~ Retrofitting Picture Lights ~
In some properties, picture lights have already been in use for many years and there is little desire to change them. They have mellowed with the wallpaper and faded with the upholstery, and are part of the story. Our picture-light retrofitting service is especially welcomed by heritage properties up and down the country – for example, where the interior of a National Trust or English Heritage residence needs to be preserved as faithfully as possible to its last owner’s tastes.
We approach the retrofitting of new LED components into historic picture lights carefully. There are many things to consider. We need to establish the immediate and long-term objectives, what is the preferred budget and, most importantly of all, is the existing hardware either suitable as-is, or otherwise sufficiently adaptable, to ensure a valuable return from the investment in such an exercise. Critically, is the existing light head profile deep enough to take our bespoke power-rail and clip-on adjustable and focusable modular, variably-lensed, LED system? Or would a lower-profiled (but fixed, so not focusable) arrangement be more suitable—as well as being less expensive?
Would a longer arm, with better articulation, enable a sufficient improvement in lighting coverage from an under-sized head? Can the work be undertaken on site? Or is it better to bring the hardware back here, for attention (and often touching up of tired paint-work) in our workshops?
The good news is that, even aged and rather tired wiring around the property will be greatly unburdened as a result of the change-over—so no electrical intervention is needed. The power load from the new LEDs is invariably so much lower than from traditional lights that even rather ancient wiring systems will cope well, and can be left undisturbed.
The images demonstrate the transformative effect of the retrofitted picture lights. The colours in the watercolour painting are brought to life with the new light and the ‘Head of Christ’ painting at Chartwell has now been uniformly lit with no ‘splodges’.
Simpler, lower profiled, solution with fixed LEDs and lenses—which are carefully selected to suit portrait or landscape orientation.
An example of our articulating adjustable and focusable modular LED and power-rail assembly
We are able to offer a comprehensive range of retrofit options that can almost always be configured to fit discreetly into your existing hardware.
Our clients are generally happy to engage with us in the demounting of their old lights and their despatch to our workshop. Here, with our specialist crafting and painting, metal-machining and even 3-D printing facilities, we can ‘make do and mend’ in a truly liberating way.
And, because the LED modules that we fabricate in-house are fitted with a range of optically-variable lenses, the newly-restored picture lights – when returned – will actually illuminate their painting properly for the very first time.
Even though the picture light head for this painting was really far too small for the canvas, we were all agreed that just lighting the central focus of the picture would be sufficiently transformative to do the work. And so it proved to be!
Fit for a King!
These amazing pink picture lights belong to a Banqueting Hall in one of the UK’s palaces. They were originally painted specially to blend in perfectly with the richness of the flocked wall paper—and hence their rather unusual colour.
These remarkable pink picture lights were very challenging to up-grade; but the finished results are outstanding.
Various iterations for internal retrofitted components
The room has retained its rich décor and there are no plans to change it, but the picture lights themselves had long-since failed to work properly. The room, which is hung with important portraits of early monarchs and their queens consort, is used frequently for important functions, so something needed to be done.
There were seven canvases in total. The paintings were all huge and surrounded by substantial, ornate and crested, gilt frames. So the throw of light was more than 4 metres from the light head itself to the bottom of the portrait in each instance.
In fact, although the traditional lighting had done a reasonable job, it had always faded away significantly towards the base. When the decision was taken to convert the existing picture lights to accommodate our variably-lensed LED system it was also agreed to take full advantage of the process, to get the power and the optics right, and so really boost the lighting performance as well.
To get a good, consistent, light delivery, the LEDs had to be driven to a more intense level than normal, and thermal management was always going to be an issue. The whole exercise took several months of detailed development work and careful trialling.
An array of different heat sinks and ventilation patterns were developed until, eventually, temperatures could be managed at a proper level, while all the necessary elements could still be discreetly contained and concealed within the existing pink-painted hardware.
Watch the video to see how we retrofit a picture light.