Let There be Strip Lights

We’ve spent the last week trying to produce an image of what our living room might look like at night with all the lights on. After setting up our 3D model and hitting the render button on Tuesday night, we went to sleep expecting the thing to be finished by the morning. Seven hours later, the damn thing was only 20% complete.  We knew renders with multiple light sources took a long time, but we weren’t expecting this!

Time for a new plan.  To convey the idea of what we’re thinking in terms of lighting, we’ll go with these images from one of our favorite UK architects, John Pawson.  This master of minimalism achieves some great effects without clutter.

In a similar vein, we plan to embed lights (in our case, LED strip and fluorescent tube lights) along ventilation gaps between our walls and ceilings.  Like the images above, we are aiming for subtle lines of overhead light.  Combined with floor lights cut out of the base of our walls and more light hidden strategically behind various shelves and furniture, we should have sufficient ambient lighting to guide you comfortably through the house.

To achieve this we project that we will install nearly 200 feet of LED and fluorescent lights.  The benefits here are many.  By hiding our primary source of ambient light, we don’t need to buy expensive bulbs or fret over the aesthetics of fixtures (which in our case tends to swing us toward very expensive units).  The embedded lights will also provide even lighting throughout, allowing us to avoid the harsh spots that come with overhead halogen cans.

And finally, LED and fluorescent lights are up to 10 times as energy efficient, leading to significant cost savings on our electric bills.  They also emit far less heat than halogens and incandescents.  Given the climate here, not having to put a dozen “halogen heaters” into each room will lower our AC bills and make living more comfortable.

Down a Lighting Rabbit Hole

When we started two months back, creating a lighting plan for our house seemed simple.  With a sprinkling of recessed halogen cans and a pendant over the dining table, our first draft was complete - an even wash of mostly overhead light from around 100 fixtures. How fantastic were we.

(Un)fortunately, a trip to our favorite architecture bookstore corrupted our innocence.  Works such as Lighting by Design told a tale of complexity that spun our heads.

After much reading, we realized our plan was basically crap and we needed to start over.  This time around we calculated our lumens, created interest in the shadows and struck a good balance between ambient, task, accent, and decorative lights. We felt good again.

Next task - find the fixtures to fill each spot in the plan.  Hitting the road, we found a lot to like.  Highlights included a gorgeous green pendant from Eurofase ($1300 US)

along with a wall sconce ($450 US).

After our third lighting store, reality was starting to set in.  Our plan had 8 to 10 fixtures per room.  At the rate we were going, our entire budget would be blown on the living room alone.

Back to the drawing board.  Our new task - assume the lights we buy will be cheap and ugly, and then figure out a way to hide every single one of them.

After a week of lighting hide and seek, our new best friend was LED rope light.  As well as being super energy efficient, you can buy 150 feet of it for under $500.  By running it along ventilation shafts and above rafters, we were able to remove nearly all the expensive fixtures.

We also decided to cut square holes in the concrete walls of our house and tuck lights up into the cavities (see below).  As they will be completely hidden, we can use unsightly compact fluorescent bulbs.

After two months down the lighting rabbit hole, we have finally done it.  A well-illuminated house for around $1000 worth of fixtures.  This should give us a little money to spare for a pendant or two - a pretty green one perhaps.