In the Glossies: Gracious Living With LEDs

In spite of big box retailers' marketing campaigns, LED lights are still an expensive niche product for homeowners. It's not surprising, then, that home and design magazines feature them prominently.

The articles generally still explain that LED stands for light-emitting diode. To be fair, they also spell out CFL. Interestingly, Better Homes and Gardens editors believe that homeowners will know what an MR16 is without need for further explanation.

Because LED lights are seen as too expensive for everyday use, This Old House Magazine suggests that LEDs be used to their best advantage, such as high-style fixtures or settings where the lights are on for hours at a time.

Just enough of the facts

Energy efficiency is the most common message. Better Homes and Gardens encourages consumers to put the initial purchase price in the context of a longer expected lifespan. With rare exceptions, homeowner magazines don't go into great detail about price, lumens, or MTTF numbers.

Consumer Reports updated its light bulb buying guide in August 2013. Available without a CR subscription, the buying guide and a follow-up story about LEDucation provide consumers with a helpful overview of the competing technologies. Product-specific reviews and ratings are available to subscribers only.

Even holiday decorations get the efficiency treatment. LED lights on the Christmas tree, notes HGTV, save Santa a few bucks.

Elle Decor, meanwhile, disses the whole idea of lighting choice, implying that girls should only concentrate on what's pretty, declaring "choosing a fixture you love is easier than knowing the difference between a halogen and an LED."

Your lights, your way

House Beautiful gave a nod to offerings from Cree, Philips, and other LED manufacturers in its Gadgets section. They also showed off the Moodbroom, a humble push broom with a concealed LED light that changes colors based on the operator's mood.

Midwest Living notes that you can create a calming mood in your sitting room with LED lighting for your art.

With an LED spotlight from Walmart, Southern Living's Grumpy Gardner brought Christmas cheer to his crepe myrtle.

The New York Times glossy supplement, T Magazine, didn't have much to offer in its Fall 2013 Design issue. There was one article about Paul Cocksedge's high-style pendant light, but nothing else to draw the attention of mere mortals.

PR Rule No. 1: Manage your brand names

The Robb Report brought us news of the True undercounter refrigerators with 14 LED colors. The unit uses True's patented and trademarked TruLumina™ Lighting system. Trouble is, the January 30, 2014, press release identifies the lighting system as both TruLumina and TriLumina Lighting. True Manufacturing has registered both marks, among others, with the USPTO. Deciding which feature or features are in use is left as an exercise for the reader.

In this admittedly unscientific sampling of a dozen magazines and companion websites, it is apparent that the magazine writers and editors are keeping the message simple: LED lighting is good, versatile, and expensive. While a few publications suggest ways that homeowners can replace or enhance general lighting with LED bulbs, most of the presentations used LED lights in specialized tasks that wouldn't have been possible or practical until recently.