I'm preparing a corner of my basement for a permanent layout. The area I have is 9x17 (walls on 3 sides), layout will be island type, around 8x15. The ceiling is broken up by a 4' wide soffit, so I basically have 3 ceiling sections - 9'x9.5', 9'x4', and 9'x3.5'. I'm having trouble deciding what type of lighting to use. The ceiling height is 7.5', with only 6.5' under the soffit area. I'm cocnerned about the area under the soffit - if I don't put any lighting there that area will be dark. If I put lights under the soffit, it may be brighter since it will be 1' closer to the layout.
Any suggestions on how to light this? I'd like to stay away from cans and could go flourescent or track lighting. With track lighting I could mount a track on the side of the soffit with lights aimed under the soffit to light that area. However being so low I'm concerned about a ending up with a spotty effect and shadows. Here's a few crude images showing possible track location or flourescent location (2x 40W).
thanks, Don
Don-
In thinking out-of-the-box, what if you were to mount lighting off the wall that overhangs over the layout.You can purchase some pretty nice fixtures that will give you a great look.
So many interesting things are being talked about with the potential for LED lighting these days that it almost pays to put in fluerescent lighting around the soffit and leave a final solution for later. I wonder if we are going to have very thin panels of LED lighting very soon that would be mounted on the flat undersurface of that soffit.
I hear you about the shadow (in my basement I have huge ductwork that visiting contractors always marvel over as being nearly industrial in size and I found myself avoiding having layout under it). My solution was basically to try to flood the surrounding area with as much lighting as i could to try to minimize the shadow's darkness. One possibility -- mirrors that would train reflected light to the otherwise shadowed area? This is pure theory here -- I have not tried this.
Since I am 6'8" tall that soffit area would be a danger point for me anyway -- I'd probably bust a light with my head.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the replies.
NKP68 - can you explain a little further? Do you mean the 3 walls surrounding the layout area? The left and back are concreate walls, so no easy way to mount something there, and I don't plan on building out with drywall, just painting the walls sky blue. If you meant the side walls of the soffit, that is where I thought I could mount tracks with fixtures aimed under the soffit.
As for installing fluorescent temorarily, I planned on finishing the ceiling with 2x4 drop-in pannels. Not a drop ceiling, but actually fastening the dropin panels to the firring strips (there were 1x1 acoustical tiles I ripped out) and then covering the seems with lattice or 1x2. So really whatever I do now will likely be the final solution. I suppose I could start with some shop lights temproarily installed as a test for how much light fluorescent will provide. Thinking more about this last night fluorescent will be more econimical compared to the price of a track system. I'm off to the big box stores now to price out both.
BTW, the soffit does have some open space to install fixtures - there's duct on left side, a steel beam on the right. So I don't need to use surface mount there.
Don
I have some track lighting that works well. I can adjust the cans to point different ways for different settings. I have some regular spots and some halegen. The halegen are nice but get pretty hot. All that means is I have to mount then away from scenery. They are also easy to retrofit.
I was thinking you could come off the 3 walls. Since you do not want to go into the concrete I feel your idea of coming off the soffit would work just as well. I added a 26" high drywall backdrop off my concrete block this week. My 17' x 14' layout is also attached to the block. I just finished the drywall and painted it Sky blue yesterday and it looks great. I purchased the paint at Lowe's. The brand was Valspar and the color number was WV32007 called "SKY". Great color!
You could always use the halogen "kockey puck lights" they are about 2 1/2" - 3" in diameter, easy to wire, and can be controlled by touch sensitive switch (3 stage switch - low, medium, and full brightness). They aren't really expensive and can be purchased at home depot or lowes home improvement centers. They also can be recessed into your drop ceiling if you like or can surface mount. I'd run the wires above your drop ceiling to conceal the runs of wires. The light cast from these is relatively bright for such a small fixture, these might work for you. The fixture dimensions are only 1/2" -3/4" in height.
Hope this helps.
Bostonian