GOOD LIGHTING DOESN’T JUST ILLUMINATE A ROOM. IT CHANGES HOW IT FEELS, MAKING A CEILING SEEM TALLER, A DINNER TABLE MORE INTIMATE OR A WORK OF ART COME ALIVE ON THE WALL. IT’S ONE OF THE FEW DESIGN DECISIONS THAT TOUCHES EVERY CORNER OF A SPACE, AND YET IT’S OFTEN THE LAST THING PEOPLE THINK ABOUT WHEN BUILDING OR RENOVATING A HOME. THE TEAM AT ILLUMINATIONS, A CONTEMPORARY lighting showroom in Atlanta, has spent 36 years helping clients discover just how transformative the right light can be.
Owners Elaine Elder and Vicki Celani have built a remarkable business: Illuminations is a 3,000-square-foot showroom inside The Galleries at Peachtree Hills, right next to the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center, the largest decorative arts complex in the Southeast. The showroom draws a steady mix of interior designers and homeowners who want something better than what they find scrolling online. The store delivers through nearly 50 manufacturers, most of them represented exclusively by Illuminations in the Southeast. That means the fixtures on the floor here simply cannot be found anywhere else in the region.
“Our showroom isn’t just full; we really put a lot of thought into the lines we carry, and we have a huge commitment to them,” Elder says. “We know these products really, really well.” That depth of knowledge comes from a team that has been doing this work for a long time. Raichelle Singleton, who works with both retail clients and designers, has been with the company for 27 years. Nearly every one of Illuminations’ 10 employees brings decades of experience and institutional knowledge, which an algorithm can’t match.
Singleton is often the first point of contact for clients who walk in knowing only that they want something beautiful. “A lot of people search online first, then they come in with an idea of what they want, but once you see a fixture in person, it can look really different,” she says. “Scale is hard to get right. We know how to keep the process from being overwhelming.”
Elder describes her colleague as someone with a particular gift for listening: “Clients may not know all the terminology, and Raichelle is good at figuring out what they really do want. She’s a kind and patient person who is great at working with people.”
The store is open to the public Monday through Friday with no appointment necessary, and the team makes weekend arrangements for clients who need them. That flexibility reflects a broader philosophy about service. “We go out of our way in service, and we have a good reputation among designers and our manufacturers,” Elder says. “Every project is very important. We care a lot about our impact on our community and the world. Our name means a lot to us, because we want to be light bringers in every sense of the word.”
A lot is happening in contemporary lighting right now, and Illuminations is at the forefront. Integrated LED technology has quietly transformed what decorative fixtures can do. Because it produces significantly higher light output than older technology, a pendant over a dining table or a chandelier in an entryway can now perform work that once required supplemental recessed lighting.
For homeowners with chandeliers hung 20 feet overhead, integrated LED also means never having to climb a ladder to change a bulb. And for those who miss the warmth of incandescent, dim-to-warm LEDs now replicate that candle-like glow as they dim, so efficiency no longer has to mean cold or clinical. Style-wise, organic shapes are trending alongside the return of color. After years of brushed brass and satin nickel, blues, reds and greens are making a strong comeback. Minimal architectural lighting systems, once reserved for commercial spaces, are crossing into high-end residential, and portable, cordless table lamps are growing in popularity for their flexibility.
Sustainability runs through many of the lines the store carries, and it’s something the ownership takes personally. That value is most visible in LZF, a Spain-based company run by a husband-and-wife team. The lead designer is from Valencia, her partner is from Australia, and together they’ve built their brand around a patented material called Timberlite, an ultra-thin wood veneer made flexible enough to be hand-shaped into luminous, sculptural forms and dyed with vegetable-based color. The results range from genuinely affordable entry pieces to sweeping statement fixtures, all handmade and responsibly produced.
New York-based Stickbulb shares that commitment. It works with sustainably sourced woods from New England and reclaimed California redwood from dismantled New York City water towers, turning material that would otherwise be discarded into striking chandeliers and large-scale pieces. Every fixture is LED.
Vibia, out of Barcelona, brings a different kind of energy. The line pushes out genuinely innovative new concepts each year, leaning into architectural ceiling mounts and refined portables like floor lamps and table lamps that don’t look like anything else on the market.
Fellow Barcelona brand Bover has a valuable practical advantage: Its U.S. headquarters is in Atlanta, which means inventory is readily accessible. Its outdoor collection is one of the strongest available anywhere, a perennial request from clients who want their exterior spaces to feel as intentional as their interiors.
Another favorite, Cerno, was founded in Laguna Beach, California, by three friends who grew up together, and the company has evolved into something of a full-service design studio. They work in wood, metal and glass, the last of which they now produce in-house after acquiring a glass-blowing operation and relocating it to their facility. They have a warm mid-century sensibility alongside a robust custom program.
For clients with serious art collections, Revelite, a Cerno company, is in a category of its own. Provide the company with the dimensions of your artwork, and it will fabricate a picture light sized precisely for each piece. It is simply the best solution available for showing artwork the way it deserves to be seen.
UltraLights, made to order out of Arizona, rounds out the lineup with fixtures that work equally well in architectural and residential settings. Clients can choose finishes and request modifications, and the exterior options are particularly strong.
Two recent projects illustrate the range of what’s possible. Designer Connie Cooper of Connie Cooper Designs in Greensboro, choosing lighting for her own lake house, selected the Foscarini Spokes above the kitchen island, the Estiluz Volta pendant over the dining table and a Bover fixture, the LedsC4 by Bover Ilargi pendants, for the hallway. Each piece is open and airy, generous with light but easy on the eyes and the sight lines.
A second project, a classically contemporary penthouse designed by Shawn Alshut of Studio A2, featured a Nemo Ellisse suspension, a Flos Noctambule floor lamp in the living area and a Marset Ambrosia suspension in the kitchen. The selections work two ways: They become focal points when the space calls for it and recede gracefully when the architecture deserves the attention.
“We can save you so much time,” Singleton says. “Sometimes people come in with something in mind, and I can show them something different that’s better.” That confidence is earned.
Many of the lines Illuminations carries come from small, family-owned companies whose principals the team knows personally. You are often working, one step removed, with the people who actually designed and made what you’re buying. You won’t find this selection online. You won’t find this level of care and experience there either. *
Robin Howard is a freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.
