Most LEDs don't play nicely with dimmers.

There's LED bulbs that are labeled "dimmable" , and both Lutron an Leviton make switches that are capable of dimming LED bulbs

Once again Milly you comment without having researched.

To the OP I would ask why recessed lights in your living room instead of a couple of nice hanging fixtures?

If I could I would use a combination of hanging fixtures and recessed lighting. I would use recessed fixtures made for vaulted ceilings as my first choice, or eyeballs as my second choice because you don't want to be aiming the beam spread from the fixtures diagonally to the center of the floor.

However I would really plan for lamps and if not lamps wall sconces in addition to cans. Lighting completely from overhead looks awfully commercial and isnt particularly flattering. It can be rather harsh particularly with the wrong LED temperature or beam spread.

I am not a pro but I have avoided using recessed lighting in our vaulted ceilings because it is tricky. They just can't achieve the same even spread of light that an inverted pendant light could. The idea here is to bounce the light of the ceiling to distribute it evenly rather than creating harsh shadows.

thanks for the replies

cpartist, I like the "clean" look of the recessed lighting, our kitchen will also be lit with recessed cans, but that's a little easier, the kitchen will just have flat 8' ceiling. Also, we are going to have a chandelier in the dining room, and a ceiling fan with lights in the nook, and I guess that was just enough hanging lights for me.

palimpsest, the recessed cans I'm finding for cathedral ceilings appear to no be able to provide enough of an angle in my case. My ceiling slope is 35.2, which if I did the math correctly, translates to a pitch of 8.5/12. The cans made for sloped ceilings seem to max out at a 6/12 pitch. The eyeballs claim to be able to go upto 35 degrees, which should be close enough. I had planned on going with the "warm" LED bulbs, and putting all of them on a dimmer. I'm personally not a fan of wall sconces, but I could certainly add some table lamps if need be. I have definitely figured out that I need to try to get these lights to aim straight down, as you stated, the diagonal idea was a bad one. The more I thought about it, I'd probably end up with a light shining almost directly into my face as I sat and watched TV.

susha, the original plan was to have a ceiling fan with lights in that room, but after talking to the electrician, we decided against that idea because there will be a stained wooden beam running the length of the high point of the ceiling and he recommended against cutting into that beam to mount the fan, and we didn't like the idea of the fan not being mounted exactly in the center of the room ( personal taste ). So, that put an end to having any kind of light hanging from the ceiling, and we just figured on putting enough cans in to do the job.

If ceiling hung fixtures are out of the question, then why not try a combination of sconces and chained table lamps connected to a half switched receptacle?

Will you ever just sit and read in this room? If so, you need lamps. Lamps will also make it seem like a home - a room in which one might actually live. All ceiling lights has the look of a furniture showroom where no one lives.

You should talk with someone in a lighting showroom. I just had a meeting with a lighting designer and it was illuminating! Seriously, she had a clue about how much light was needed for the space, based on the ceiling height, the size of the lights and overall design.

"...Seriously, she had a clue..."

Finally.

Someone has a clue.

Ms. Plum in the kitchen. With a mop!

LOL @ Virgil, there are a lot of LED recessed cans that work with dimmers so that is a non-issue. Several online companies will assist with your design and obviously you're expected to purchase there also Google is your friend. Days worth of reading if you search.

Yep, put everything on rheostats (Home Depot has them labeled as dimmers)!

Think you'd be hard pressed to find a rheostat based dimmer in Home Depot unless youve found a good time machine

Use sloped housings to direct the light straight down. Eyeball fixtures often produce glare. 3 dimmers for 6 lights in this room are too much. They should also be ICAT (Insulation contact air tight) if they are going to be in contact with the insulation.

"...unless youve found a good time machine..." Warp speed, Scotty!

Summit, I had planned on getting the ICAT fixtures. The lights will be in contact with the insulation, there is no second floor above this room ( or the entire house for that matter). I had planned on either 8 or 10 6 inch cans, but 6 would save me some money.

I actually think 4 would be plenty for this room along with a lamp or two.