Long room, low ceiling, what light fitting?

CarPark2

Have a long kitchen/ dining room. The ceiling is a bit low (7ft 11”). There are recessed lights around the edge and two pendant lights, one in the middle of the kitchen area and one in the middle of the dining area. At the moment, they are just bare bulbs hanging from a wire! We are looking to get some sort of light fitting, but most of the ones that we have seen hand low which makes the ceiling feel even lower than it is, and/or funnel the light into a particular area.
Any suggestions for a light fitting that would work in this scenario? Our inclination is to go for something that lies fairly close to the ceiling, but what we have seen is fairly underwhelming!

dok_golf

Track light ? https://www.lights.ie/high-flight-for-check-in-1-circuit-system-89014-ie-en.html

CarPark2

dok_golf wrote: »

Track light ? https://www.lights.ie/high-flight-for-check-in-1-circuit-system-89014-ie-en.html

Thanks. I hadn’t thought of them. Are they a little bit office-y?

I'd also go with track lighting. I use it myself, and like it. Wouldn't be paying the kinda cash that the other link is looking for though.

Ikea have a track system called Skeninge. It's not cheap-cheap, but it's not mental money either.

https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/search/?k=skeninge


I use them in my house (mostly white/light grey, so the lights are nice in my opinion) and they seem to feature in lots of episodes of 'room to improve' so I presume that means they must be somewhat popular/accepted as a domestic lighting solution.

Alternatively, probably cost a little more as there'd be more mess, but spotlights/downlights could be good, too, as they don't cause the ceiling to lower anymore than it already is. (whereas track lighting on an already low ceiling might be a bit iffy height-wise, depending how low the ceiling is).

antiskeptic

You can get something similar to track lighting but which doesn't have the ugly track. It's basically cable strung between the room ends with 3 or more spots clamping to the cable (in which low voltage runs). You can position the lights where you need them and direct them

Try googling cable track lighting.

Fr_Dougal

Go with spotlights. Much neater job and will make the most of your ceiling height, not as costly as you’d think.

antiskeptic

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Go with spotlights. Much neater job and will make the most of your ceiling height, not as costly as you’d think.

Putting spots into an existing ceiling would either involve clearing upstairs, removing covering, chopping floor, replacing covering (properly)...

Or replacing a light fitting downstairs.

Two completely different jobs.

Fr_Dougal

antiskeptic wrote: »

Putting spots into an existing ceiling would either involve clearing upstairs, removing covering, chopping floor, replacing covering (properly)...

Or replacing a light fitting downstairs.

Two completely different jobs.

I was in a similar position to the OP a while back, lights in dining and kitchen area, all downstairs in a two story house. The electrician was able to use the existing wiring, granted he had to do a couple of test holes, and he installed 12 spots for me. The spots cost me roughly €70 per spot(Dublin), supplied and fitted. I did have to the get ceiling repainted and filled, that cost me very little.

Prior to that I was looking at getting 3 light fixtures, LED bulbs etc., and to be honest I couldn’t decide what fixtures to go for. The spots look great and there’s an enormous amount of space in the kitchen now that I don’t have light fittings hanging down.

I probably would have spent €100-200 on each light fitting, and would still have had the challenge of picking something out. Now I have LED dimmable spots that finish off the room.