I think it's a good idea to rethink recessed lighting in the bedrooms. You could use an eyeball light in the MB if you had a wall with artwork on it. Other than that, recessed lighting is quite bright and is good task lighting. Something you wouldn't need in bedrooms.

I have recessed lighting in the master bath just in front of the vanities. I also have it in the kitchen and dining room. It depends on what style of house you have and what you like in lighting. I have high ceilings and didn't want a chandalier that I have to clean. That's why I chose recessed lighting for the dining room. My house is a contemporary style and doesn't lend itself to fancy ceiling fixtures.

You can check out the lighting section here on GW and see how people have handled their lighting issues. A lot of it is a matter of taste.

green-zeus, you made good points. The style of my house is Pennsylvania country. My ceilings are 10' throughout the house except vaulted in the great room.

Thank you!--anyone else?

I have recessed lights in the kitchen and my master bathroom, and my husband's library on the second level to light the bookshelves. There are some in the basement rec room as well as the bar and wine cellar. It truly is a matter of taste and what you want. I could have easily lived with none. My husband loves a lot of light and wanted them.

Amy

So for those of you with no recessed lighting in your bedrooms, what do you like the most--ceiling fan with light?--nightstand lights? I'm trying to think if I would ever use the recessed lights in the master--what good would they do?

Thanks!

We have recessed in the living room, kitchen, hallways, family room, but not in the baths or bedrooms. Our house is a very open, small floor plan. I don't think you'll use recessed in the bedrooms either, and recessed doesn't lend itself to a relaxed bedroom feel, IMO. Good luck with your decisions!

We have the master bedroom wired for a ceiling fan, 4 cans, and swing arm lamps on either side of the bed. We probably didn't need the cans. I may take the lighting off the ceiling fan since I have the cans anyway. I am going to wait until we are moved in and see if I like the can lights or the ceiling fan lights better.

We have them in the kitchen (near the cabinets), the living room (near the fireplace), the hallway, on our front porch & over our master shower.

Heather

I hate most of our recessed lighting -- and we have mostly nine-foot ceilings. Why did I listen to the idea of needing "ambient lighting"? Fooey! Now I have all these holes in my ceilings -- including two "spider habitats" directly over our bed! What might I have saved if I'd eliminated two dozen "holes"?

I do like the cans in the corners of our DR, in the hallways, over the laundry sink. I could do with far fewer in the kitchen.

Besides the cans I mentioned liking, the lights in use in our house are: Chandelier w/downlight over kitchen table; daylight fluorescents in master closets and laundry room; under-cabinet Juno strips in kitchen; hanging fixture over sink in kitchen; chandelier in DR; hanging fixture in foyer; sconces in bathrooms; chandelier in master bath. Lamps make up the rest. We do have a light on the ceiling fan in the MBR, but almost never use it. Wish I could change out the cans over our kitchen island for hanging fixtures.

In bedrooms, I'm using ceiling fan with lights. Two switches on wall, one for fan and one for light so you can work them independantly. Also using nightstand lights.

We installed cans in every room except the laundry, pantry and closets. They will all have flourescent fixtures. Didn't put any in the foyer as it is small and we'll only need the chandelier and maybe a sconce or two. I put all the recessed lights on their own dimer switch since they won't be used on a daily basis, only when a lot of bright light is needed or I want to add drama to a room. The primary fuction of the recessed lights are to wash and/or accent the walls with light. We have ceiling fans now with light fixtures and that light is so harsh, we hate it. We plan on having lots of lamps, uplights, sconces and floor lamps in our new home. We like a lot of light and may even be overdoing it, but we would rather have too much than not enough. Right now we live in an old house that has one ceiling fixture to each room and that's horrible. Because we don't have the room to add lots of table lamps or floor lamps, we are stuck with that one fixture and just one lamp per room. Not nearly enough light to make a room comfortable to be in or look at. I love to add light for drama. I think you can fill a house with a million dollars of "stuff" but, if you don't have excellent lighting, then the "stuff" is not showcased or even noticed in some instances. Hope my 2 cents helps.

