Lighting

[xanthe]

Following the depressing visit by an electrician yesterday - verdict: you're not going to burn down, but it's awful and don't touch x, y and z oh and they wired a few earths into the neutrals :shock: :shock: ; and a painful quote :shock: , we have got to start looking at lighting so we can have an idea where wires will need to go.

Every single property of this variety I look at online seems to either go for basic spotlights in every corner; or brass picture lights; or the worst of the ye olde worlde gothicke chandeliers with fake candles (there are a few tasteful ones but far more of the horror movie variety out there).

Can anyone suggest companies that supply nice lights for cottages with lots of beams (of the above types) or share what they have come up with for their own property, I would be v grateful!

Also if anyone knows of electricians in the South Surrey/West Kent/West Sussex borders type-area who are Listed Building friendly or tried and tested, we are quote gathering.

 

[mattice]

Round pin lighting sockets dotted around the house are great for our low beamed ceiling. Add a spur each time you find a nice standard lamp Surprisingly good light.

 

[xanthe]

Standard lamps are a possibility, but do they go well with small human creatures? Is the light fairly bright?

 

[mattice]

mmm good point, our 3 yr old human creature felled his first one recently, he now gives it a wide birth.....

 

[Owain]

Standard lamps are a possibility, but do they go well with small human creatures? Is the light fairly bright?

You can weight the bases with lead to reduce the topplyness.

 

[Flyfisher]

Can anyone suggest companies that supply nice lights for cottages with lots of beams . . .

Jim Lawrence has been mentioned a few times here in the past. Might be a start for some inspiration: http://www.jim-lawrence.co.uk/top/lighting

 

[tobydog]

I would second the Jim Lawrence suggestion. Our house has become somewhat of a showroom for them although I agree that lighting is the most difficult to sort. We have the wonky walls and low beams and use a combination of standard and table lamps. This creates a nice light but I struggle with reading and therefore have a multi directional wall light on one of the studs behind the sofa.

 

[Me!]

I haven't bought any of these yet, but I've been looking around for a while now and these are my current favourite -
http://www.belico.co.uk/shop/langham-twin-candle-wrought-iron-wall-light/

However, what I think of as tasteful and simple, with nice lines and proportions could easily be what you describe as -

ye olde worlde gothicke

 

[Feltwell]

Not to everyone's taste, but for directional lighting for reading I really fancy an old Mek-Elek type machinists light. I just need to find one at a reasonable price that's not been re-painted or polished to death - the original slightly battered paint is what makes it in my opinion. The one below is OK, but perhaps a little more battered would be better!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Vin...931?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19fef69b83

 

[Penners]

I'm also a fan of Jim Lawrence. They manage to make light fittings which look traditional and fit very well in an old cottage, but without looking "ye olde" and twee.

 

[xanthe]

He's got some lovely lights! Have sent link to other half.

We went to a huge lighting place in Alton today... good grief there are some horrendous things out there! As usual, husband and I are going to struggle to agree. Our last house it took over 2 years to find the right lights - when we did, it was like a thunderbolt: there they were, perfect and we both loved them.

Hopefully the same will happen again. Normally I like very traditional and he likes more modern. This time, he's going for film-set Tudor and I'm looking at things with a more contemporary twist. I can see it being a long process again and much sulking over the vetoes.

Has anyone had things hand-forged to their own design? If so, are there any really good people out there? We want to have a door knocker copied (can't risk the original) and DH wants a post-box (currently have some Regency affair screwed to the wall), but at this rate we might need a couple of lights as well!

We were rather taken (aback) by these... http://www.elsteadlighting.com/crusader-c-418.php :shock:

 

[Keithj]

We had a wondrous argument with the local EH personage over the lighting in the church. She liked the old 100 watt bulbs in industrial-style reflector fittings up in the roof - they cost a fortune to maintain, because it's scaffolding every time we want to change a bulb, and we thought they were 'orrible.
She tried to veto LED lights on the basis of "too modern". I pointed out that when the church was built, it was candles and oil lamps (if anything). We've now got grudging acceptance of LED because the fittings our expert advised are tiny, inconspicuous, and can be well concealed up in the roof timbers.

