Kitchen Lighting

[Super Ry]

The house I grew up in had that. My parents took out all the lighting and painted (drywall was already there and textured) After the paint they hung a pot rack and put up those nice Calphanon pots and pans - looked real nice.

[Sawduster]

That is exactly what I was gonna suggest, especially if it is above an island in the kitchen.

[Billy B]

The problem is that the "hole" is almost the size of the kitchen. It is huge, and unfortunately all the mechanical for the upstairs runs above the soffit. So I am stuck with a very low ceiling and this huge hole, so although it is a great suggestion, it is not doable for this kitchen.

I covet your responses nevertheless thanks,
Bill

Live a life of thankfulness; if for no other reason, that you have life.

[garmccl]

If you need light in that area you could frame inside the hole with 2" x 4" s and install can lights. They make shallow cans. You could leave some recess or make the ceiling flat. If you leave a few inches it would be nice to mold the inside. You don't have to leave the area square. It would be ease to make an octagon with a little more framing. Gary

[Super Ry]

Shoulda added the particulars of there project - as it might help with yours. They had kinda low ceilings at 7 feet and the hole was a bit deeper than yours - going up about a foot. The center of the kitchen had a thick butcher block table. They put up the small pot rack righ above the block and rimmed the outside edges with track lighting.

If that won't work the framing and cans idea id be another great way to finish off the hole.

[Breaddrink]

personaly I'd want recessed lighting if the ceiling was already like that.

It's crying out for it, and personaly I think it looks great in kitchens.

Rob.

[Billy B]

Rob,

what do you mean? How would you prep it out? That space is actually much larger than it looks in that little drawing. I do not want to have to bail and just put a frame and those crappy looking light difuser sheets like I took out. My wife just wants it finished, I want to take a little time to make sure it doesn't look like crap.

Thanks!!
Bill



"Better to ask than remain stupid."
-Sonny Edmonds-

[Breaddrink]

http://www.bdt.com/david/images/build3.jpg

Not the best of pictures, but obviously from someones home cinema room.

When finished you have as many or few little spots of lights that you need set into a smooth ceiling, and it creates a very general lighting that you can't really get from one large central light, and avoids the unpleasantness of strip lighting.

http://www.pacificridge-const.com/im.../Ceiling_2.JPG

Nyeh...another one, but in my opinion those are too large.

I like the look of them when they're scattered and small.

Having read back on your other posts, I wonder if this is the kind of setup you just removed though?

If not, a search for recessed lighting or recess lighting brings up thousands, including DIY kits.

Rob.

[Breaddrink]

You want to keep it inset still?

I supose you could, but I always thought the point of recessed lighting was that it should sit inside a flat ceiling.

If you consider they'd be flush with the inside flat part, they might cast a shadow when shining past the outside edge.

I originally meant that, considering you already have the power to the fitting there, and the recess, why not refinish the ceiling flat (bare in mind the units that house the bulbs are fairly large sometimes) and consider the recess you have as space for those units.

I supose it depends how much of the ceiling surrounding the sunken part there is.

if it's more like the second picture then it might work fine, but if it's a much larger area, all the corners and edges would be left quite dark.

In fact you can see that begining to happen in that second picture on the cabinet doors, and it's a shame to do that to recessed lighting considering that's one of the aspects of it that's so great...it's a very general light.

Rob.

[garmccl]

You could place cans in the recess and strategically over each workspace above the counters in the lower portion of the ceiling . That would do away with shadows. If you can run another switch leg they could be swithched separately. Gary