After reading all the negative views about canned lights, I was almost afraid to admit we had them.

thanks Brutuses - like you we have then in just about every room except the laundry/closets.

In our house now, I hate that we don't have them in the family/bedrooms. I think the light we have in the bedrooms is inadequate, not only for me but for the kids. They have lamps but they don't give off enough light. They also have ceiling fans w/light kits but they give off a weird kind of light. It would drive me nuts to have to sit in those rooms and read, do homework etc. So we thought it best to put the recessed lights in and if they don't get used, that's fine. But better to have too much than not enough.

We have them planned for the kitchen, living, hallway and there are 4 in the master bedroom. We also have a ceiling fan with a light in the MB. The kitchen has a island light also. Oh and there is a planned eyeball light in front of the fireplace. I think thats it. I was going to take all the recessed lighting out but after talking to a bunch of people who have it/had it we decided to stay with it.

We used recessed lights in the kitchen, in front of the fireplace, hallways and front porch.

For the master bedroom we have a ceiling fans with a light, but we don't use it much, we just use a small lamp, we don't like alot of bright light everywhere at night anyway.

Just a little off topic about the spiders and canned ceiling lights. One night as I was sitting watching TV, a spider came down from the canned ceiling light and landed right on the tv tray in front of me. I about jumped out of my skin since I have a phobia about spiders!!! Yuck!!! So it is true that sometimes this happenss. I agree with the poster (forgot who) who said in another thread to not put canned ceiling lights over your bed!!

gopack, we have the ones that are completely sealed and nothing can get through them. If I had a spider fall in front of me I'd be on the floor, fainted!!!LOL Phobia with spiders is an understatement for me.

marle, I'm with you. DH and I joke all the time that when we want to see we want it to look like "Hollywood." HA!

I don't mean to hijack this thread but, someone mentioned eyeball lights. I was thinking of getting eye ball lights for all my recessed fixtures since they will all be strictly for ambience. Will it look funny?

Like most my home being built has them throughout the entire open kitchen/living room as well as in the hallway & above the deck. Ceiling fans in all rooms including living room (not kitchen). Mine are eyeball so can be directed. We also have the fan wall switches set so fan and light can be turned on seperately.

My sister has one in her shower as well.

Dax

brutuses--I have the eyeball lights over the kitchen and dining room table so that the light could be directed over the tables. I don't think they look weird at all.

The poster who talked about cans in childrens' bedrooms makes a good point that I hadn't thought about. Well, when you don't have kids, you don't think of those things. Also, what about in a room used as an office or den. I could see lots of value in that,also.

I forgot to mention that I also have a couple cans in the foyer in order to avoid a ceiling fixture there.

After living in an older home with little natural light and no light except from ceiling fans, we will have recessed in EVERY room. They are wired separate from the ceiling fans, so that we don't have to use them if we don't want to. I would rather have them and not use them, than to need to see and not be able to.

All our cans are on dimmers. I still don't like or use most of them. Our fan and its light are on separate switches. We use the fan; we don't use its light. Dimmers mean we can't use the newer "green" and cool bulbs.

My "spider habitats" are mainly in my mind, but I think a cozy recess would be appealing to an arachnid passing by along the ceiling moulding. (Paranoia may be because DH once had a brown recluse spider bite that got quite serious.)

I am seeing new homes have recessed lights in ALL rooms. It makes sense. Table lamps are not enough to illuminate a room sufficiently.

If you are building a new home, put them in...

I absolutely HATE recessed lights. They are an abomination to me. You would have to pay me a large sum to use any in our house. To me they are just a hole in the ceiling, letting heat in during the summer and out during the winter. You have to spend about twice as much as a decent flush-mount or semi flush-mount to get the same quality and quantity of light. And then there's the insect problem....

Yes many new houses use them, everywhere, but just 20 years ago most new houses had lowered ceilings using acoustic tiles that for some reason were in fashion then, but everyone agrees looks horrible now. I predict the same thing will happen with recessed lights. Twenty years from now, when energy costs are probably 10 times what they are today (judging from historical trends), everyone will look at recessed lights and wonder, "What were they thinking?"

