were talking about recess can lighting. We're
(23:10):
talking about taking out the trim part, that's the removable
part of your recess can light, which you can do
removing that replacing that simple down light trim with a
movable trim which is called a gimbal trim. Okay, And
this will enable you to aim your recess can lights
(23:32):
away from the floor, which is where they shouldn't be aimed.
Two walls and things. Because what is the rule, the
one number one rule of lighting designed for a home.
We do not light rooms. We light things in rooms.
And by the way, the reason for that is very
very simple one. The things are more interesting than the room.
(23:54):
Two straight down light in a room, worst kind of
lighting ever. Okay, no photographer will let ever tell you.
Oh yeah, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
hang a light directly over your head and then take
a picture of you. No, no, no. The third reason
that we don't just light the room that we light
things is that when we light things, we get the
(24:15):
room anyway. Because you know, these things are not lasers.
They're not so precise that they're only hitting one spot.
It's light, so it bounces off the wall, it bounces
off the piece of art that you're highlighting. And guess what,
the light makes it into the room anyway, and yet
it makes it at a soft reflected angle. More shadows.
(24:35):
Shadows are good. You don't want to get rid of
shadows because shadows are what gives a room texture and
romance and mood and depth and so on and so forth.
So yeah, that's why we light things and not just
the room itself, because you get the room anyway. But
if you only light the room, you don't get the things. Eh,
(24:55):
So we want two for one. Okay, all right, here
are the three things you need to know in order
to accurately replace the trim that you are going to
pull out of your ceiling. The three things are have
a little tape measure with you you need to measure,
not the trim, don't worry about that. But once you've
(25:15):
pulled the trim out, I want you to measure the
size of the housing, the hole that's left up there.
Chances are, for ninety nine point nine percent of you
you're going to measure across the diameter of that housing.
You're gonna find out it's a six inch housing, or
it's a five inch housing, or it's a four inch housing.
That's the thing you need to know. Okay, six, five
(25:38):
or four inch, how whatever the diameter of the housing is.
And if you have these little puck lights that have
just been cut as holes in the drywall, measure the
hole of the drywall. You got to know what that is,
Probably four inch hole left in the drywall. Measure the hole.
You need to have that bit of information. Number two
because trim's come in different sizes. Okay, So number two,
(26:01):
While you're up there on the ladder looking at that
canlight housing, see if you can't identify the manufacture of
the housing. See if you don't see a label up
inside that says you know, HALO or l K or
you know, whatever the case may be. Any information possible,
and if you see any tag with any information or
(26:22):
serial numbers or anything like that. Stick your phone up
in there and take a picture of it so that
you can look online and find out who the manufacture
of that housing was. Because there's different brands and they
have different sometimes there are subtle differences. Okay, Because for instance,
I was talking about how the trims actually attach in
that housing. It's not the end of the world if
(26:43):
you have an off brand trim that goes into a housing.
The little clips are fairly universal, okay, So you got
a lot of options here. You have a lot of options.
But the point is you need to know the manufacture
if at all possible. Okay. And once we've got that
going on, the third and final thing is we need
(27:05):
to make sure that the new trim is going to
clip in to the existing housing so that power gets
into the trim. And like I said, they are either
these small clips that snap together or it is as
an older recessed housing, it's got like a light bulb
socket up in there, okay, and the trim itself has
(27:27):
a little adapter that screws in like a light bulb.
Either way, you're gonna take your existing trim with you
when you go to the big box store or the
hardware store or the lighting store, and you're like, here's
what plugs in to my lighthousing. And you're gonna make
sure that the new trim that you get has the
same clip or attachment to it. Once you've got those
(27:51):
three things taken care of, you know that, for instance, Oh,
it's a four inch can housing, so I'm looking for
a four inch trim and it's this brand, So I
need something that's either that brand or that brand compatible.
And here's the clip, and I need to make sure
that the new one has a clip just like this.
(28:11):
That's all you need to know. And you can pick
up those gimbal aimable housing trims and radically, radically change
the way lighting is looking inside the house. All Right,
we're going to return to this conversation. I've got so
much more to tell you. But when we come back,
we're gonna take a couple of calls find out what's
going on with your house today. You are Home with
(28:34):
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
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