Features: The Ultimate Philadelphia Dream House: Get That Special Touch

We asked designers where they go to make their homes one-of-a-kind. They didn’t want to tell us, but we wormed it out of them. (We have our ways …)

Light

Moore Designs,
54 North 2nd Street;
215-627-3379

SPECIALTY: Custom architectural hardware and custom lighting, often with a Bauhaus or European feel.
COOL PROJECT: Steve Moore made an industrial steel ladder for designer Michael Murtha’s home that mimics a ship’s, leading guests from the fourth floor to the roof deck.
WHERE YOU CAN SEE IT: He’s responsible for the wall sconces at Alma de Cuba and the table lighting at Morimoto.
WHO LOVES HIM: Karl Peters of Otto Design Group, in Old City: “Unlike our involvement with most consultants, we typically work with Steve from the beginning of the design process. His input throughout the project greatly improves the end result.”
PRICE: A completely custom light fixture is $500 and up.

BEAM Ltd.,
4101 Lauriston Street,
215-508-0400; beamltd.com

SPECIALTY: Innovative lighting design for interiors and exteriors that comes from an artistic approach, as opposed to a technical one.
COOL PROJECT: For one space, owner Adam Carangi stripped fiber-optic lights and arranged them in an all-glass pool house so that they reflected on the nearby pool.
WHERE YOU CAN SEE IT: Carangi created the four-foot abstract lights that illuminate Locust Walk at Penn during the holidays.
WHO LOVES HIM: Architect Paul Macht of Rydal, for whom Carangi illuminated a swimming pool, reflecting pool and terrace so that the exterior looked “serene and high-tech at the same time.”
PRICE: $3,000 to $7,000 for design fees for a typical Philadelphia flat.