Lighting keypads are the one part of a lighting system everybody touches, so the words on the buttons matter as much as the circuits behind them. The two keypads in these photos, taken in July 2021, have every button engraved with the room or zone it controls, and they share the house with a crystal chandelier and a floor light.
A keypad for entertaining
The first keypad looks after the entertaining side of the house: three reception rooms, the bar, the foyer and two garden circuits, with arrows to brighten and dim and a pair of buttons for opening and closing. Its engraving is backlit in blue, so the labels can be read with the room lights off.
A keypad for the whole house
The second plate thinks in floors rather than rooms: three ground floor buttons, one each for the first and second floors and the basement, then the garden, every hallway at once, the gate and the porch, with all on and all off finishing each column.
The lights behind the buttons
In the sitting room, a crystal chandelier with cream pleated shades spreads warm light over dark timber and patterned sofas. Lower down, a small round LED set into the oak floor marks the base of a gold column. With lighting control, each of these can be set to suit the moment, bright for guests or low for a quiet evening.
Planning lighting keypads for your home
Engraved buttons are made to order, so settle the wording before anything is ordered. Use the names your family already uses for the rooms, keep each column short, group buttons by floor or by use, and put all on and all off where a hand finds them first. Wikipedia's page on lighting control systems gives the background.
Our lighting control page and our lighting control in Dublin and lighting control in Cork pages explain the systems we install, from Lutron and Rako to Crestron and Control4.
The keypads and lights in photos
More finished rooms are in our Gallery.
Thinking about lighting control?
Tell us about your home and how you would like the lighting to work, and we will take it from there. Get in touch, or ring 01 906 9326 in Dublin or 021 202 8107 in Cork.
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