Lighting Eichler Bedrooms
We're re-doing our Eichler master bedroom (new paint (room has original drywall), new carpeting, new furniture) and I'm trying to get some ideas on lighting the room. The master bedroom is my least favorite room in the house-- it has a low 8' ceiling, no windows, and the only light is from the sliding door to the backyard which only gets very late afternoon sun. So the room is a bit cave-like most of the day-- a lot of lighting would help.
However, as we know, lighing options for the Eichler are a little limited. Ceiling cans are out. Floor lamps don't seem to be powerful enough to light the entire room. I've tried track lights in some of the other bedrooms and the result is usually harsh and full of shadows. I'm sure there's a way to avoid this but I don't know what it is.
Does anyone have any lighting ideas that have worked will in their Eichler bedrooms? Or has anyone worked with a lighting consultant and found the experience valuable? Any ideas would be appreciated.
-Andrew
Have you tried Swaging your lights? If you swag it below the beam you won't get the weird shadows. You can stay period specific with Nelson lamps or go with something different.
Chris
When we remodeled the master bath and had the walls on "that" side opened up...
Took the opportunity to install new lighting for the master bedroom and new switches for that room and the outside GFI plug & backyard lighting.
The master bedroom now has two wall mounted quartz halogen lamps. Clam shell glass that has a 360* opening to allow air flow to keep the 150watt QH bulbs cool. Mounted them as far apart as the studs allowed. They mainly provide direct light, but a good percentage is upwards to bounce off of the ceiling to mute the light and reduce shadowing.
The fixtures are from HomeDepot and were around $39 bucks each, on sale. Includes the bulbs, but check that, as many don't.
The new switch box has slider switch for the room lights, so can dim to full brightness. Rarely do we have it full on, as it's almost daylight when full blast. Mostly set at half or less.
The other switch turns on the outside GFI plug and the outdoor lighting, which has motion sensor. It's two fixtures mounted about 8 feet apart. Each fixture has two 60 watt quartz halogen bulbs.
Added the info on the outside plug and lighting as a FYI, as anytime this kind of expense and work, it's a good thing to consider leveraging everything.
We had two wall-to-wall (10-feet long) halogen tracks installed. They run the same direction as the beams: one near the door to the room and over the head of the bed, the other in front of the reach-in closet. We also had a separate track run into the dressing/vanity area. In total, I have 11 lights in the MBR, and 5 more in the vanity area. They are really bright and I love them (I am a light freak).
We originally had them installed with dimmer switches, but they buzzed so bad that we had them replaced with regular ones. They can get pretty hot, so you don't want to leave them on for hours, but 20-30 minutes at a time when I am doing something in there is fine. We also have two incandescent lamps, one on each bed side stand, for when we want lower light, such as for reading.
I would hardly call our MBR a cave, with its solid wall of glass (sliding door and pane of glass) to the outside. It is one of the brighter rooms in the house and is a fave of mine.
If you provide an e-mail address, I'd be happy to send photos.
Cathye
I think multiple lights at different points in the room would work better than a single light or single set of lights. Multiple sources would eliminate alot of the harsh shadows, and also allow you to change the light level in more ways than just on and off.
We have an incandecent floor lamp tied to the switch in the corner of the room near the door, and then a couple other lamps near the head of the bed, kind of in 2 more corners of the room. So we have fairly good light when all are on, and it's a pretty soft light.
In some other rooms we also put in some swivel-headed night-lights in some of the electrical sockets (from Target) as cheap-o minimal uplighting
Floor lamps that make a big splash on the ceiling have always been my favorite. You get a large source of soft light. It helps if the ceiling has not been stained too dark, or some rebel has painted the ceiling a light color.
Everyone, including me posted what they did and you are asking the HOW2 and basic lighting 101 question.
First thing, go to a lighting shop specializing in lighting. Ask them.
Here's what I've learned/found/etc.
Shadows are caused by point lighting. The smaller the source of light, the harsher and more defined the shadow. Think of a movie projector as the best shadow producing, only it's pictures and most times in color.
Multi sources of point lights help and the "other" sources of light reduce shadows, but if small point source, still shadows...just muted by the other light sources. Cathye's multi head track lighting is this.
Very large light source will have softer shadow(s). Why lamp shades were invented. Both to remove direct lighting and to increase the light source size. Softens.
Bounce lighting increases the light source even more. The farther away and the color affect the shadowing.
Randy's floor lamps are a perfect example of bounce lighting. My wall mounted ditto, but not as far a projection onto the ceiling, but it's 3 sources of light. 1) direct from the bulb to the clam shell glass covering. 2) bounce from the wall, as the bulb is a bit from the wall and the reflection from the glass covering. 3) bounce from the ceiling, which is white by choice to increase the bounce and not add any "color".
Or a combo of these, which our house has. The quartz halogen wall mounted with the direct/2waybounce and many table top lamps. Those table top lamps have flouresenct(sp?) bulbs, and they have shades to mute. Plus they beam light to the ceiling and tabletop/floor too.
Then there is the choice of color temp of your bulbs (by type and coating), the shades, color of reflective surfaces and the distance they will project/bounce to.
Sweetie doesn't like flouresent lighting. Both the color temp of the light and she can see the flickering (I can't). She likes quartz halogen, but they burn so hot and are not as economical. We have both in the house as a compromise. The QH last longer, even when they are dimmed. You can't dim flouresent, as they need a certain voltage range inorder to excit the mercury & gas vapor inside the tube.
Bottom line: many, many choices. You just have to figure out where you want the light source(s) to be, what type of light and how bright. Then what type of fixture. You might need an electrician to rewire if there's no power at the chosen spot(s).
