On Jan 26, 10:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living
room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the
middle.

My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which
will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside
to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or
fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf.

Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them
up all around.

This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure
the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any
visible braces. Any thoughts?

You're talking a lot of fluorescents, a lot of hum, a lot of bulbs to
change, and a lot of installation time. You're also talking about a
fair bit of wood and

Is the lighting effect solely what is driving this urge to build and
the lighting trough is necessary to conceal the 'guts'? Or is it more
that you like the architecturalishness of the band running around the
perimeter of the ceiling and while it's there you might as well throw
in some lighting? Critical difference.

If you're primarily interested in the lighting effect, and you want to
save a bucket of cash, I'd definitely look into using some rope
lighting, preferably LED. They kick out a nice amount of lighting
efficiently, couldn't be easier to install, are easy to replace, have
lifetimes measured in the many tens of thousands of hours and require
very little space to install. Did I mention they're cheap?

One solution would be to use two or three separate complete circuits
of rope light around the perimeter and have each on it's own switch -
that way you could vary the lighting level as desired. I'm not sure
if the rope lights are dimmable, but if they are, then you'd be set.

You really want the smallest open area acting as a shelf as possible -
the less projection the less dust it will catch. Fluorescents will
require a big box. Your friend is right about the need to address the
dark spots if you butt the fluorescent fixtures end to end. You could
use aluminum reflectors set inside the trough to bounce more of the
light towards the dark areas between bulb ends.

Since the rope light tubing is about 1/2" in diameter, two or three
runs could easily be hidden in a very small space and would require
only minimally projecting moldings. A single run of some deeper crown
molding would hide it well. Another alternative would be to build up
the cove out of 1x and trim to make it look like a frieze running
around the room. The frieze and molding detail would complement
whatever style of house you have.

Compare the costs for fluorescent versus the rope lighting and the
energy use both ways. And you should also take into account that
cleaning cove lighting is a bitch - even with a glass cover (is the
glass solely for cleaning purposes?).

R