Illuminating wall art with recessed halogens

16 years ago

We're doing some remodelling and are adding recessed lighting in several areas of our house, mostly to illuminate artwork on walls or shelves. I've never lived in a house with recessed lighting, so I don't have much experience with it and I'm looking for some advice. I did some research here and elsewhere and decided that for maximum flexibility, I'd go with low-voltage cans. There appears to be much more variety in the low-voltage MR16 bulb than line-voltage. Also, my wife and I agree that we don't like the sort of trim where the bulb comes out down below the ceiling level, either the chameleon eyeball shape or the right-angle sort of adjustable thing. We prefer the sort that have maybe 30 degrees of adjustment, but where the bulb itself is completely recessed in the fixture.

So, here are the questions, well, #1 primarily:

1) How far from the wall should the fixture be?

2) What beam spread is best?

I actually dusted off my high school geometry and tried to figure out, given a particular painting size and height and possible aiming angle, how far away the fixture could be from the wall. Because we like the kind with less adjustment, if we want the light to cover a painting, it seems it actually needs to be rather close, like in the 18" range. I have seen very little in the way of suggestions on the web about this stuff, and what I've seen suggests 24" plus.

As for beam spread, it seems like I'd want one that isn't too narrow, and doesn't have really harsh edges, but that still highlights what it's pointed at. I have a cheapie Ikea torchiere that has a regular incandescent bulb pointing up, for washing a ceiling, and another bulb, a (line-voltage) halogen, pointing down at an angle for reading. I took the incandescent bulb and shade off, and just held the whole torchiere up as best I could to the ceiling, and pointed the halogen at a blank wall to see how it looked. There was quite a bit of banding in the light pattern, which was noticeable on the blank wall but I'm not sure it would be as visible on a painting. I figure the bulb that came with the (cheap) light would be a low-quality one, can I expect a higher quality bulb to give a nice even wash?

Speaking of "wash"ing, I also don't much like the "wall-washing" trims, which seem to be just a little eyelid sort of thing that covers up half of a regular trim. This seems like it would just waste half the light emitted by the bulb.

So, have any of you out there used recessed lighting for artwork on walls? Did you think about where it should go, and are you happy with the results? Thanks for your help.

-Joel

Featured Answer

joelmr
Original Author

16 years ago

Matt, could you elaborate on that? What is it about recessed that makes them bad? I can understand that track lights would give more flexibility, but I don't find them especially attractive. Also, it seems that if you have the same bulbs in either a track or a can, the artwork would be receiving the same light in both cases.

-Joel

Comments (6)

remodeler_matt
16 years ago
IMHO, recessed lights are absolutely the worst choice for illuminating artwork. You are far better off with track lights or dedicated picture/display lights.
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remodeler_matt
16 years ago
Track lights are much easier to aim, and all of the light they produce is directed where you need it. Recessed lights have a lot of reflection coming out of the can, which is why they work better as general illumination.

Personally, recessed lights to me look like just a bunch of holes in the ceiling, and the more holes the less attractive. In other words, I'm a can hater. But even if I wasn't, I'd never recommend them for artwork. You'd have to spend about twice as much to get the same light quality as a good track fixture, and then you'd have higher operating costs and, if in an insulated ceiling, holes where heat can get in in the summer, and out in the winter.

It also depends on the size and type of art pieces you have. Bigger pieces benefit from ceiling-mounted fixtures, but smaller ones do better with dedicated picture lighting. Track lighting offers the flexibility to change your artwork layout occasionally as you acquire new pieces or want to move the old ones around. That's why we have them for our great "wall of art" (about 12' square) and our main hallway, which we have set up as a gallery space. We change the artwork about once a year.
dim4fun
16 years ago
Start by looking at the specification sheets for the fixture. The link takes you to an example and on page two it goes over layout.

Here is a link that might be useful: Juno Aculux specs
joelmr
Original Author
16 years ago
Matt-

Thanks for your candor, we're not 100% settled on recessed for everything yet. And, some of our neighbors have a very nice looking low-voltage track in their entry hallway that we may yet do something similar to. Though, I don't expect us to be moving stuff around all that much, so the added flexibility may go unused.

And, dim4fun, thanks so much for the link to the spec page, it looks very similar to all the sketches I made, and pretty much corroborates my computations as well. I guess what I was looking for was either confirmation that what I was planning to do would work, which I think you gave me with that link, or warnings against doing it for reasons X, Y and Z, which is sort of what Matt said.

Anyway, thanks so much for your help. Our contractor has agreed to make one of our fixtures live in the next few days, so I can go get some bulbs and see what looks best.

-Joel
dim4fun
16 years ago
The Aculux housing in that link is a premium fixture. It comes with a stippled clear uniformity lens to eliminate
striations without altering beam spread to help smooth out hot spots as you requested. It has better lamp positioning, too. Use a good lamp like GE constant color. FNV lamps are about 55 degree beam spread if you need it wider. EXN is the 40 degree normal flood everyone stocks. Almost no one stocks constant color so you might have to order. Philips is supposed to have a comparable constant color lamp but I've not tried them side by side.

One reason recessed is so popular compared with track is that track adds visual clutter with the strip of track and fixtures hanging down from the ceiling. Many object to recessed fixtures with anything sticking out of the ceiling as some trims do. 4" or 3" low voltage reduces the aperture size for less of a hole in the ceiling. It is not uncommon to use a slot aperture trim and have them painted to match the ceiling for minimal ceiling interruption. For insulated ceilings use IC airtight housings and fully insulate around/above them to minimize energy losses.

In the Aculux line there is a lensed wall washer that helps spread the light. It has photometrics listed to work with.

This link shows the slot aperture style trim.

Here is a link that might be useful: Juno Aculux oval slot adjustable