Cottage Lighting - Killing me!

[Sue Wilkinson]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I wish I wasn't so sensitive to the colour of light. It makes it very hard for me to use long life or led lights. But I will keep looking. I don't want to ruin the cosy cottage look, but a bit more light would be lovely.

Sue

 

[Penners]

I don't want to ruin the cosy cottage look, but a bit more light would be lovely.

This has quite a nice, traditional look about it:-

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

I don't want to ruin the cosy cottage look, but a bit more light would be lovely.

This has quite a nice, traditional look about it:-

Ah yes! Perfect. I can situate it at the bottom of the garden, firing up towards the house. It will scare the badgers who ruin my garden half to death as well and possibly keep them out. Two birds with one stone - win, win.

I already have the electric fences and flashing red led "night eyes" in the garden, the neighbours won't even notice this little device joining the arsenal.

 

[a twig]

LED "rope lights" might help? Can be pretty much cut to length, concealed really easily, a doddle to install along beams etc, and cheap enough that it you hate them you can bin them! I know you said you had reservations about LEDs, but might be worth a trial!

As long as you can't directly see the "rope" which can look a bit tacky, you get quite a nice light from them.

 

[steveb]

we used LED rope lights in a bedroom (stuck on beams facing upwards, but the room had a vaulted ceiling so reflects the light back) and in the kitchen under kitchen units shining onto the worktop. We are very pleased with the result but I did have to try a few until I was happy with the colour (as "white" varied between very warm/almost yellow to very cool/almost blue)

completely agree that you don't want to see the lights but if you can find an alcove, recess, rail or anywhere where the light can shine out from, the effect I really liked.

-Steve

 

[Zebra]

Hi Sue,

Sounds like you've had a stressful time. I hope you get your home back to normal soon, and start enjoying it more.

You said you like halogen lighting. You could get wall lights with either G4 (low voltage) or G9 (mains voltage) capsule lamps. Those are both halogen.

Or perhaps just buy one cheap fitting, say a wall light with a BC lampholder, and try various lamps in it: LEDs, halogens, CFLs, etc, as long as they all have the BC base. Then when you find what type of lamp you want to use, find a fitting for it. Sounds expensive but it'd be cheaper than employing a lighting designer.

I think it rather unlikely that your incoming voltage is low. That's quite rare.