I'd love to get your opinion on what quality lighting does to enhance a furniture sales floor, vignettes and overall sales.
Well placed lighting adds a human scale to a sales floor. Most showrooms have very high ceilings that are not what people have in their homes. Decorative fixtures, like chandeliers, create a secondary ceiling line that helps customers feel more comfortable. It also could help increase sales by allowing them to visualize an overall setting that includes lighting.

What are some common mistakes and misconceptions that furniture retailers have about the lighting in their stores?
People are drawn to the brightest source of illumination. If the only source of light is the store's track lighting, then the customer's view is forced upward above the merchandise. Table lamps, floor lamps and chandeliers bring the focus back to the merchandise. Adding louvers or baffles to the store's accent lighting helps shield the light source, keeping the focus on the merchandise.

Why do you think that furniture retailers are just now realizing en masse that chandeliers and other quality lighting enhance their product?
I don't think that furniture showrooms used to see lighting as a product category that could produce additional revenue. Now that the idea has caught, on it has really exploded. Most lighting is portable, so it can go right out the door as a sale. It also adds life to a vignette that would otherwise look unreal under just a store's accent lighting.

Do you know of any furniture stores that have known this-and implemented good lighting design in their space-for a long time? How has this affected their business?
IKEA has done this from the very beginning. I think that they are a great example of the blending of furniture and lighting. Two other reatilers that are catching on are Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel. People will tend to buy the whole vignette because they see how everything goes together.