I don't hate them, but I'm not really fond of them either. I do think they will date a house someday, but then so will the oil-rubbed bronze fixtures, etc. most likely.

We have them in our showers, eye-balls over the fireplace and around the perimeter of the kitchen only. In the kitchen, I wanted to have a lot of light, so we went with the recessed plus two island chandeliers as well as under-cabinet lighting and ambient lighting above the cabinets. I'm very, very happy we went with all of it; it gives us a lot of options for lighting and we use all of the different configurations at different times.

We didn't use recessed in any other rooms even though the electrician recommended it, and we really don't miss them. An overhead light (ceiling fan or chandelier) plus table or floor lamps is sufficient.

Not in any room, and I tear them out in every remodel I perform.
I have a house under work right now with a 25 x 12 foot kitchen.
Bay window at one end with room for a full size table with 4 cans over it.
The remainder of the kitchen has 6 more cans, plus about a dozen 20 under cabinet lights.
With 50 watt bulbs in the cans there is 740 watts of lighting.
A great way to waste power.

We just laid out the electrical this week. I went with cans in the kitchen + pendants over the island, cans up the stairs, a few in the great room w/ an eyeball over the fireplace. I think that's it really. We debated about putting them in the MB...but I just don't like the light from them. I much prefer lamp light. The only reason we put them in the great room is so dh has something that he can switch on when entering the room. Yeah, I know - what about a hooking up a lamp to the switch?? But in real life, one of the kids has always switched the lamp off and then the light switch doesn't work. Confused yet?

I currently have cans in my kitchen and I like them there. Good focused lighting. DH says they are too bright, but he's not the one cooking, so why should his opinion matter?? lol :) We currently have them in our great room and I hate them there but hubby likes them. The light is too harsh. Maybe if they were on dimmers, they wouldn't bug me so much.

I passed on my builders 6 inch recessed cans and installed 4 inch black or silver alzak coated cans in the kitchen (task lighting), 4 inch adjustable recessed cans around an octagonal tray in the family room for wall and task lighting, and 2 gimbel mounted cans over a window seat in the living room. The dining room also has 2 black alzak coated 4 inch adjustable recessed cans to lighten up the dining room table.

In any room with recessed cans we layered the lighting to include ambient lighting including an assortment of wall sconces, up-lighting and undercabinet lighting in the kitchen a well as pendants.

We stayed away from the swiss cheese look and used these cans sparingly- they weren't cheap. The allowance we received back from our builder for 9 six inch cans didn't equal the cost of one coated 4 inch Juno can- yikes! But a big difference it made, you barely notice them on the ceiling when they're on but they cast a nice glow.

No cans in the bedroom or baths.

andyk you said it when you said "layers" of lighting. That's what it takes to light a room and have it look good too. As I said before, I want drama and that's what my recessed lights give me. As far as noticing them, they aren't noticed unless you enjoy bending your neck to look up at them in a 10' ceiling. They are all white so they dissappear in the white ceiling. I also have up lights, sconces and lamps, table and floor.

I won't have all these lights on at the same time. I'll have them on depending on the mood or function going on in the room. Living with minimal lighting all my life has made me a light "hog." Sorry, but too much is better than not enough.

A lot of houses I go into are dark for my taste. A lot of people like dark and that's their preference. Me, when I want to read or see something, I need a lot of light or else I get eye strain.

As far as drafts and bugs, I'm not sure those lights were installed correctly or maybe they are old. Today's lights are completely sealed so there is nothing coming in or out or around them.

Our architect told us the recessed lights are very well sealed and that we should not worry about critters or loosing heat/ac. DH asked about them dating the house as well. The architect said it will not be any different then putting in maple cabinets with a glaze finish or oil rubbed bronze finishes. His advice was to go with what we liked and not worry to much about dating the house. I have never had recessed lights so I am curious if I am going to like them or not. I think I will :-) I didn't want them in the bedroom but DH does. I do like the fact they will be on dimmers though!

I personally like the quality of recessed light: bright, clean, dramatic.

