"SPC" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm having downlights fitted in my living room tomorrow, but am a bit
worried about getting the number/positioning right. Want the room to
be quite bright and well balanced. Details as follows:

-Room about 12x13
-Chimney breast and bay window to consider
-Painted white
-Option to add additional table lamps etc and my fireplace already has
a downlight on it

As this is quite a small room I had initially planned to place
4x50watt eyeball downlights in a square. But having read some of the
posts here I am concerned that this won't be enough. Problem I have
is that the other half isnt keen on having loads of these all over the
ceiling, but I know she won't be happy with dim light! Shape of the
room makes positioning the lights tricky when I try to bring more than
4 into the equation. Looks something like this (Obviously not to
scale.
_____ ______
! !__________! !
! !___
! x x !
! ! (Bay Window)
! ___!
! x x !
!_______________________!



Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated before D Day 2moro!
Really want to get this right!

Thanks all

SPC

I had a larger area and was faced with the same problem. I decided on wall
washers 2 feet out from the walls. 2 on the fire place, 4 arranged along
the wall with the window and the adjoining wall. and 2 down lights over the
couch area. I used 100 CF's switched each set separately. I could turn on
what I needed or all at once. I used the pair over the fireplace for
watching TV and the 4 lighted up some of my movie posters. The pair over the
couch was for reading and I rarely used them.

Trying for general lighting with cans is pretty hard. If your going to put
up some art, pictures, etc I would light them and leave the center of the
room alone.
I like indirect lighting. So bouncing light off the walls into the room is
attractive to me.
good luck with your project