I know you said you looked at dimmable fluorescents, but did you look at non-dimmable? The reason I ask is that fluorescent tubes and fixtures today are smaller and different ... the fact that yours buzz and flicker tells me they are of an old vintage. In fact, I'm not sure you can still get the old fat tubes any more. They also now come in some warmer colors. And you can adjust the brightness by the wattage of the bulbs. Also the housing that the bulbs are in can help control the light output.

Otherwise, I think you're looking at spending megabucks if you go LED or halogen. Rope lighting is not going to be bright enough...we have some in our DR cove and aren't happy as it is too dark.

I see GE makes linear LED that is dimmable...but no idea of the price either....but fundamentally you are looking at commercial fixtures.

I really appreciate your asking the question though as one of the things on our punch list is to do something with the cove lighting in our DR and this has given me some incentive to do more research.

Here is a link that might be useful: Suspended linear options

I think it also depends on what you want it to do.

It sounds like you want it to be able to be bright enough to provide all the ambient light but dim sometimes.

If you didn't want it to be bright enough to provide all the ambient light, I think the answer would be to replace it with something that is not as bright. (Although rope light still probably would not be enough).

I think you are going to be looking at some sort of commercial linear fluorescent at a lower wattage than you have currently, or dimmable LED cove systems, which are sort of like overgrown undercounter lighting. The dimmable LED will be $$$, compared to a non-dimmable, lower wattage linear fluorescent system (which still isn't exactly cheap).

Personally I find this sort of lighting a bit harsh for the residential setting when it's cranked up to full brightness, so I think my own solution would be to underlight it compared to what it is now. But I am a fan of distinctly yellow incandescent lighting myself.

I have a house of the same era and the best solution for the bathrooms and stairwell would absolutely be what you've got in your house, so I am trying to sort through this myself.

I am concerned about doing anything "open bulb" because I am not sure about the future of the decorative bulb. Right now the new bulbs are pretty ugly.

I believe LED tape or linear (stick) lighting comes in many different color temperatures and intensities and it's immediately what I thought of when I saw your trays. I'm a real fan so far of LEDs and have started putting them throughout. It would be worth talking to an LED lighting person (e.g. inspired LED) to see if they have solutions that would work for you. I think LED lighting is also amenable to DIY projects.

The people on the lighting forum might have some good advice as well!

I just learned way more than I wanted to about LED under cabinet lighting when it turned out my contractor and electrician didn't know much (and wanted me to go with fluorescents).

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Jan 27, 14 at 11:29

Pipdog,
What is your budget? I have some suggestions but they may be expensive. You said you were covering these with glass panels? If that is the case, have you just considered sockets with Dimmable LED bulbs of your liking? Since the glass will obscure to some extent the lighting device? You may even be able to do recessed fixtures will LED bulbs. I have a mid century rancher and it has one long fluorescent light strip that I am planning to replace. I am vasillating between a fixture from Leucos and recessed lighting. The Leucos fixture has up and down lighting. Pricing for lighting is ridiculous and I see why many homes aren't well lit.

Some websites to looks at for ideas:
Lumens.com
lightology.com
Ylighting.com

Homepro01

thanks for weighing in. This choice has us sort of stumped -- it's hard to find good lighting like this.

annie, the GE commerical fixture is actually a really good option! I'm not sure how or where I could find it, but it looks like a contender. We didn't look at non-dimmable as I need to be able to dim the lights -- we had non-dimmable fluorescents as our old undercounter lights in our last house and I wasn't a fan. I really like to be able to dim -- my husband jokes that at my dinner parties, you don't even know what you're eating because the lights are so low.

ineffable, you're right, I want it to bring enough light to the space but not too much and I want the ability to tone it down. I too love the warmth of the yellow incandescent lighting and that's what we're looking for. If we brought a chandelier and a few more lamps in our rooms, we might be able to make cove lighting or the tape LED lights work -- but they wouldn't be bright enough to light this house in the evening on their own. The one good thing is that we can run the lights pretty much around every room so there will be a lot of it -- maybe that would make up for the low wattage.

robotropolis, thanks, I will cross post on the lighting site too and see if there have any good recommendations! I really like the idea of tape lights, but my concern was they may not be bright enough. Which brand did you install?

The ones we got at Home Depot had a remote and you could turn on the lights in green, red, blue and yellow. It was very cool - felt like we were at a nightclub.

homepro, we're not really considering any high end fixtures like Leucos for our trays since you won't see them through the glass -- we just need something utilitarian that gives off the right amount of light and the right warmth. Thanks for those links, I will definitely check them out!

Piodog,
Would something like this recessed LED fixture work? I don't know what the height of your opening will be but recessed may be an option.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Recessed LED fixture