But since a lot of key rooms in my new house have cathedral ceilings, I won't be using all that much of it.

I made sure to put cans (on a dimmer) in the corners of the dining room in the new house since I knew I would paint that room a darker color. In the last house, I always felt I needed just a little more light than what I got from the chandelier. My electrician thought it was a bit overkill to add the cans, but I'm so glad I did it because the dark paint has made it really dark especially since I only have a single window in that room.

Thank you all for your help!! I appreciate your time!!

Trudy

We have recessed lighting in every room. I fought my husband on putting it in the bedrooms. I didn't think it would look right, but I really don't notice it. We have dimmers in all of the bedrooms and that is key. We have ceiling fans with lights in them in every bedroom, and we rarely use those lights. We have lamps on nightstands in our bedrooms and the kids rooms for reading and ambiance, but those dimmers are great, and we used our recessed lights all the time!

We have them in every room of our house. We had them in every room of a previous house we lived in that we built 18 years ago, so I don't think they could be considered a trendy thing. I think you stand a bigger chance of choosing a light fixture that will become dated looking.

I like them because, to me, they seem to just disappear when not in use. That way you can use lamps if you choose, but have the option of using them when lots of bright light is needed.

Just remodeled house, put recessed cans in kitchen, dining , living rm, hall, window seat, over shower and in mster bed room. Installed Halo LED lights in all. VERY PLEASED with lighting and power bill has dropped. JoJo

utilitarian areas only-kitchen, hallways, mater bath

(kitchen also has undercabinet lighting which I love)

I do like the option to turn on/off the main light so I installed central fixtures(either chandeliers or semi flush or flush mounts depending on the ceiling's height, area, etc) in every room that needed it in my opinion, plus pendants, plus sconces..plus lamps and floor lights..plus we installed dimmers everywhere and so happy we did that, that really makes all the difference.

we do have several skylights as well

I really truly don't care what everybody's doing, and what's considered updated, dated, or outdated, as long as I can't find it being either very useful or beautiful

main light-useful. that's how I grew up, and it's nice when you have kids and elderly living with you. when I can get it not to look like a hole, I'll get it not to look like a hole

I saw many homes when I think they totally exaggerated with these allover.

As long as it's put judiciously though-then yes why not. I'm just not a fan of having too many.

But I also have a flip phone, no internet, with absolutely zero desire to exchange it for something else, so..

Kitchen, baths, narrow hallways with only 8ft ceilings, gin used basements. They do not belong in living rooms or bedrooms etc.. In a DR with an 8ft ceiling, they nay replace a chandler but should not be all over the ceiling.

I find them repulsive, but then again I like older homes 1850's to 1930's, not contemporary home. It makes me cry when I see an older home on a listing click to look at the pictures and see the contractor/ flipper re-muddles with those ugly recessed lights. If you are building a new contemporary home then knock yourself out but an older home don't put in recessed lights.

This thread was posted in August 2007...roughly 10.5 years ago. I'm sure the OP has it worked out by now...Pretty sure...!

We just today had popcorn ceiling removed and added ceiling lighting to a large living room and smaller family room on the main floor. I am now debating the kitchen. Is it too much to do every room in the house? The kitchen currently has one track and one light in the bulkhead that will be going. I guess it is another decision to make.

The kitchen is the one room where you want more, not less lighting. Start a no thread and post your layout for good help with lighting

I've followed the trends down from profuse to sparingly. A custom house for clients in 1989 included about 120 of the old style 8" recessed lights in 3,800 sf. (I don't think we ever came to a conclusion of how many there were in total!)

Recessed fixtures used for accent lighting. (2012)

Those homes created a mini-industry for suppliers and electricians converting massive pots to smaller halogen and now LED units.

@Virgil Carter Fine Art, while the OP may have worked out their issue, some of us are new to this thread, and we haven't work it out yet. :)

Following the comments...

So @trudymom, which did you go with?

In case you haven't noticed Thomas B Trudymom posted in 2007. That is 12 years ago. Most likely she is no longer even on this forum. If you have an issue with this start a new thread. You'll have better luck.