The house had some ghastly home-made wall lights (school woodwork class project style). The fittings we ended up with came from Dunelm (I think it was) and were their cheapest wrought iron jobs. They blend in well (to our way of thinking).

 

[xanthe]

Lighting seems to bring out the worst in people!

LED is apparently a non-negotiable which I'm fine with.

The electrician was horrified to see that the POs had fitted super-hot exterior floodlights to the beams of the old cat slide roof in the kitchen - especially given the amount of cat hair floating around up there. :shock:

 

[plasticpigeon]

I think Classic British Lighting makes really nice stuff, but it is all Edwardian Art Nouveau style, so not sure if it your thing.

http://www.earshamhall.co.uk/acatalog/Classic-British-Lighting.html

 

[xanthe]

Sadly we're one of the hardest periods to light - Tudor/Jacobean as there aren't any originals to copy.

The property is also relatively un-modernised - builders/plasterers/removal men/electricians etc have all said that they feel as if they are walking into a film set - so it's tricky.

We're also starting from scratch in a sense as currently all the lights in the house are on the ceiling - no wall lights, bar two rather oversized lanterns either side of the bressumer - and range from a single IKEA type row of spotlights stuck to the bottom of the main beam in the bedroom, and cheap and nasty lanterns hanging in the middle of the sitting-room, dining-room and stairwell.

 

[Keithj]

For what it's worth, I'm assured that Guildford Diocese ONLY allows LED for any new lighting installations in churches of any age. It's very much more efficient, easier to conceal, and decent quality light units have a mean time between failures in the region of 100,000 hours of operation.

We bought some early LED lights a few years ago, and they were 'orrible. The most recent ones are excellent.

I've replaced all the torches in the house with Cree LED units with rechargeable batteries. They give much more light, and the batteries last a lot longer between charges.

 

[Simone]

Hi there, i personally love tiffany style stained glass lighting, the art nouveau style fits really well with period properties. Just renovated a old cottage (victorian in style i think) and have both table lamps in that style in the lounge and a pendant hanging light in the hall - really lovely look. Found this handy little fact sheet about them which inspired my decision https://www.thevictorianemporium.co...y/article/the_design_of_louis_comfort_tiffany - hope this helps you too!!

 

[livias]

Put plenty of five amp lighting sockets around the walls. Wall and ceiling lights are so inappropriate for an old timber frame imo and lighting sockets give much more flexibility. You can adjust the position of the actual lights, you can use standard or table lights. I put a pullcord by the door way to control each room as I didn't want to see light switches. The cord that I used was bondage rope (silk rope in joyous colours) which provided much mirth ...

The other lighting feature that I have seen which works well is to use delicate glass shades which is a lovely contrast to heavy oak beams

In this house I am also planning to make good use of LED flexible strip lighting as inconspicuous uplighting and downlighting

 

[Zebra]

These were cheap from Homebase, around £15 each I think. I spent ages looking, then decided that they didn't offend me and they'd do.

In the bedroom I went for a basic plastic pendant - I can always add a shade later. In the study I've just got 5amp sockets, no ceiling lights or wall lights. Then I will just get some desk lamps / standard lamps and switch them from the doorway.

Hope this helps! Good luck. Having your house rewired is awful, very messy and stressful. I should know, I do it for a living!

 

[Penners]

I put a pullcord by the door way to control each room as I didn't want to see light switches. The cord that I used was bondage rope

What a waste of perfectly good bondage rope! :evil: It has been carefully developed by specialists to serve a specific purpose - you can't just go using for any old thing, willy-nilly.


Is there REALLY something called "bondage rope"?!!