That's what I'd suggest. Ceiling needs to be brilliant white matt emulsion too. Make sure the lights will take larger compact fluorescents, or even choose ones which are designed for fluorescents with separate control gear.
You don't say what sort of room - my kitchen ceiling is 1.2m - the operating area is lit with 6 ceiling mounted downlighters, and a large pendant over the eating table.
Once made some lights out of clay drain pipe sections (about 6" in diameter). Put about 6" concrete in the base to make it stable and slid in a 12V PSU and above that an aluminium plate cut to take a
20deg beam GU10 halogen bulb. The bulb sat about a foot below the surface and the pipes were positioned in the corners. Made very good uplighters with no glare as you couldn't see the bulbs unless you were standing close to the lamps. The clay pipes could be painted any colour you like. Low energy GU63 versions could also be used now with no need for a PSU.
Approx 7 foot, I am approx 6 foot, I wouldnt be comfortable attaching something directly to the ceiling and it is solid so sinking into it isn't an option.
Brilliant white ceiling and uplighters seems best so far.
I've seen that done in many hotels, they give a very even light particularly useful in bathrooms. I've done it myself in a bathroom in previous house, fitted above a large mirror above modified kitchen units with an inset sink. The top of the units was white, the combination of downward light from the tube, reflected light from the top and the reflected light from the ceiling made it superb for shaving etc. It's a very good way of lighting a room in my opinion.
Sorry I didn't read your question carefully enough.
You were suggesting mounting fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. I would suggest mounting 5 foot fluorescence on walls approx 6 to 10 ins down from ceiling with a detachable pelmet also mounted on wall to allow light to reflect off ceiling and wash the walls with light below pelmet. My previous message assumed this configuration.
That would work, but with only a foot or so from uplighter to ceiling you;d want to use lots of low power uplighters to avoid very bright spots on the ceiling.
The trough fluorescent fitting also sounds like a good option if there are some fl tubes you like (they vary hugely in light quality). You can mount a trough as a downlighter/wallwasher as suggested, but this will show up lots of wall blemishes quite heavily, as its close to the wall. Or you could mount the trough at about 6' and use it as an uplighter to wash the ceiling with light. This would give much more even lighting and avoid the blemish issue.
But if going fl do read up on it first, too many fl installations are horrible due to people not understanding the possible pitfalls.
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briliant white is not the most reflective paint colour. If you're an 'eco' person you might like to use lime white. White lime paints are very low in embodied energy and more reflective than brillant white.
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