I have a long and narrow kitchen which is currently lit with a 5 ft fluorescent tube. I would like to change it but I don't want to fit downlighters as it would mean taking up the bedroom floor which is chipboard (the joists run across the kitchen ceiling)
I am wondering it I could suspend something that has spots fixed to it. Another idea is 3 or 4 retro glass lampshades (wired to a central rose)
Any imaginative ideas?
Have you seen the 12V halogens that are hung between low voltage cables strung across the ceiling?
Google 12V halogen track and wire
I take it there is a good reason for this as most downlighters sit perfectly happily in the ceiling plasterboard.
I would counsel against mains halogens as my experience is that they fail frequently and the bulbs are expensive. The 12v option seems better even if it means finding somewhere for the transformer - I suspect that the transformer has a degree of soft start in it hence protecting the bulbs.
Rob
One of the best schemes which is often discussed here is to put fluorescent lighting out of sight on top of the wall cupboards and have it light the room by bouncing off the ceiling (brilliant white matt emulsion). You might even be able to move your existing light there. You can add under- cupboard lighting too to make task lighting.
The centre of the ceiling is generally not a good place for lighting a kitchen (except for a long fluorescent which you want to remove) as you'll be working in your own shadow much of the time. You could leaving something rather more decorative than functional there. Personally, I tend to get rid of the lighting point in the middle of the ceiling (or in one case, used it just for an emergency light).
Spotlights are for supplemental accent lighting, and make very poor and inefficient general lighting.
I once saw downlighters fitted through a piece of worktop that had been mounted (upside down!) above the cupboards, protuding by a few inches. Looked like quite a good idea as means that the working surface is well illuminated.
Rob - I would not be able to run the wires to other lights without taking up the floor above. Fitting them into the plasterboard is not the issue - getting the power to them is the issue.
Track lights. E.G. Like these:
R.
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