Software
Houzz Logo Print
rachel_parker4941

Any pictures of vaulted great room ceiling lighting??

17 years ago

We are building a house with a 17 x 24 great room that has a vaulted ceiling. We are trying to place where we want the lights in the ceiling. We have already a ceiling fan and 2 eyeball cans over the fireplace in the middle of the exterior wall. Toward the middle of the house, on the other end of the room, the roofline comes up where the 2nd floor catwalk is. Does anyone have pictures of how they placed their lighting? We have a friend that just built the same floorplan but didn't include any more lighting and she regrets it. There are no wood beams either.

Comments (11)

  • 17 years ago

    Here's mine. We have a 24 ft. vault in our great room. Lots of people say that putting lights up there won't make any difference, but for us, between the fans and the pot lights, they really work fine. I don't use them much, but when we need them, they are quite sufficient. I'd rather have them and not use them than to not have them and need them.

  • 17 years ago

    Here's what I did. I have no ceiling fan or any eyeballs on the fireplace which is on the opposite wall. We bounce the light off the ceiling and have one table lamp by the couch for reading. It provides plenty of light. This is a two circuit track and the center two fixtures shoot across the room and light up the stone fireplace. Our room dimensions are similar to yours.


    Nice thing with this plan is the fixtures are small, and if you need more light you clip in a few more. I think each of these is 50 Watts so I have 200 Watts bouncing off the ceiling and a 100 Watts more bouncing off the stone fireplace.

  • 17 years ago

    Klabio-
    Your set up is similar how ours is going to be. We will have about 3 flush ceiling lights on the second level cat walk and 1 stair ceiling light over the landing(it is a split staircase, doesn't go straight down). Although Superchick's lighting is great I am concerned for my husband that he would have to find some way to change all those lights but I don't want to have the great room too dark. The great room is open to the 2 story foyer (with a light) and the kitchen is open to it as well on the side.

  • 17 years ago

    Here's another view of it from the dining area. Ignore the smudges on the floor and the mud prints from the Golden.

    The folks on the lighting forum would probably be helpful.

  • 17 years ago

    Are you using low voltage or incandescent lighting? If you use low voltage, you can rotate the light bulb in the socket and also vary the width and intensity, color, etc. of the light beaming from the ceiling to acheive the desired lighting requirement.
    What do you plan to utilize the ceiling lights for? a walkway, reading, general lighting, etc?
    Remember to take the angle of the lights you have beaming toward the fireplace and make sure the beam clears the mantle. too many times, people put the lights up there and forget the extension of the mantle and it blocks the fireplace they wanted to light up. Just a thought. Low voltage or adjustable ceiling lights will/can correct this if it's already installed.
    This is a picture of my living room with a vaulted ceiling only to approximately 13-14 feet.

    We placed a "square" pattern of 4 lights around the seating area to illuminate that, then a "curved" pattern of 4 lights illuminating a preceived walkway thru the room, then we placed two lights to beam into the fireplace, and 4 more lights to illuminate the entrance of each patio door extending off of this room. Our lights are low voltage and you can see the size of them in the far back area of this room.

    This is the pre-finished ceiling, hopefully, altho blurry, you can pick out the way we put the lights.

    Think about furniture placement and where your guests will sit, you don't want a beam of light blinding them, you want the room to feel illuminated, yet soft and inviting.

    Too much information, sorry, but I remember dreaming many nights about my lighting plan and I know it's importance to light a room the way you will actually live and utilize that room.
    If you have more questions, I can try and take a picture of the ceiling itself to show you the layout of our lights.

    V

  • 17 years ago

    See link below.

    Here is a link that might be useful: For Those Of You With A Vaulted Greatroom Ceiling...

  • 17 years ago

    I wanted more lighting just to illuminate the room, so it is not too dark. Our family room isn't vaulted or 2 story in our current home so I want to make sure I do it right. I am just worried if we add like 4 cans around the fan and have the eyeball cans around the fireplace it might be a bit much. I guess we can always add a dimmer to them. It helps to see pictures and I might go back to our friends' that have just built the same house to envision what I want. It just gets confusing when I look on the lighting forum and they talk about the strobe effect if the recessed cans are too close to the ceiling fan.

    Vfish-
    We will have more of a seating area closer to the fireplace and a walkway right by the stairs and catwalk. There is a hallway that takes you from the master bedroom and utility room past the stairs and straight into the kitchen on the other side of the great room.

  • 17 years ago

    I'm also trying to decide what to do for my future 2-story living room so I'm glad that you asked this question.

    I know I want a ceiling fan but don't want any recessed lighting. I'm thinking about adding large sconces up sort of high in the hopes that it will contribute more light to the perimeter where the fan light won't reach. Or instead of that, maybe building false beams around the perimeter and then attaching sconces or other lights to it but that won't give me light high up. I'm still brainstorming on ways to avoid recessed lights but still give adequate light.

    Superchick - I just spent hours looking for ceiling fans on line. I love the looks of your fan. Would you, please, share what it is and if you like it?

    klabio - I love the simplicity of your catwalk railing. That would fit right in with my future home's loft!

  • 17 years ago

    That's great if you know where your seating will be. Define this area with the type of lighting you will need. Dimmers are always good. The walkways can be lit up even with sconces if you don't want the overhead lights. Your seating area may get enough light with a floor lamp and fewer overhead lights.
    V

  • 17 years ago

    Flash-thanks for the compliment. I feel your pain-I looked at fans for hours as well. It is mind-numbing! I ended up special ordering these from Lowe's. They are 60",Monte Carlo brand. I can't seem to find the paperwork, and I don't remember the model name. I want to say perhaps "versailles". I was trying to get the biggest I could find. And you can pick the finish you like as well. 60" in any style besides industrial seem to be hard to come by. You can search for Monte Carlo fans online and then special order from Lowe's. That seemed better than standing over the catalog for hours at the store!
    As I said before, my ceiling peaks at 24' and you'd be surprised at the light and air that makes it all the way down to the floor. Honestly, sometimes it's all the light we need. And sometimes it's too much air!

  • 17 years ago

    Superchick - Thanks for the information. I haven't looked at that brand so I will when I meet with the lighting designer today.