Replies

1. 
   philarenewal | Mar 08, 2006 08:10am | #1

   A vague wrinkled fold of my gray matter is telling me Outwater sells a type of cornice moulding made to incorporate lighting within.  I could dig it up if you are interested.

    

   "A job well done is its own reward.  Now would you prefer to make the final payment by cash, check or Master Card?"

1. 
   JohnT8 | Mar 08, 2006 07:19pm | #7

   Guess I need to go look at available fixtures and their pricetag to see if it can be fit into the budget.

   Is this the stuff you were thinking of?

   http://www.outwater.com/catalog04/outwater/opi306.htm

    

   jt8

   "Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

   Edited 3/8/2006 11:30 am by JohnT8

1. 
   philarenewal | Mar 09, 2006 02:11am | #9

   John:

   This is more what I was thinking of:

   http://www.outwatercatalogs.com/outwater_archprod/lg_display.cfm?page_number=13&catalog=ow

   #C351 and #C352 for indirect lighting

   http://www.outwatercatalogs.com/outwater_archprod/lg_display.cfm?page_number=22&catalog=ow

   Richmond #C901 for indirect lighting 

   "A job well done is its own reward.  Now would you prefer to make the final payment by cash, check or Master Card?"

1. 
   JohnT8 | May 03, 2006 07:45pm | #10

   Those are pretty cool, but I'm not excited about the prices!

   IF nothing else, they show you what is possible.

    jt8

   "The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake..."-- Nelson Boswell

1. 
   philarenewal | May 03, 2006 07:50pm | #11

   Yeah, their pricing seems to have gotten a lot more expensive lately.

   I've used some of their large plastic cornice moulding in my own house (cheapscate that I am) and I think it was something like 6 bucks per 10' length in case quantities.  That was more my speed in terms of price when it's on my tab.  ;-)

   (was years ago now though) 

   "Let's get crack-a-lackin"  --- Adam Carolla

2. 
   Lateapex911 | Mar 08, 2006 08:29am | #2

   8' is pretty low. I would consider using a smaller incan. light source, both for sizing and color rendition.

   Jake Gulick

   [email protected]

   CarriageHouse Design

   Black Rock, CT

3. 
   HeavyDuty | Mar 08, 2006 09:04am | #3

   Just a few thoughts...

   8' is pretty low but workable.

   Try to make it come out a bit more than 6", aim for kind of a soffit effect. How tall are the occupants?

   Are you doing it in wood or painted?

   Depending on the setting, would be nice to have a profile at the opening instead of going straight up and down.

   If you use flourescent tube make sure of the color.

   I would aim for a drop of 7-8" with a cornice of about 3".

   Small incandescents as one of the posters suggested is a good idea.

   You have to work out the details otherwise it's going to look tacky and crappy.

4. 
   stinger | Mar 08, 2006 04:16pm | #4

   My house has cove lighting and we start with flat ceilings at 8/0.

   Soffits are dropped at room perimeters, basically creating a tray ceiling effect, and the edge of the soffit is boosted out.  Bottom of soffits is at maybe 84 inches, or right above your window and door casings.

   See the attached pic.  The bottom of the soffit is framed with laid-flat 2x4s, so that a lip can be formed.  The pic doesn't show it but the edge of the cantilevered bottoms are faced with a 2x4. 

   The whole thing gets sheetrocked, except for the front lip face and the top of the lip.  We do 1/2" white melamine as a surface atop the lip.  That is where we put the light strip.

   A tearaway bead or L-trim is needed where the drywall ends at the lip bottom.  Don't let your taper "flat tape" it. 

   The lip front is trimmed in either painted 1x softwood, or stained or clearcoated hardwood.

   For the lighting, we have used 3/8 diameter rope lighting, or a low voltage kind of strip lighting on which replaceable xenon bulbs are spaced at 2-inch centers.

    

5. 
   stinger | Mar 08, 2006 05:18pm | #5

   Here is a photo that shows the perimeter soffit under an 8/0 ceiling, with hardwood-faced light rails.  Look both sides of the black refrigerator.

6. 
   DanH | Mar 08, 2006 05:54pm | #6

   I don't think you can hope to completely light the room, just provide some "accent".

   And probably you want to avoid bulky fluorescent tubes -- the cove required to hide them would overwhelm the room. I was at a lighting store recently and they had a system with low-pressure krypton [or were they xenon?] bulbs plugged int a cable that was quite compact and very reasonably priced (though a whole room cove would still run into a bit of money). This system is small enough to fit behind a conventional piece of ceiling cove.

   If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people

   happy?

   
   

   ---

   Edited 3/8/2006 9:58 am by DanH

7. 
   CapnMac | Mar 08, 2006 08:45pm | #8

   The "trick" of it is in deciding what sort of light do you want the cove lighting to be.

   The location of a light cove tends to suggest both wall and ceiling "washing" with light.  That light, being indirect and reflected, can give a good general illumination to the room.  For a task-oriented room like a Dining Room, it will not be sufficient by itself, typically.  That usually means needing some sort of "task" lighting for the table (down lights, chandelier, whatever).

   Once you know the "how" you want the light to look, that leads to the light source.  Maybe that's rope or strip lights.  Sometimes that's "pro" rope or discount house rope lighting--that's a price and design decsion that can only be made on site.  Maybe the design wants a very crisp (if slightly "cool" by color) single white neon tube. 

   An 8' ceiling kind of suggests against T-headed ceramic bases with T12 incandescent bulbs, too (a very old stand by, I've either done or rehabbed more times than I can remember).

   I'm describing the process this way on purpose.  The lamp/light fixture then defines what sort of space/size the cove has to be.

   One thing to work out is how to get at the lamps after the cove is installed.  That can "drive" the design more than a small bit.  This is where a keyhole router bit can be very handy.

   Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)