Downlight Arrangement And Positioning

[namuramc 0]

Hi Guys, this is my first post here on renotalk. Been reading around these forums and it's been a great learning experience as I prepare to renovate my home. I was hoping to get some opinions from you guys as I'm currently arranging my downlights, specifically the one right at the entrance of my unit as well as the ones in the living hall.

I have tried to place the downlight in the entrance to my unit dead center (approx 60cm from the left and right walls). However, for the living hall, I moved the downlight somewhat closer to the walls (approx 30 cm from the walls), to see if perhaps I could reduce the amount of space consumed by the plaster ceilling in the living hall.

The result of this is that the downlight in the entrance is no longer aligned with the downlights in the living hall (60cm from the wall vs 30 cm from the wall in the hall). The dilemma I am facing is whether this is a good idea, or should I standardize the distance of the downlights from the walls throughout the enterance and living hall.

Another possibility was that for one part of the living hall, I could place the downlights 60cm from the wall to align it with the entrance, while on the other side of the living hall, I place it 30 cm from the wall.

Was hoping if I could get your opinions on this kind of arrangement or if you guys would have any other ideas that could work? The objective of me doing this initially was to reduce the amount of space taken up by the plaster ceiling in the living hall.

I've attached a picture of my floor plan where the green arrow denotes the entrance and areas beyond that would be the living hall. Hope you guys would not mind helping me to have a look and truly appreciate any suggestions you guys may have Thanks in advance everyone

[Banned 1]

hmm.. why dont u us take away the downlight and replace it with a small foyer lightings.. in that case u can save on having false ceiling there ma..

[namuramc 0]

hmm.. why dont u us take away the downlight and replace it with a small foyer lightings.. in that case u can save on having false ceiling there ma..

Hi Banned, thanks for the suggestion! Looked up some hanging lights and decided to go ahead with placing one at the foyer. Thanks again and really appreciate it:)

[Banned 1]

You are welcome.. that's what this place is for..

[january 0]

Hi namuramc

There seems to be a huge space in the middle of your living room, where I suppose you are going to place a ceiling fan, w/o any lighting. If that centre space is going to be a major activity area I think you should place some lights there.

Most importantly you should work out where your activity areas are, and then plan the lighting accordingly. It doesn't matter if the lights don't end up being symmetrical, no one's gonna really notice anyway. But if your main activity areas are not lit properly, you're gonna have a problem.

[namuramc 0]

Hi january, thanks for your great insights! Actually my contractor also raised the same concern as he mentioned potentially the center portion of the living hall is going to be fairly dim. That was actually another dilemma I am having. My activity area will be centered around the dining table and the living hall coffee table.

I was thinking of placing tracklights aimed at the wall and bounce it to the center of the living hall. Or another option I had in mind was to place some hanging lights right in the middle, although i'm somewhat concerned about the distance between the hanging lights and the fan.

Do you think these concepts would work?

[january 0]

A hanging lamp close to a ceiling fan looks weird no?

Track lighting idea seems to be feasible. Have you also considered cove lighting? That way you can have an additional layer of lights around your ceiling fan.

If not you can use floor lamps which bounce the light off the ceiling for additional lighting, something like this. This wouldn't work so well if you have a very high ceiling though.

[namuramc 0]

Hi january, I'll check out the floor lamp. Looks good:) I did consider cove lighting, although just a bit concerned about having to clean that area. Seems like dust has a tendency to settle into the cove area?

[january 0]

To tell you the truth, I've never cleaned that area... And I don't think you need to at all.

[hihihi 0]

your living rm lighting are too few. Min 3 per (long) side, otherwise night time u probably would need a torch.

[namuramc 0]

Hi hihihi, thanks for the inputs. Was hoping to understand that, when you mentioned 3 per long side, did you mean that on each side of the living hall you have 3 downlights? Perhaps I would have to space my downlights closer to each other? Currently it's spaced about 6 feet from each other (bottom to top, and the subsequent ones).

I've attached another updated image file to this post. It's basically a continuation of the earlier image (my apologies I don't have a good image editor here). It's basically the living hall area. The earlier picture was the foyer and dining area. Based on my measurement the living hall width (left to right is approx 4 meters).

Certainly hope to learn from your experience on how I could perhaps position the lights better as I was just following some rough guidelines on the net

Thanks in advance everyone:)

[january 0]

actually, have you gone to a light shop with your floor plan?

the sales guy should be able to tell you where exactly to place the lights.

[namuramc 0]

actually, have you gone to a light shop with your floor plan?

the sales guy should be able to tell you where exactly to place the lights.

Hi Guys, sorry my PC has been down for days. Come to think of it, I didn't really have a serious consultation with the light shop. Thanks for the heads up january! Will do that tomorrow:D