AG went a-searching the world wide over for words and other ways to the effect of understanding in terms of the granite knee something about home interior lighting and lighting design for aging eyes.  Like these guys on their way into Julian Beever's hole in a sidewalk artistry are about to find out, it's dark in there.

AG created his own guidance system for lighting home interiors for clients. 
 

The Rules:
1. layer lighting
2. apply dimmer switches wherever reasonable
3. define illuminance on three levels - minimum, i.e., 40 foot candles, or lumens/foot²; midlevel, i.e. 70 foot candles, or lumens/foot²; maximum, i.e., 100 foot candles, or lumens/foot²  - and of two sorts - ambient and task
4. apply in specific arrangement such that in-between abutting spaces, the fc change shall be no greater than 30 fc and may grade up or down in levels less than 30 fc in the interims; within spaces and across spaces, bare bulbs shall not be casually observable (essentially recognizing that brightness and glare are not the same)
5. discriminate for specific areas - hallways and most common and privates spaces get 40 fc; moving-around areas of bathrooms, kitchens, utility spaces get 70 fc; work areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, workshops, counters and other work surfaces PLUS 1 linear foot outset from those surfaces gets 100 fc
6. sort in specific functionality - ambient for most spaces, task for work areas
7. illuminate in specific formulations of lighting quality - ambient means accepting as minimumsColor Rendering Index (CRI) not less than 80, preferably not less than 90 and Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) not greater than 3000K (a/k/a Kelvin); task mean accepting as maximums Color Rendering Index (CRI) not more than 90, preferably not greater than 80 Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) not less than 3000K (a/k/a Kelvin)
 
Comment:  This home designer leaves most or all dramatic lighting to clients and lighting pros.

Comment:  Lutron makes applying dimmer switches a whole lot easier than it used to be, including but not limited to 4-dimming involving every device in the gang.

Comment:  It’s ok to be approximate and not obsessive in this matter, so long as errs are to the high side and not the low side, noting AG’s read that a difference of 10 fc [you'll read about this term "fc" very soon} may not be ordinarily  observable to most folks.

Comment:  Let’s get a couple of aspects of lighting settled completely and without wiggle-room.  1 foot candle = 1 lumen/ft² , where foot candle = fc or ftc and lumen = l or lm and which metrics are measures of illuminance, or the perceived intensity of light or light level [fuller, fancier definitions AG has determined to be less illuminating]

Comment:  All light bulbs, whether incandescent or fluorescent have ratings of illuminance in terms of lumens/watt (LPW or lm/W) which is a measure of efficiency of illuminance related to the watts you pay for in bulb and electricity.  Sometimes, you have to dig for this info to get where you’re going, but the work is well worth it.

Comment:  This home designer derates published, particular lumens/watt by a 0.8 multiplier, or 20% discount (which is, in AG’s opinion, a conservative shot at so-called "maintenance lumens"), for merchandising hype, resistance wear over time, dirt accumulation.  Further, he sticks to photometric analysis until he can make sense of radiometric analysis and scrape together enough lunch money to afford the software to reckon it.

The math [hang on mathphobes, this stuff boils down to one number times another number equals a third number - like 2x6=6, like - that you can take to a lighting professional who can deliver the illuminance goods].

This home designer has made up what are in his opinion a reasonable set of rules and restrictions for home interior lighting,  in order to achieve interior lighting standards more suitable to aging eyes (which the literature allows begin to need extra light in the 40s) and to translate those standards into numerical targets of commonplace metrics readily available in the retail marketplace. 

Lumens/watt data have been around quite a while now

CRI and CCT data were hard come-by up until the last few years, particularly as fluorescent manufacturers "warmed up" their bulbs, and particularly thereat their compact fluorescent lamps or CFLs foot candle target value – 40, 70, or 100 – multiplied by the surface area to be so lighted equals the lumen value to be achieved by so many light bulbs producing their rated lumens/Watt multiplied by 0.8

AG is not immediately interested in how the space gets lighted - not the specific luminaires, not their exact placement.  AG is immediately interested in determining lumens for given spaces

Worth mentioning - some spaces get both ambient lighting and task lighting targets, such as baths, as referenced above; Dining and Dining Table are distinguished since they may be lighted separately as well as together; Kitchen is estimated because as of this schedules authorship, kitchen design was being done by others and without definite preview; dramatic lighting is to be done by others.

This lighting schedule came with extensive notes . . .

Notes to Home Interior and Covered Porch Lighting Schedule

The Schedule and related notes get translated in the Electrical Plan in plan view, as excerpted below . . .

Lighting Highlights in an Electrical Plan, View

Let’s inspect this home drawing for conformity to our lighting standards

a) all but 2 wall switches are "D" for dimmer

b) switches between bath and bed (space to the left and above) are "L" for lighted

c) vanity lighting is properly set at 66 linear inches over finish floor level and luminaires are spaced 30 linear inches apart and centered over the lavatories

d) the closet switch is pressure-sensitive, relieving occupants from excess visual and physical distraction in moving between spaces

e) foot candles (a/k/a lumens) are clearly identified by space, value, and type

f) distinction is clearly made that luminaires are illustrative, i.e., final choices of luminaire types, numbers, and sites are to be done by others whose day job it is to do so

g) centerlines are depicted for certain lighting groups because AG and The Missus have abundant experience in observing how cock-eyed some luminaires get applied when left to mechanics

h) luminaire site (with notable exception), number, make, and model are really only defined in terms of minimum illuminance, and, as drawn, are explicitly illustrative

Comment: In the experience of both AG and The Missus, lighting technology progresses more quickly than any other in the realm of home design and home building. In other words, final layouts of lighting have to be done by others for clients to get the greater benefit.

Comment: Since authoring this work, it's minorly but importantly amended in one respect; namely, that in task spaces, e.g., baths, kitchens, where ambient lighting may be 70 fc, the proximate task area shall have not less than 40 fc illuminance on a standalone basis, i.e., even without the ambient lighting in service.  In other words, all-on illuminance can be not less than 110 fc.