I'm not a fan of recessed lighting in a living room. I'd start with a good size rug. a couple of tables with lamps and change the floor lamps to ones that point down.

Thanks for the reply.

Why do you prefer to avoid recessed lights in the living room?

I'm actually trying to avoid lamps if at all possible. The end goal is to remove the clutter and clean up the floor space.

I liked the idea of track lights, but the lady likes recessed. Perhaps we're both wrong here. :)

Agree with jck910, lamps are your friend.

You can layer lighting in the room so you have your ambient lights and then your specific lighting. The designers here will know how to do that - but I wouldn't fill up the room with recessed lighting.

Are you worried about the lamp cords on the floor and that's why you prefer recessed lighting?

Because they usually don't light the areas needed. Where would the electrician put the 4? 2 on the TV wall they would just cause glare, 2 on the sofa wall would they be comfortable for someone sitting on the sofa to read etc...

O.K. So, we're now looking at floor lamps :) . Thinking something somewhat modern, perhaps a tree lamp with 3 cans so we can direct them around the room? Or something perhaps like the ones I've listed here. Not a big fan of fabric shades for whatever reason.

Any thoughts on pairing them with a couple low key track lights for bounce lighting?

I realized moving the lamps to the front of the room looked much better than the rear. Moved some stuff around slightly to compensate.

Lamps are almost like jewelry so invest in something beautiful!

Light the areas where the people live, not the ceilings. Fred's chart can help you get the heights right. Fat chunky tables do best with chunky lamps. Leggy, skinny tables need skinny lamps. Ambient ceiling light is for getting into the room in the dark. Then you turn it off or dim it down and cozy the space and enhance the furnishings and people with task and accent lighting.

I was in the mindset that using indirect/bounce lighting would be the easiest on the eyes, such as bouncing light off the walls and the ceilings.

The livingroom, for us, is mostly for watching movies and hanging out together in the evenings. Both me and my spouse have our own "project rooms". Should I still concentrate on task lighting?

So I'm gathering I should focus more on table lamps on top of small tables than actual floor lamps?

Also, should I skip the electrician and avoid talk lighting from above and concentrate on floor/table lamps, or should I have both? I am on a budget, so the money has to be divided either way.

If you plan to sell in the next 5 years, then LED cans in the ceiling would be an upgrade buyers might appreciate, but will they cover the cost? You could get a bit of both if you connected some of your wall outlets directly to a light switch or two so you can flip some lamps on when you enter the room without walking over to them.

Nice lamps. Consider having lamps next to your seating areas that illuminate the seat and floor so you can read (rather than point upward).

I have to disagree that you dont need any overhead lighting, and it would be silly not to put some in,

A resale value people love that.

B to highlight art over the fireplace

C when you need real light for things like cleaning, or just about anything where a nice even amount of light might be nice.

EVERY new home build comes with recessed lighting, kitchens, for the most part, are lit with a combo of recessed, and under-cabinet lighting, why because it gives you layers of light.

I would put 4-5 in and have 2 switches.

Then you lamps become the ambient lighting and reading light when needed.

I think I will add a couple of table lamps. The plan is the replace the old war torn ottomans and get a couple end tables, toss some lamps on those and see how that looks.

I do think I'll eventually add an overhead light, but I'm leaning away from the recessed lights as I think it will be too much light for me to ever really use them.

I added overhead recessed lights in the corner areas of our living room when we renovated, and I'm sorry I did. The light is sort of unpleasant and we hardly every turn it on. The lights I really like are our wall sconces. Ours are wired in but I kind of wish I had just gone with plug-in wall sconces that screw into the wall, for more flexibility. The light washes the wall and ceiling and is really pleasant. They take up no floor space.

I combined the wall sconces with either floor lamps or table lamps on either end of our 2 sofas. The heights that @decoenthusiaste posted are important to remember. You can spend a lot on lamps but I didn't and am happy that they are pretty plain and just sort of blend in. I shop at resale places a lot and got a nice floor lamp at Habitat for Humanity Restore. My table lamp i liked the shape and spray painted the base a color close to our wall color, then bought a new shade.