How to construct recessed area in ceiling/wall for fluorescents

[Sean]

I've got some lighting design books (retail not pro) at home where I've seen flourescent lights (and other strip lights) recessed into the ceiling or in a wall behind coloured glass. To me it looks like a good alternative to halogens downlighers or the standard pendant (if you have room in the ceiling to fit that is). The problem is the pictures don't provide enough visual detail to have an idea as to the best way to construct such recesses to fit this lighting in terms of finish and how best to hide the fitting but show off the light. Does antbody have any ideas about doing such a thing?

TIA Sean

[Lurch]

On 1 Jul 2004 10:35:22 -0700, [e-mail] (Sean) strung together this:

Sheets of ply, a box of screws, a saw and some imagination is all you need!. If it were me I would make a plywood box in the ceiling void and paint it white then affix the coloured perspex or whatever onto it in whatever fashion you fancy.

[Rick Dipper]

Sir

I would look at finding the joists, then removing the plasterboard beween the jousts to make a hole, and building a box up behind, rather like the shape of an upturned shoe box. This I think will be easy to do badly, and difficult to do really well and neetly.

Rick

[adder]

If it were me, I'd be making the box out of plasterboard and makign sure all the items aren't going to overheat, just for an extra fire precaution.

[Philip]

Sounds a bit 1960's to me. Are you going for a retro feel, Vinyl covered chairs, Warhol posters etc. I can see a nice Dansette in the corner with a small stack of 45's next to it. Phil

[Sean]

Cheeky I'm thinking of them at the edge of the ceiling as wall washers on a single wall in a couple of rooms. I would want the fluorescents to be hidden from view, but I would also need space to replace the fittings if necessary. I think lighting a textured or tiled wall with T5 fluorescents would look pretty good. I doesn't sound that off the wall to me.